JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) - We hear a lot about Mississippi's momentum and how the economy is thriving. Often times, we hear businesses have so many job openings but not enough people to fill them.
According to the Mississippi Labor Market Information, here are the occupations advertised online in Mississippi with the highest number of job openings as of Monday, May 6:
- Registered nurses - 1,289
- Fast food - 660
- Retail sales - 636
- General managers - 544
- First-line supervisors - 512
- Physicians - 488
Carolyn Boteler, chief executive officer at TempStaff, said the unemployment rate is low, so there's a job for everyone.
"You're going to find a wide array of jobs from craft skills and trades. Pharmacy techs are in high demand. Retail and restaurants are all in high demand right now," said Boteler.
State Economist Corey Miller said jobs are relatively pentiful.
"Going back to the data we had as of last December, there were about 30,000 more job openings than there were people being hired," he said.
Boteler said these jobs have the highest earnings reported across Mississippi in the following industries:
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Education services
- Retail
- Transportation and warehousing
- Public administration
You might be thinking, "Why are there more jobs available than people applying at the moment?" Experts said the coronavirus pandemic has played a role.
"You had the mass exodus of Baby Boomers. A lot of people took early retirement, and so, you don't have enough of the younger generations to replace all of the Baby Boomers and traditionalists," said Boteler.
Miller said the hospitality industry was also affected.
"When things started to open back up, a lot of those workers were able to find higher paying jobs elsewhere, and so, they had a smaller supply to hire from in that time since. And so, I think they're still trying to find workers in the restaurant industry and the hotel industry," he stated.
Boteler believes many people who left the job sectors over the last several years are coming back.