HANCOCK COUNTY — The current job market is tough for local high school graduates, and teachers and advisors say the ongoing pandemic is to blame.
Greg Judy has seen the challenges first-hand through his role as the Jobs for America’s Graduates teacher at Eastern Hancock High School.
The program, better known as JAG, is a workforce pipeline program sponsored by the WorkOne office in Greenfield.
Judy said the COVID-19 pandemic is making things more challenging for graduates, whether they’re looking to go on to post-secondary education, start trade school or start work straight out of high school.
Tammi Broadus, a social worker at The Academy at Greenfield-Central, which works with academically at-risk students, said the pandemic has restricted the job market considerably for students looking to enter the workforce.
“It’s very limited in where they can go. Kids that used to be able to go into manufacturing after high school are now looking at working at Leo’s or Long John Silver’s or Bob Evans. They’re looking into the food service industry,” she said.
A couple of her students have been trying to hire on at local utility companies, but are having more trouble getting connected than soon-to-be graduates have in the past.
“I’ve got two students who are trained, but they just can’t get the work that they’re looking for. One is in auto mechanics and the other is in electrical. They’re just trying to get placed somewhere,” said Broadus.
Employers just don’t seem to be seeking and placing apprentices like they used to before the pandemic hit last year, she said.
The owner of a local tire company has struggled to hire recent high school graduates, as he normally does, due to COVID workplace restrictions set by his industry, she said.
“He was really hurting for people to do the work, but couldn’t get them in because of the guidelines set up,” said Broadus.
A local auto dealer was facing the same problem, an inability to bring on new hires due to industry restrictions set in place due to the pandemic. The same has been true at at least one local factory, said the social worker.
“These are places that typically take our students and provide training, part-time work or apprenticeships, but they’ve been restricted,” she said.
Broadus said that for the past two years COVID has forced the cancellation of Greenfield-Central’s annual career fair, where manufacturing plants, cosmetology schools, military branches and other employers gather in one place to reach out to potential hires.
“Hopefully next year we can do that in person again. It’s a huge event, and not having it has disappointed several people,” she said.
Caleb Short, a Greenfield-Central High School senior, is happy to have his post-graduate job locked down. He’s going to work for his dad’s heating and cooling business, H & C Enterprises, after graduating from high school next month.
The 18-year-old knows the job market can be tough to navigate right out of high school, especially during a pandemic.
“That’s the good thing about learning a trade (like heating and cooling). People are always going to need someone when their heat and air goes out, no matter what the job market is like,” said Short, who started working part-time with his dad, Casey Short, about a year ago.
The soon-to-be graduate said he feels peace of mind knowing what his future holds.
“I always used to worry about what I was going to do, all the time, but now that I’ve got a plan it’s less stressful,” said Short, who plans to one day take over his dad’s business.
Another Greenfield-Central senior, Nathaniel Brown, hopes to open his own real estate brokerage someday. But he’s in no hurry.
The 18-year-old plans to take a gap year, a traditional break some students opt to take between graduating from high school and starting their secondary education. He hopes to start taking business classes at Ivy Tech next fall. In the meantime, he plans to work full-time at Goodwill.
“A lot of my friends have asked me to get them jobs there because they’re having trouble finding work,” he said. “A lot of employers who used to hire teenagers are now looking to hire adults instead, so it’s been hard for them to find jobs,” said Brown.
Things aren’t all bleak, however, said Judy.
“I have had a handful of employers contact me in the recent weeks about open positions in their businesses, mostly warehouse positions and construction contracting. These employers have openings that need to be filled, but cannot find employees with the soft skills required to do the job. This is a problem, but was an issue even before the pandemic,” he said.
Judy thinks many members of the class of 2021 have taken the initiative to refine those soft skills and better prepare for their life after high school — whether it involves entering the workforce or secondary education — after watching the struggle their class of 2020 peers faced as the pandemic unfolded.
He thinks the current class of seniors, as a whole, seem to be much more motivated and focused, perhaps because they were better prepared to graduate during a global pandemic.
“They saw how difficult it was for the class of 2020, so I think many of this year’s seniors have already put a plan into place much sooner than previous classes had,” he said.
Judy knows of a 2020 graduate who is still waiting to begin training for a welding apprenticeship through an Indianapolis-based provider. According to the graduate, the provider did not have enough student interest in the program to hold classes, so the graduate has decided to take welding classes through Ivy Tech in the fall instead.
As for her soon-to-be-graduates who are having trouble landing jobs using their training, Broadus thinks they’ll stick to their plan and hold out for a job that utilizes their skill set, even if it takes longer than expected.
“They’re very resilient and very determined to go into the field where they have the training. That’s where their interests lie, so they will continue to try and try and try to get to where they need to go,” she said.
