Understanding the Story County Laborshed

Recruiting and retaining workforce continues to be the number one business concern across Story County regardless of the size of an organization. There is a tool specified to Iowa that can be utilized to assist employers in understanding the nature and characteristics of a regional workforce in a unique way.
 
Laborshed studies are supply-side, labor availability studies. They are designed to assist community leaders, economic developers, site selectors, and existing or prospective employers with a flexible tool to understand the workforce characteristics of their local labor market. A laborshed is defined as the area or region from which an employment center draws its commuting workers. It shows the distribution of these workers regardless of political boundaries.
 
Laborshed studies also address underemployment, availability of labor and likeliness of the employed or not employed to change or accept employment. Other topics covered within a laborshed analysis include current and desired occupations, wages, hours worked, job search resources, and distance willing to commute to work.
 
The laborshed study for Story County was recently updated. Here are some of the key findings of the update:

• 691,016 people aged 18-64 reside within the Story County laborshed
• 82,802 of those people have indicated a willingness to change employment
• 7,834 people live in Ames but work elsewhere
• Workforce is driving an average of 12 miles each way to work in the Story County laborshed
• The largest number of people, 100,429, are employed in the warehouse and retail trade in the Story County laborshed
• 40% of all retirees and homemakers are willing to enter the workforce for the right opportunity.

 
​These are just a few of the many data points of information that can be found in the study results. 
 
Iowa Workforce Development has an interactive website that features all the laborshed studies available in the State of Iowa at: https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/laborshed-studies.
 
Our Workforce Solutions staff at the Ames Chamber of Commerce are here to assist you should you have questions regarding utilization of the Story County laborshed.
 
Contact:
Brenda Dryer, Vice President, Ames Chamber of Commerce
brenda@ameschamber.com
 
Nikki Fischer, Director, Workforce Development & Diversity
nikki@ameschamber.com

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