Hunter
04/01/26
Kirkwood Community College has released its “Skills report” for the region, and finds that employers who participated report difficulty in finding skilled workers.
The Gazette reports Kirkwood has done a skills survey of employers across its seven-county region in Eastern Iowa since 1999, and distributed the 2027 skills survey to over 400 organizations this past summer. 156 organizations responded, the majority of them based in Linn County and 15 percent in Johnson County.
The survey found over 60 percent struggled to find skilled workers, and over 90 percent reporting that their existing workforce are missing skills, including basics like attendance, accountability and reliability.
Employers said in the survey about the challenges of filling positions, they’ve ramped up their recruiting efforts, lowered their level of experience required, and offered overtime to existing workers. Others have just gone ahead and hired a less-qualified candidate.
A link to Kirkwood’s survey is available below.