Two occupational paths - one requiring greater skills and offering more pay and the other requiring fewer skills and lower pay - will show the fastest growth in the Cincinnati area in the next eight years, according to a new study.
The survey of 600 area employers by the University of Cincinnati's Center for Economic Education is the first element of a three-part study by a consortium of businesses and schools to assess the area's future labor supply and demand.
Thomas Collins, chairman of the area's School-To-Work steering committee, which funded the study, said Monday that for the first time, educators have hard data on what type of workers Tristate employers are seeking.
''This provides educators here with specific, regional-based data. There's real power in that,'' he said.
The Ohio Bureau of Employment Services has estimated that Cincinnati-area employment will grow by 18 percent, or 159,740 jobs, between 1994 and 2005. That's above the state average of 13.6 percent and the national average of 14 percent for the same period.
Not surprisingly, the UC survey found that professional, para-professional and technical occupations will show the fastest growth in the region, up 28 percent.
Median starting pay in these jobs - such as computer systems analysts, human services workers and other types of engineering jobs - is projected at $12.53 an hour, vs. $11.54 an hour for all occupations. ''The notion that we're turning into a nation of hamburger flippers isn't supported by the study,'' said George M. Vredeveld, director of the Center for Economic Education.
According to the survey, the second-fastest occupational group is service workers, projected to represent about 22 of the new employment opportunities over the year. Median starting pay for those jobs - such as home-health aides, nursing aides and security guards - was projected at $6.63 an hour.
Almost 75 percent of the higher-paid professional and technical jobs will require some post-secondary education, compared with 21 percent for service-sector jobs and 45 percent for all occupations, according to the study.
Job growth also will be greater for occupations requiring more education than those jobs requiring less, according to the study. By 2001, jobs with no education requirements or requiring only a high school diploma will decline, 14.9 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively, the study found. Dr. Vredeveld said that reflects the fact that employers are raising their educational requirements, not reducing them.
The survey also found that thinking skills, basic reading, writing and math skills, personal qualities such as integrity and honesty, and interpersonal skills such as the ability to work as member of a team are important for all types of jobs.
