Survey Shows Lack of Beginners With Basic Work Skills

Employers in Orange County’s blue-collar and service industries are having difficulty attracting experienced workers and are finding that many entry-level job applicants lack basic work and education skills.

That was the conclusion of a countywide job survey released Thursday by the Orange County, Santa Ana and Anaheim Private Industry councils and the state Employment Development Department.

The survey said employers are finding it increasingly difficult to hire beginning workers with computer knowledge and with the ability to speak and write clearly and follow written instructions.

The survey of 325 employers in 25 job categories showed that the number of unskilled and semi-skilled positions in those businesses is expected to increase in the county through 1992, despite growing evidence of a national recession.

While the survey covered occupations as divergent as auto mechanics and medical assistants, desk clerks and plumbers, it found that most of the growth will be in business and personal service jobs.

Demand for restaurant cooks is expected to have the highest percentage growth of any job category--up 25% for an increase of 1,588 jobs.

Employers have “great difficulty” finding experienced auto mechanics and auto body repair workers and report a shortage of people willing to work as nighttime hotel desk clerks, retail cashiers and security guards.

Employers said they had at least “some difficulty” finding experienced and inexperienced dental and medical assistants, licensed vocational nurses and pest control technicians.

Jobs that are relatively easy to fill, respondents said, include those for electronic assemblers, shipping clerks and draftsmen.

One of the county’s slowest-growing job categories, the survey found, is for electronics assemblers. While consumer electronics makers projected some growth in hiring, computer and defense firms generally projected flat hiring or even layoffs.

The findings came as no surprise to those who follow the county’s job trends. The county’s manufacturing industry has been shrinking for years while the service industry is growing.

“We found, as expected, that it backed up our intuitive understanding of the market,” said Margo West, senior analyst for the project and manager of planning for the Orange County Private Industry Council.

The survey is considered a valuable planning tool--its primary use will be to assist private and government-financed job training programs in determining what types of classes to offer and what skills to stress.

“And private employers want it for the wage information and the job growth predictions,” West said. “They are the most current and most localized figures now available.”

According to the survey, which queried both large and small employers, the fastest-growing job categories in the county for the next two years will include retail sales, with 5,159 new jobs by 1992, up 13.4%; cashiers, 4,015 new jobs, up 21.2%; bookkeeping and accounting clerks, 2,769 jobs, up 11.3%; sales representatives, excluding those for manufacturers of scientific material and equipment, 2,162 new jobs, up 19.9%, and private security guards and watchmen, 1,594 jobs, up 20.6%.