With close to full employment, quality employees are harder to find and workforce is a much discussed topic around Humboldt County and the country. As a result, two local organizations have been working to gather information to help us better understand the issues.
The HSU College of Professional Studies and the School of Business (a department within the College) partnered to provide information on the HSU Business Gap Analysis. This research was done to identify the needs of the local workforce, the needs and goals of students and help understand how to better prepare HSU students for the local workforce.
They gathered information by interviewing individual businesses, holding focus groups with businesses and interviewing students. For a copy of the analysis, contact Chris Gaines at [email protected].
The Job Market and Workforce Development Board, with Sequoia Personnel, also researched workforce challenges in the community. They interviewed approximately 50 employers in Humboldt County to hear what they are seeing in their industries, what they're expecting in the future, where they are having the most difficulty and how those trends effect workforce development. To learn more about this research, contact Michael Kraft at [email protected]