North Carolina jobs

Everyone wants jobs. A recent report for North Carolina from the National Skills Coalition said the state will need workers for middle skills jobs. N.C. State University economist explains what kinds of jobs are considered middle skills.

“These are jobs that require technical training but usually not training in four years of college — so, some even high school, some on-the-job training, but many of them community college training. And they’re jobs like technicians, carpenters, nurses, public safety workers. And the good thing is these jobs all pay at or above the average salary.

“And what this National Skills Coalition group did is they looked at, Where is going to be the demand for these jobs in the future ? How many of those jobs in North Carolina will there be a demand for? And will there be a comparable supply of workers?

“And they’ve actually concluded that there’s going to be more demand than supply. For example, they say, by 2016, 51 percent of the jobs that will be available will be the so-called middle skilled jobs, but only 43 percent of the workers will have the skills necessary for those jobs. So, we’re actually going to have a gap there.

“Obviously training is the answer, but some sense this is good news, because what it suggests is everyone doesn’t have to go to a four-year college. There will be reasonably paying jobs out there, but still folks have to get specific training beyond high school.”