- Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development
By Lauren Jones, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, in collaboration with Karen Andreas, North Shore Chamber of Commerce.
Finding skilled talent is a major challenge for employers across all industries and statewide. Tackling this challenge is a top priority for the Healey-Driscoll Administration and of shared interest with regional workforce partners, like the North Shore Chamber of Commerce, across the Commonwealth. We want to ensure our public workforce system supports career pathways for individuals and sustains a diverse labor force for businesses.
“Front door” resources have proven to be an incredible asset to connect employers, jobseekers, and training providers and leverage economic opportunity in local communities. Earlier this month, the North Shore community celebrated the reopening of this “front door” known as the MassHire Career Center in Salem—one of 29 career centers located in every region of the Commonwealth. MassHire delivers universal access, providing services to individuals and businesses. In fact, the state MassHire system served more than 72,000 jobseekers and over 19,000 businesses across 29 career centers in Fiscal Year 2022. Additionally, the greatest share of workers served by MassHire among are people of color, historically underrepresented in the labor force and with higher unemployment rates. Now, untapped and disconnected diverse, local talent is connected to employment training and career opportunities through MassHire that has and will strengthen the Commonwealth’s workforce.
Located in downtown historic Salem, the newly reopened MassHire North Shore (NHNS) Career Center is focused on creating a better future for residents and local businesses. Preliminary analysis shows unemployment in the North Shore Workforce Development Area (Figure 1) has declined significantly from 4% in May 2022 to 2% in May 2023.
MHNS Career Center, and other career centers across the Commonwealth play a key role in helping unemployment insurance claimants, people looking for work, and those who are underemployed, find jobs and upskilling opportunities. More specifically, the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Program, funded by the US Department of Labor and delivered by MassHire, helps unemployment insurance (UI) claimants return to work faster, and:
- reduces the UI duration by offering claimants with reemployment services;
- strengthens UI program integrity by confirming UI eligibility at each RESEA meeting;
- promotes alignment with the vision of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA); and
- establishes RESEA as an entry point to other workforce system partners, like exposure to training programs offered by community colleges.
Upon receiving their first benefits check, UI claimants attend a Career Center Seminar (CSS), complete a Career Action Plan (CAP) on MassHire JobQuest, learn how to conduct labor market research, track work search activities, create or update their resume, and participate in ongoing reemployment services at a MassHire Career Center.
The renovated MHNS Career Center features an updated resource room to support customers with language barriers and increased digital capabilities to offer broader access to internet employment applications, pre-employment testing, and access to online training site. The career center has added artificial intelligence (AI) occupation simulators so jobseekers can explore different career pathways and set career goals. There are also docking stations throughout the updated career center for customers to link to the career center’s network using their own laptops.
Local businesses can also tap into the newly renovated career center by reserving desks, workstations, and private offices; employers are encouraged to leverage the available space to host career exploration events, recruit jobseekers, and hire locally. The MHNS Career Center will offer assistance to local businesses with recruitment marketing needs by creating and promoting employer videos used to attract jobseekers from the career center.
Similar to all MassHire career centers, Business Service Representatives are ready for North Shore businesses to partner with to recruit and screen candidates, create job postings on MassHire JobQuest, apply for training grant resources to train existing workers, and host in-person job fairs at the career center. Business Service Representatives can also connect employers to MassHire BizWorks services to prevent layoffs or support to impacted workers.
Massachusetts is a powerhouse of local and global talent. Employers need to find talent today and projections only suggest more job growth ahead including in areas such as health care and social assistance, among other industries in the region (Figure 2). We want to connect this massive and rising talent to help meet the needs of employers today and in the future. But we know not everyone is aware of the benefits of MassHire career centers, nor does every jobseeker or employer know of the wide range of additional workforce development resources throughout Massachusetts. That is why the Healey-Driscoll administration recently launched MassTalent to leverage funding to connect training programs with employers to prepare untapped talent for the jobs most in-demand in high growth industries including health care and human services, advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and the life sciences. MassTalent also streamlines existing resources such as MassHire’s JobQuest search, listing of MassHire career centers statewide, and a wide array of additional resources for jobseekers and businesses to tap into Massachusetts’ thriving ecosystem, world-class talent, and robust infrastructure to accelerate their success, this region’s growth, and opportunities across the Commonwealth.
Are you a jobseeker, employer, training provider, community partner, or curious about how to leverage workforce development resources locally? Check out the MassHire North Shore Career Center located at 70 Washington Street Salem, MA 01970.
