Results from a hidden job market survey put together by the Belleville Chamber of Commerce were shown in a presentation at Aspira Quinte Gardens on Friday.
It showed how diverse the job market is in the Belleville region and also showed how the job market is not limited to one or two sectors.
CEO of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce, Jill Raycroft, said the idea to put together this survey came years ago to challenge the perception that the city was an entry-level community for job markets and that there were no professional opportunities in the area.
“I heard and saw that the public perception of business in our community was not reflective of our membership and I knew how diverse our membership was and I thought the job market is probably equally as diverse,” Raycroft tells Quinte News.
“I have two children who are kind of set to leave the area because they don’t think there are opportunities here and again, I’m thinking, what can I do to convince them that there is real opportunity in this community?”
After starting with a focus group session with students at Loyalist College, the survey was put to the approximately 500 members of the chamber with responses being given over a two-week span.
“We had 76 respondents, we had multiple sectors represented, and we had so much information come that suggests there’s a real balance between both entry level and administrative roles. The skill sets that are required to do those jobs were expansive,” Raycroft says.
Results from survey asking organization what business category they fit into. (Slide from Hidden Job Markey Survey presentation)
Of the businesses that responded, nearly half said they had 2 – 10 employees in the company.
Responses also noted a range for education levels from an advanced/graduate degree to high school level.
Raycroft highlighted the balance between wages from those who responded.
“There were 24 organizations that identified that they pay a minimum wage to living wage but there were also 24 organizations that identified that they pay at the highest ranges we identified at $70,000 plus to over $100,000 and that there’s opportunity,” Raycroft said.
“Now, when organizations click those levels (in the survey), they could choose more than one. So as we get into the meat of the survey and start really analyzing the data we will be able to figure out how many levels that they might have checked off.”
Results from wage levels offered at businesses who are the members of the Belleville Chamber of Commerce. (Slide from Hidden Job Markey Survey)
Raycroft says she hopes the results of the job survey can change the conversation about jobs in the community.
“I’m convinced that if we talk about jobs and roles based on the skills as opposed to the title, and if we talk about the way people learn and transfer the learning into a skill set, then we can start talking about opportunities in a completely different way,” said Raycroft.
She also laid out what she would like to see for next steps.
“In my perfect world, the next phase of this will be a career fair that isn’t about the names of the businesses on the wall, but maybe even a colour-coded experience where you say okay, my skill set is most likely identified as orange. So I want to go and talk to all the businesses that have orange jobs and once you get talking about this is what my day looks like at my job, then this person would say, “Yeah, I like that.’ Well, this might mean that you would like to work at Aspira or this might mean that you might like to work at Magna or this might mean that you might like to work at EMS Tech,” Raycroft explained.
“All of a sudden it’s exploring the 500 organizations that we have as members and that’s only a portion of about the 1200 businesses we have here in Belleville.”
