Officials with the South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council have announced the completion of the Third Annual Regional Wage and Skill Survey — a strategy of the organization’s “Getting Ready To Win” initiative.
The survey is usually shared with regional industries and large employers, and is used to determine payment structures, while scanning for potential skill gaps in the workforce watershed.
Survey highlights include:
— Regional manufacturing entry-level wages increased from $17.43/hour in 2022 to $17.93/hour in 2023.
— In particular, welder wages continued to increase more than 10% over the regional average, to $21.73/hour.
— Regional engineers can expect to make $80,000-$100,000-plus, on average, in annual salary.
— And all wages increased by 3%-5%, on average, meeting jumps in cost-of-living.
The region is still celebrating 2023 successes, which according to the SWK EDC include the continued development of Ascend Elements at Commerce Park II, the groundbreaking of Toyota Boshoku’s newest facility, the continued expansion of Novelis, and an existing industry expansion at White Drive Products. These four projects represent over 850 new jobs that will be available to Trigg, Christian, Todd and other residents in the coming months — resulting in over $1.6B in continued private and public capital investment impacting the regional economy.
This also doesn’t account for coming investments, including Trigg County’s construction of a new spec building at the I-24 Business Park.
In 2023-24, 22 regional industries participated in the survey — offering insight into the Trigg, Christian, Todd manufacturing sector — and the SWK EDC will be utilizing the survey information to provide greater direction to the workforce and industry partners, in order to ensure the region has competitive wages and benefits and provides educational and training opportunities to build the workforce of the future.
Carter Hendricks, executive director of the SWK EDC, noted they continue to see strong job and wage growth, “which means more opportunity for regional residents and businesses.”
