Workforce Recovery: SA Works Releases COVID-19 Edition Jobs Report

Communities across the globe have seen a dramatic rise in unemployment due to the pandemic and how it disproportionately affects those at the lowest income and education levels. Across the nation, COVID-19 has amplified the negative effects of racial and economic inequality that the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation (SAEDF) has long-worked to combat. The San Antonio region’s workforce development efforts align education and training to industry demand to help residents enter into career pathways that promote economic mobility. Now, during the era of COVID, even more residents need help.

Since 2018, SAEDF’s workforce team, SA Works, has published a bi-annual Jobs Report to show market demand and required skills in three key industries: Tech and Cybersecurity, Healthcare and Bioscience, and Advanced Manufacturing. In direct response to the current pandemic, SA Works published its COVID-19 Edition Jobs Report that expands on this format to highlight market demand, skills required, workforce programs, and the affected occupations most compatible to upskill into a new career in five key industries.

Over the past month, SAEDF has expanded from solely business rescue to reactivate proactive marketing outreach for business retention and attraction. To ensure those jobs are filled by San Antonio’s own, SA Works partnered with chambers, trade associations, and employers to identify current and projected job openings as well as the training and skills development necessary to put people back to work. The special issue Jobs Report highlights the impact of COVID-19 on our target industries and what skills and jobs are still hiring right now.

SAEDF and SA Works are bringing the private sector together in a collaborative effort with education and training leaders, Workforce Solutions Alamo, Bexar County, and the City of San Antonio to provide San Antonians displaced by the pandemic with the training, education, and resources needed to have an upwardly mobile career. The San Antonio region is resolved to emerge from the current pandemic greater than ever—and partners across the public and private sector are putting in the necessary work to get there.

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