During the informal portion of the Joplin city council meeting, we'll get an update on how the city is coping with hiring in this tight labor market. KRPS's Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.
According to the October report released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the US rose to 3.7%.
In Missouri, the labor market is even tighter, with an unemployment rate of just 2.4%, according to the most recent jobs report released in September by the state's Economic Research and Information Center.
Pair that with the cost of borrowing money to purchase a new home, and you have a recipe where job seekers are less likely to want to relocate to take a job. Tonight, we'll get an update on how the city of Joplin is coping with staffing issues. According to a presentation available at JoplinMo.org, there are 97 open positions with the city of Joplin, which represents about 16% of the city's total workforce.
The vast majority of available openings are in public works, followed by police and parks. The problem could be much worse. The city has filled 50 positions in the last 90 days. The informal portion of the council meeting gets underway at 5:15 tonight.
