Greater Baton Rouge Business Report
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber today published a new regional analysis of job openings and corresponding in-demand skills for growth sectors.
The analysis, to be released quarterly, is broken down by the key industries of health care, tech, industrial, and logistics, and includes sector-specific information on top occupations, top hard skills, most common skills, education breakdown, companies hiring, and top qualifications.
“As the regional economy recovers, it is key that the Capital Region community understands what positions local businesses are trying to hire, and what skills are required,” says Andrew Fitzgerald, senior director of research for BRAC.
Three of the top five posted occupations for the region saw over-the-year growth in postings, with truck driving seeing a 119% increase, most likely due to increased shipping volume with online retail sales surging in the lockdown periods.
Key takeaways from this quarter’s analysis include:
• The two most high-demand occupations, truck driving and nursing, are in industries that were resilient during the pandemic.
• Among certifications sought by health care employers, licensed practical nursing was found in the most job postings.
• In the tech sector, employers are most interested in SQL, Java, and Amazon Web Services in regard to skills and certifications.
• In manufacturing and construction, the greatest demand is for supervisors of skilled craft workers.
• While the logistics sector is growing quickly in the Capital Region, there is not currently any post-secondary certification or degree pathway to high-demand occupations in the industry.
Data for the quarterly jobs analysis is gathered from Emsi’s Jobs Posting Analytics database, a subscription service that continually pulls data from more than 55,000 websites including job boards and company-specific job opportunity pages. See the full BRAC report.