The week of May 24, 1993, an estimated 11,870 full-time and 9,277 part-time jobs were open for immediate hire in the four-county Milwaukee metropolitan area. These 21,147 job openings are the result of a number of factors including seasonal fluctuations, company expansions, labor shortages in difficult to fill positions, as well as normal turnover among the 741,100 workers in the metro area due to retirements, resignations and firings. The job openings estimates are based on a survey of Milwaukee area employers conducted by the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute and Social Science Research Facility.

• For the metropolitan area, about half (54 percent) of the full-time job openings paid health insurance and were adequate to support a family of four above poverty, two-thirds of the job openings (65 percent) paid health insurance and were adequate to support a family of three, and 75 percent paid health insurance and were adequate to support a family of two.
• Nearly half of job openings were in small companies. 48 percent of full-time job openings and 45 percent of part-time openings were in companies which had employed fewer than 20 workers.
• The largest numbers of full-time job openings were split among service companies (28 percent of total full-time job openings), retail and wholesale trade (24 percent) and manufacturing (18 percent). Part-time job openings were concentrated in retail and wholesale trade (49 percent of part-time job openings) and in services (36 percent).
• Over two-thirds of the full-time openings required education, training or occupation- specific experience beyond high school, while two-thirds of part-time job openings did not. Openings for persons with no post-secondary education or experience were twice as likely to be part-time as openings for persons with advanced education or experience.
• Full-time jobs in service occupations accounted for almost half of openings available to individuals with less than high school completion. Most factory, crafts and transportation jobs required experience, license or occupation-specific training.
• Two-thirds of full-time jobs identified by employers as difficult to fill required a license, certification, associate degree or occupation-specific training. Eighty percent of the part-time jobs identified as difficult to fill paid less than $6.00 per hour.
• Eighty percent of full-time job openings and 29 percent of part-time positions offered health insurance.
• The 11,870 full-time job openings available the week of May 24, 1993, represented about 20 percent of jobs needed for the estimated 61,000 - 63,000 persons seeking or expected to work that month. If part-time and full-time job openings are combined, the total of 21,147 jobs represented about 35 percent of jobs needed for the Milwaukee metro population.
• While family poverty is concentrated in Milwaukee, only 1,289 of the May 1993 full-time job openings were located in central city neighborhoods. About half of these jobs (48 percent) offered health insurance and wages above poverty for a family of four.