Occupations meeting "critical" vacancy criteria for the 2008-Q2 Massachusetts Job Vacancy Survey
Commonwealth Corporation has developed a list of critical vacancies based on the 2nd Quarter, 2008 job vacancy survey (JVS) conducted by the Massachusetts' Department of Workforce Development's Division of Career Services (DCS).
The purpose is to identify occupations for which there is critical and persistent demand, to help inform the state's workforce development system.
Top Ten Critical Occupations, 2nd Quarter, 2008
Highest Vacancies Rate
Highest Number of Vacancies
Critical Vacancies for the 2nd Quarter, 2008
To view the complete PDF document of the Critical Vacancies for the 4th Quarter, 2007, please click here.
The complete PDF document of the Critical Vacancies for the 2nd Quarter, 2008, will be posted soon.
| Job Families |
No. of Critical
Vacancies |
Employment in Critical Occupations |
| |
(2008, Q2) |
2007 May |
| Office & Administrative Support |
5,271 |
302,490 |
| Management |
4,869 |
136,270 |
| Healthcare practitioner & technical |
4,734 |
116,730 |
| Computer & Mathematical |
2,795 |
98,230 |
| Education, training, and library |
2,302 |
93,180 |
| Healthcare Support |
2,065 |
54,690 |
| Business and Financial Operations |
1,647 |
62,480 |
| Buildings and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance |
1,567 |
76,240 |
| Sales & Related |
1,326 |
61,080 |
| Community and Social Services |
1,126 |
22,160 |
| Food Preparation & Serving |
1,081 |
35,690 |
| Transportation & Material Moving |
1,051 |
88,790 |
| Life, Physical, & Social Science |
762 |
17,340 |
| Architecture & Engineering |
713 |
15,400 |
| Installation, Maintenance & Repair |
653 |
37,050 |
| Personal Care and Service |
572 |
9,510 |
| Construction and Extraction |
112 |
20,780 |
| Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports and Media |
78 |
1,450 |
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Critical Occupations in Massachusetts
2nd Quarter 2008
The critical vacancy narrative for the 2nd Quarter 2008 will be posted soon. Please check this page again for updates.
4th Quarter 2007
In the 4th quarter of 2007 there were 45,035 critical vacancies, 49% of the 92,021 total vacancies in Massachusetts. The number of critical vacancies increased from 33,405 in 2007 Q2 when they constituted 49% of the 83,852 vacancies. The number of critical vacancies has increased in 14 of the 22 major occupational groups.
As part of a broader effort to understand and explain the “Skills Gap” in Massachusetts, Commonwealth Corporation uses the twice-a-year Job Vacancy Survey (JVS) to help workforce development practitioners and policy makers gain a better understanding of the specific occupations that are in demand. Commonwealth Corporation identifies critical occupations that have a large number of vacancies, or a vacancy rate of at least 5% and have an annual median wage of at least $25,000. In addition, persistent vacancies are those that are considered critical for three consecutive surveys.
Where are the critical occupations and vacancies?
Ninety-two (92) occupations meet the criteria for critical vacancies and account for 45,035 or 49% of all vacancies in Massachusetts in the fourth quarter, 2007. 7,869 of these vacancies are in the Office and Administrative Support occupational category, up from 5,422 in 2007 Q2. Healthcare technical and practitioner occupational category has 6,978 critical vacancies up from 6,476 in the previous survey.
Registered Nurses (3,786) and Nurses aides and Assistants (2,018) continue to be the critical occupations with the highest number of vacancies. New additions to the top ten critical vacancies with the highest number of vacancies are Tellers, First line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers, and Financial Analysts. Seven of the top ten critical vacancies typically require training or educational credentials below a bachelor’s degree.
The occupations with the highest vacancy rates are Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers (16.5%) and Tax Examiners (15.5%), the latter tends to be a seasonal vacancy.¹ Seven of the critical vacancies with the highest rates require at least a bachelor’s degree, including Medical Scientists (10.5%), Electrical Engineers (8.6%) and Medical and Health Services Managers (8.5%)
The Office and Administrative Support occupational category has the largest number of critical vacancies (7,945), but Healthcare Practitioner and Technical Occupational category has the most critical occupations (13). The smallest occupational category was Protective Service with 245 vacancies in one occupation, Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers.
Eighteen (18) of the 93 critical occupations with 7,296 (16%) of the 45,035 critical vacancies are in the three occupational categories that make up STEM occupations (computer and mathematical, life, physical, and social science, and architecture and engineering). STEM occupations constitute two of the top 10 occupations with the highest number of vacancies (Computer Software Engineers and Computer Systems Analysts) and two of the top 10 occupations with the highest vacancy rates (Medical Scientists and Electrical Engineers).
What are the educational requirements of the critical occupations
Forty-one (42) of 92 (44%) of critical occupations require at least a Bachelor’s degree, but a 29 of 92 (32%) require only on the job training of up to a year, but not necessarily a post-secondary credential.
The number of critical occupations requiring a Master’s degree or higher doubled, from 5 to 10, but the number requiring a Bachelor’s degree declined by 2 and the number requiring on the job training of up to a year or experience grew by 3.
Persistent Occupations
Forty-seven (47) occupations met the criteria for persistent occupations, i.e., they have been critical for three job vacancy surveys, which indicates they are not seasonal in nature, and represent shortage that are not just a one-time occurrence. These occupations represent 33,681 vacancies, 75% of the total number of critical vacancies. The largest number of persistent occupations is, like critical occupations, in the Office and Administrative Support and Healthcare Practitioner and Technical occupational categories. A number of STEM occupations are also included among these: five computer related occupations, four from Business and Financial Operations, three engineering occupations and two from Life, Physical and Social Sciences.
Conclusion
Critical occupations reflect a broad range of educational requirements and skills. They represent 18 of the 22 major occupational categories and while the largest proportion of critical occupations requires at least a Bachelor’s degree, nearly one-third do not require any post-secondary credential.
1. An occupation is a specific occupation, such as a Registered Nurse (RN), while a vacancy is the number of vacancies in that occupation. For example, a RN is one (1) occupation with 3,786 vacancies.
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