WINTER HAVEN -- Area employers and job seekers can now log on to the Internet and obtain information on current workforce wages, education, training, welfare-to-work and area jobs.
The Polk County Workforce Development Board conducted a telephone survey of more than 5,300 area employers in July and the results are now available.
The web site, http://www.usworks.com/ polk, provides salary and benefit information from Polk County employers about occupational turnover, education levels required, industry profiles by occupation, wage level and demand, employment strengths and weaknesses, hiring trends and more.
"This is a valuable tool," said Nancy Thompson, executive director of the Workforce Development Board. "It helps job seekers in targeting jobs, pay, and links them to educational institutions."
The site eventually will accommodate employers who will be able to post job information, and those seeking jobs will be able to post resumes, she said.
Thompson and Alan Black, employment training officer, presented the results of the survey and information about the web site to the East Polk Committee of 100 Friday afternoon.
Black said the survey benefits both job seekers and employers. "Job seekers want to make sure they take training classes that lead to employment," he said. "This gives them a general idea about what the labor market is like for a particular career field they might be interested in."
The survey was conducted by California-based ERISS and contains current labor market information from September and October 1999.
"Employers can look at the information and do a comparison with other companies," Black said.
At the meeting, Thompson also discussed the Workforce Development Board's recent findings from a study of individuals whose training was paid for by the board and who were placed into related jobs. The study found that every dollar spent on job training returns $2.75 to Polk County communities, she said.
The study, conducted by KOG and Associates, showed that the more than $2.5 million spent locally in 1997-98 to train workers returned more than $6.8 million in benefits and savings to the community.
Thompson also discussed the board's work with welfare reform, mentioning that 1,156 people receive welfare checks every month in Polk and the board continues to identify those people who need better jobs but can't get them without additional training.
The board also works in areas of school-to-work, high skill, high wage jobs and One Stop Career Centers.
"We need to identify (high-tech jobs) and influence the system to prepare people for them," Thompson said.
