Janet Stephens
Economic Planner, Workforce Solutions
North Central Texas Council of Governments
When the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) publishes a “Target Occupations” list to use as a tool for planning and to assist jobseekers, Janet Stephens looks to EMSI for data. By focusing on shift share and location quotient figures in EMSI’s analysis tool, Stephens can find which occupations are regionally competitive in the NCTCOG’s workforce development area 14-county region, and how concentrated those occupations are compared to the state and nation. The list, required by the state to be updated every other year, is used as a starting point to train jobseekers and give program recommendations to educational institutions. Currently, a large emphasis is being placed on “green-collar jobs” in the energy sector as well as the logistics cluster in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. Transportation is also a growing field, Stephens says, particularly jobs related to trucking.