Published: 15 December 2010
More than three-quarters of Cherokee’s working residents hit the road each weekday morning, traveling metro Atlanta’s congested routes to reach jobs in other counties.
The Cherokee County Office of Economic Development, meanwhile, is trying to find out just what kind of talent the county has living within its borders, so it can advertise that talent in order to lure businesses to relocate their operations centers here. According to the 2010 Labor Force Study by AGS Demographics, the Cherokee resident workforce is comprised of 122,000 people.
“This is an in-depth workforce analysis,” said Misti Martin, president of the OED. “We just could not get enough information from the ARC (Atlanta Regional Commission), DOL (Department of Labor) and Census Bureau to compile an accurate profile.”
Martin said that to gather effective data that it can use to persuade businesses to take advantage of Cherokee’s very skilled workforce, the $25,000 study is a necessity. It identifies workforce skills, in-county employer needs and local workforce educational resources available, in order to bring jobs.
“We’re in this together, and we’ve got to work as a team to bring employers to Cherokee County,” Martin said.
A key part of the study is an online “commuter analysis,” which currently is available on www.cherokeega.org. The OED is asking all residents who work to take the survey.
“We’ve already had 300 people answer, but we need many more,” Martin said, noting that the survey would be available online through the end of this year.
Boyette Strategic Advisors (BSA) is working with the OED to complete the “Workforce Analysis.”
The goal of the survey is to identify and quantify workforce availability in the area; as well as determine the skill sets of the those who live in the county and those that leave the county for work each day.
The online survey takes just a few minutes to complete, she said, adding that responses will be kept confidential. “But we do ask for specifics; name of company, job title, salary, education, etc. If one large company is employing a large number of Cherokee residents, we want to know, so we can try to get them to open a satellite office here,” Martin said.
For further questions about or assistance with completing the online survey, call Jennifer Glasgow with BSA at (501) 604-6121.
