MOUNT VERNON — Knox County has more than double the national average in “production occupations,” with significant employment in educational instruction, architecture and engineering.
According to a recent Area Development Foundation workforce study, these job fields provide a strong attractive basis for industrial users. This landscape has also developed an agile workforce and educational programs for skilled employees.
The study unveils Knox County’s dominance in production occupations, but also sheds light on the county’s potential for growth and the challenges it faces in specific job sectors.
While boasting a workforce skilled in mechanical, production, and public safety fields, the county grapples with understaffing in crucial areas like farming and transportation.
This section measures location quotient (LQ), which rates how a community is doing compared to peer communities nationwide and the skills needed to perform that job, Gottke said.
Jeff Gottke, president of the Area Development Foundation, pointed out the dichotomy, suggesting the county’s low location quotient in certain industries indicates both room for growth and demand for jobs that are currently lacking.
“Generally, the latter is the case,” Gottke said. We have a low LQ because of a lack of the industry here.”
For hands-on work, Knox County is above average on:
- Mechanical
- Production and processing
- Building and Construction
- Public safety and security
- Food production
Knox County is below average in transportation employment.
“In this case, ‘transportation’ is referring to drivers. In Knox County, those are specifically jobs that require a CDL, like a semi and bus drivers,” he said.
“Generally, Knox County has higher-than-average job types that require skills-based qualifications.”
Knox County ranks high in industrial skillset jobs
Knox County stands tall in industrial skillset jobs, excelling in repairing, equipment maintenance, and quality control:
- Repairing
- Equipment Maintenance
- Installation
- Equipment Selection
- Operation & Control
- Quality Control and Trouble Shooting
However, the report highlights a low skill ceiling in areas such as programming, persuasion and financial management:
- Programming
- Persuasion
- Negotiation
- Analysis
- Writing
- Active Listening
- Management of Financial Resources.
Technical and “hands-on” skills typically rank near the top.
This indicates that industries requiring technical and applied skills would have a desirable workforce concentration in Knox County.
The report takeaways are that many technical skills rank highly in both the knowledge and skill categories, indicating concentrations of workforce expertise.
Occupation diversity is high for Knox
This means that employment is distributed more evenly between the 13 occupation clusters compared to the typical county.
A region with high diversity can signal economic stability and more easily withstand economic pressures, while a region with low diversity can signal economic instability.
The key takeaways emphasize the county’s concentration of technical expertise, with hands-on skills ranking high in knowledge and skill categories.
Knox County’s occupational diversity is evident, distributing employment evenly across various clusters, setting it apart from typical trends.
As the county navigates its strengths and challenges, it remains a beacon for industries requiring applied skills and a workforce with a broad spectrum of expertise.