SECTION 3: TARGETED
OCCUPATIONS
Targeted
occupations are those for which Tech Prep Inc. and other boards encourage
schools, colleges, and universities to offer education and training
opportunities. Individuals who
have the skills to find employment in targeted occupations should be able to
obtain jobs that pay well enough to support their families.
It
is important to state the difference between a demand occupation and a target
occupation. Demand occupations are
(as the name suggests) those occupations that have the greatest number of
openings in the local economy.
Target occupations are occupations that pay a quality livable wage, are
in demand, and require a certain amount of training. Table 12 lists the top 20 growth occupations in the Rio
Grande Valley. Several of these
occupations pay minimum wage; hence they do not qualify for being target
occupations although they are high-growth occupations.
Several
criteria have been established for the selection of targeted occupations. These criteria include average hourly
wage, training time, average annual openings, and growth-to-replacement ratio.
Data
from Texas Workforce Commission shows that the average hourly wage of employees
in Cameron County for the 1st quarter of 2002 was $10.77; for
Hidalgo County it was $10.70; for Starr County it was $8.62; and for Willacy
County it was $10.20. A high-wage
occupation in the Rio Grande Valley would be one that pays a salary that places
a full-time employee’s earnings above the 2002 federal poverty level for
a four-person family. The average
poverty threshold is $18,100 for a family of four. This gives an hourly rate of at least $8.70. Hence, $8.70 was set as the cut-off
point.
The
training time for targeted occupations has been set from six months to a
four-year college degree. A few
occupations in the final list require less than six months of training; these
occupations were included due to the recommendations of local employers.
Related
to the average-annual-job-openings criteria is the growth-to-replacement
ratio. A growth-to-replacement
ratio of 1:1 indicates that one-half of all job openings are due to growth and
the other half are due to replacement.
Once the regional
occupation selection criteria were established, a list of staffing patterns for
each target industry was generated.
Based on the selection criteria and occupational projections, a list of
targeted occupations was developed.
This list was refined by presenting it to employers at 7 focus groups
around the Rio Grande Valley (in Brownsville, Harlingen, McAllen, Raymondville,
Rio Grande City, South Padre Island, and Weslaco). Educators, employers, economic development corporation
personnel, and chambers of commerce personnel attended these focus groups. Summary notes for Employer Focus Groups
are presented in Appendix E. Final
review and input were also obtained from Tech Prep Inc.’s Executive and
Partnership Committees and from the CBIRD TRAC Board. For the majority of occupations on the final list, those
that met the high-skill, high-wage criteria were selected over those that
failed to come up to the expected criteria. Some occupations on the final list did not meet all regional
selection criteria. Their inclusion
was recommended because they are considered critical to the region (for
example, child care workers, and home health aides).
A look at the tables of
targeted occupations shows that four occupations have a suffix of NEC (Not
Elsewhere Classified). Several
occupation titles can fall under an occupation with a suffix of NEC; some
titles or job duties that fall under each of the targeted occupations with an
NEC are presented below:
·
Engineering &
Related Technicians, NEC: include chemical engineering technicians,
environmental engineering technicians, electromechanical engineering
technicians, electrical/mechanical manufacturing technicians, instrumentation
technicians, etc.
·
Health
Professionals/Technicians, NEC: include technicians like cardiovascular
technicians, ophthalmic laboratory technicians, biomedical equipment
technicians, health information technicians, dental assistant, dental lab.
tech., nurse assistant, etc.
·
Management Support
Workers, NEC: include budget analysts, human resources coordinators, hotel and
motel assistants, lobbyists, real estate appraisers, marketing research
analysts, etc.
·
Professional/Technical
Workers, NEC: include air traffic controllers, library technicians, science
technicians, digital imaging technicians, network technicians, software
technicians, environmental technicians, etc.
ions for the Rio Grande Valley.
Table 13: Targeted occupations and the justification for their inclusion in the final list
Table 14: 2002 LIST OF
TARGETED OCCUPATIONS FOR THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY
With
changes taking place in the global, national, regional, and local markets, it
is important to keep in mind what industries and occupations might be emerging
in the local economy. Researching
the data and with input from members of focus groups, two industries seem to be
emerging in the Rio Grande Valley and these are Homeland Security and the
Spaceport Industry.
Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS) data projects that employment in three occupational
groups critical to homeland security—information technology, law
enforcement, and the sciences—is expected to grow rapidly through 2010 in
the U.S. Employment in computer
specialist occupations is projected to grow 68.6 percent, employment in law
enforcement is expected to grow 25.6 percent, and employment in life, physical
and environmental sciences is expected to grow by approximately 20 percent.
Occupations
that are related to the Spaceport/Aerospace Industry and are expected to emerge
in the Rio Grande Valley are: Scientific Personnel, Technical Personnel,
Tradesmen, Executive/Senior Managers, and Administrative Personnel.
Additional
occupations such as urban planners and logistics management personnel are also
seen as emerging occupations for the region.
Labor market skills and
education are strongly linked to each other. It is important for educational institutions to offer
training programs in work related fields that are “targeted”. To get a better understanding of each
of the targeted occupations, this section presents a profile of these
occupations that have the best potential for continued quality employment and
sustained growth. These are the
high-skill, high-wage occupations most likely to be in demand as the Rio Grande
Valley Region develops into a world class, globally competitive economy.
Each occupational profile
consists of the following items:
·
The OES Code
(Occupational Employment Statistics Code) for each targeted occupation.
·
A brief job description
of the targeted occupation.
·
Employment projections
from 2000 to 2010, derived from the Occupational Projections tables for Cameron
County and Hidalgo-Starr-Willacy counties. The source for these numbers is the Texas Workforce
Commission.
·
License requirement.
·
Average wage rate per
hour. The source of this data is
the Texas Workforce Commission’s 2002 Occupations by Wages tables for
Cameron County and Hidalgo-Starr-Willacy Counties.
·
Growth to replacement
ratio was established from TWC’s 2000-2010 Occupational Projections
tables for Cameron County and Hidalgo-Starr-Willacy Counties.
·
Average Education
Required – this information corresponds to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) education preferred categories.
·
‘Industrial
Employment Patterns’ for targeted occupations were derived from TWC data.
·
‘Related
Occupations’ and ‘Skills Required’ were derived from BLS
data.
TARGETED INDUSTRY OCCUPATION MATRIX