Dr. Mardy Leathers Archives

Missouri’s virtual job fairs yield thousands of job seekers, hundreds of employers

December 30, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

In July, Missouri entered the world of virtual career fairs to connect people looking for work and businesses who are hiring. The shift from the traditional in-person fairs to the digital kind serves as a safe way to help Missourians get back into the workforce during the COVID-19 era and fill the need of employers.

Missouri’s virtual job fairs yield thousands of job seekers, hundreds of employers

Missouri has held 14 virtual job fairs this year. About 10,476 job seekers and 935 employers have participated in them. The figures could reflect some of the same individuals or businesses attending more than one fair. Regardless, Dr. Mardy Leathers, director of the state Office of Workforce Development, tells Missourinet the events have exceeded his expectations.

“Overall, we are very, very pleased with the engagement and the turnout. It took a little bit of work upfront to kind of design the platform,” Leathers says. “But we now have a model in place I think that will probably be with us going forward as another tool.”

Leathers says the events have had a steady increase in popularity over the last two months.

“I don’t know if that’s indicative of exhaustion of unemployment benefits or frankly some people are not called back to work yet. So, some of the temporary layoffs are causing people to go seek other employment. But we are definitely seeing an increase in participation,” he says.

The industries drawing the most interest have been advanced manufacturing, IT and health care. The last job fair of the year, which focused on the health care industry, gained the most attention. About 2,700 job seekers and 175 businesses showed up.

“That one just blew it out of the water,” he says. “We were really, really impressed.”

Leathers says he was pleasantly surprised at the number of people engaging in the virtual platform.

“Frankly, if you can use Facebook, you can use this platform. Now there are always issues with internet access. Certainly, we know it’s not the only way nor can it be the only way. We always have to have in-person services,” he says.

Two years ago, unemployment in Missouri was at a record low of 3%. In April of this year, the unemployment rate peaked at 10.2% as a result of COVID-19’s toll on the economy. The jobless rate has gradually declined to 4.4% in November.

Leathers says Missouri has about 385,000 workers seeking employment who are getting benefits and at least 213,000 jobs are posted on the state’s main jobs website – jobs.mo.gov.

“We know there’s a significant number of Missourians that still need work,” he says. “There’s also a significant amount of work open and that’s the story we’re trying to tell to a lot of Missourians that there is work out there, there are great jobs out there. We encourage you to think about that. We also encourage you to think about training. Now is the time to skill up. Now is the time to increase your skillset and to grow into what might be next as the economy recovers.”

The state plans to hold ten virtual job fairs from January through June of next year – two will be dedicated to health care, one to IT, another to part-time work and one for jobs that can be done remotely. Leathers says his office has surveyed participants to find out what they are looking for.

“What we have learned is we actually want to keep it more narrow,” he says. “I think what job seekers are looking for are jobs, the specific type of job. Tell me what the job is in IT. If you say project manager, that could mean a million things. What is it about project management? That’s what we’ve learned, I think, as we go into these next set of fairs. We are going to narrow the focus a little bit to try and make it more meaningful for job seekers and employers and just to be more upfront about these are the roles that you can expect to be exposed to if you participate in this job fair.”

Registration information for the job fairs will be out soon on jobs.mo.gov/return-strong.

Meanwhile, through the end of June 2021, the state is offering free online IT courses for Missourians laid off or furloughed because of COVID-19. Missouri has extended its partnership with CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association, to provide the on-demand schooling that can be completed at each student’s own pace. Those who wrap up the 8-week or 12-week training will be certified in information technology, cybersecurity or project management. For more information on how to apply, visit the web address in the previous paragraph.

Leathers says more than 450 spots are still available.

Missouri gets $6 million in federal aid to create thousands of tech apprenticeships

November 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation is deploying $6 million in federal funding to create 5,300 new tech industry apprenticeships. During a virtual event Monday, President Dan Mehan calls the investment a game changer.

Missouri gets $6 million in federal aid to create thousands of tech apprenticeships

“There is an apprenticeship revolution going on in Missouri,” he says. “Over the last two years, our state ranks second in the number of completed apprenticeships – second only behind California.”

More than 10,000 Missourians have gone through an apprenticeship program that gives them real-world and traditional learning through a paid work experience. The effort is meant to give participants a feel for whether they would like to make a living in the profession.

According to the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, about 94% of apprentices are retained by their employers after they complete their apprenticeships and the average annual salary is not too shabby – about $70,000. The Chamber says the pay leads to a $300,000 lifetime earning advantage over non-apprentices.

Mehan says the state is “poised for strong growth” in apprenticeships thanks to a number of developments this year.

Mehan says House Bill 2046, passed this year by the Missouri Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, will boost the state’s apprenticeship efforts. The plan, sponsored by Rep. Derek Grier, R-Chesterfield, gives students industry credentials after they finish their program.

“This progress could not have come at a better time,” says Mehan. “We all know our state faces many challenges as we continue to confront COVID-19 and seek to grow our economy out of it. One of our biggest challenges will be training workers who find themselves unemployed or underemployed due to the pandemic. Apprenticeships will be a very important tool as we work to help get these workers back on the job and likewise ensure that Missouri employers have the talent they need to grow and power our economy.”

Another development Mehan points to is Missouri Apprentice Connect – the first in the nation apprenticeship matching program. The free service can be found by going to MoApprenticeConnect.com

Dr. Mardy Leathers, director of the Missouri Office of Workforce Development, says there is a wide variety of businesses contributing to the state’s apprenticeship success.

“In Missouri, it would be easy if I could rattle off the names of a couple employers. But the reality is, there are 493 employers who have apprenticeship programs in the state. So, we have a lot of employers who engage,” says Leathers. “It’s actually a great thing that I can’t rattle those names off because we have so many.”

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, helped to secure the federal grant. Blunt chairs a subcommittee that funds U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and others.

“Nobody has taken better advantage of this than Missouri has,” says Blunt. “We’ve got a new Office of Apprenticeships and Work-Based Learning that has been set up in the Department of Higher Education. I think what these apprenticeship programs do and what our state, what you’ve done and what Governor Parson has done and others have done, is realize we have to look at the workplace a little differently.”

Cerner Corporation – a global healthcare technology company in Kansas City – was the lead partner in bringing the federal grant to Missouri.

Federal grant to make way for 30 temp jobs, train another 70 Missourians

June 8, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The federal government has awarded Missouri a $1.3 million grant to create temporary humanitarian jobs supporting the fight against the coronavirus. Dr. Mardy Leathers, the director of the state’s Office of Workforce Development, tells Missourinet the grant makes way for 30 temporary positions and training for another 70 Missourians.

“The kind of training that it will be supportive of this type of work,” says Leathers.

He says the jobs are expected to last about six months and pay around $20,000.

“So, if there’s some warehousing and logistics training, if there is OSHA training – Occupational Safety training – there will be opportunities for that. There’s actually even opportunities for entry-level health care work, such as certified nurses aides,” he says. “Contract tracing is certainly a priority. It’s a statewide priority right now. So that would definitely be on top of the list. I think the other one is there’s just a big demand for supporting work like delivering groceries, medicine, meals.”

Leathers says there also might be opportunities to transport equipment and manage crowd control at some businesses.

More than 611,000 Missourians have filed for unemployment since COVID-19 began taking a toll on the state’s economy in mid-March. According to Leathers, the temp jobs will be open to anyone who has been unemployed over the past five years – not just workers who have been displaced by the pandemic.

Leathers says he hopes 11 of Missouri’s 14 local workforce development boards will get the funding by the end of June. The regions participating include central, St. Louis, Ozarks, northwest, south-central, Kansas City, Jackson County, southeast, St. Louis County, southwest, Jefferson and Franklin counties. The regions not participating are west-central, St. Charles and northeast Missouri.

The jobs will be advertised locally and through jobs.mo.gov

If the program proves valuable and the need continues to be significant, Leathers says the state could consider expanding it.