These are the fastest-growing jobs in Iowa — and how much they pay

Kevin Hardy , Yuejun Chen | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Wind turbine technician students use Iowa program to climb career ladder One of the country's most in-demand jobs can be found almost 300 feet in the air. Good money and a stable future can follow, all with a two-year degree. Des Moines Area Community College boasts one such program.

Seven of the 10 fastest growing jobs in Iowa pay well above the state's median hourly wage of $17.27, according to federal projections. But many of those positions are few and far between.

The Projections Managing Partnership, a national consortium of state labor market information offices, projects which industries will grow the most in all 50 states.

The organization's projections for Iowa identify wind turbine technician as the state's fastest-growing job: Those positions are expected to grow 13.2 percent between 2017 and 2019.

More: Wind turbine technicians are hard to find. With rising pay and a thriving Iowa future, they shouldn't be.

But the universe of wind turbine technicians remains small: only 340 Iowans worked in the field in May 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those technicians earn a median hourly wage of $30.64 — the annual equivalent of $63,731 for a full-time worker.

The same holds true for the state's second-fastest-growing occupation, operations research analyst. While jobs are expected to grow 6.2 percent, that occupation only employed 810 workers in 2017.

In total, the state's 10 fastest growing jobs were expected to add 23,610 jobs by 2019. That's about 1.5 percent of Iowa's more than 1.5 million jobs in 2017.

What worries some advocates is another list of Iowa jobs primed for high growth: only two of the 10 occupations expected to add the most whole jobs by 2019 pay more than Iowa's median wage.

"More than 50 percent of growth in jobs are wage levels that are not able to sustain a family," said Elisabeth Buck, president of United Way of Central Iowa. "It does give you concern."

Jobs in food preparation and food service are projected to add 1,040 positions, while the organization expects Iowa to add 470 additional home health aides by 2019.

The projected increase of low-wage jobs raises other questions, Buck said, including that of affordable housing. She said the Des Moines metro area already has a shortage of 8,000 affordable housing units.

A recent study found that a full-time worker in Des Moines needs to earn $15.01 per hour to afford a "modest" two-bedroom apartment.

"Do we have enough affordable housing that meets these needs? No, we don't," Buck said. "Do we have the support systems to support these families to be successful?"

More: Nearly 40 percent of Iowans can't afford the basics — and the problem is only getting worse

More: More than half of Des Moines-area workers would leave their jobs for more money, survey finds

'We need to show folks what is at the end of the rainbow'

Typically, the jobs with the most openings have overall large employment, high turnover, lower wages and require lower amounts of education, said Donna Burkett the chief of Iowa Workforce Development's Labor Force and Occupational Analysis and Employment Statistics Bureau.

Those jobs regularly include restaurant, retail, customer service work, laborers and home health aides. Notable exceptions include registered nurses and truck drivers, which require more education and offer higher wages.

Even as automation transforms some jobs, Burkett said Iowa hasn't seen a large change in demand for lower-skilled work in restaurants and retail.

More: Robots, artificial intelligence and automation are reshaping Iowa's workforce. Is your job at risk?

Workers fill low-wage jobs for a variety of reasons. Some may lack skills for higher-paid work, Burkett said. Others may be drawn to certain work hours or constrained by a personal health issue.

In any case, Iowa is working to train its workforce through Gov. Kim Reynolds' Future Ready Iowa initiative, which seeks to increase the level of education and training of future and current workers. The first step is educating Iowans on what high demand, high paying jobs exist.

"We need to show folks what is at the end of the rainbow, what opportunities are out there for gainful employment" Burkett said. "Some of these folks in occupations that require lower skill sets may have a great foundation."

Jobs predictions: What do they mean?

Each state creates jobs projections to help inform policy making.

"Not only is it helpful for communities to see where their growth is going to occur, but it's also helpful for community colleges and making sure we’re not training people for jobs that don't exist," said Buck, with United Way.

While they can inform decision-making, the government figures only go so far, said Rob Denson, president of Des Moines Area Community College.

"Those lists are well-educated guesses," he said, "but they're just projections."

And the demand for certain occupations can vary across the state. Denson said employers in the Des Moines metro most often express need for truck drivers, welders, information technology workers and nurses.

"Those are the areas we get the biggest push for all the time from DMACC-area employers," he said. "It’s been consistent even through the recession. Those jobs have been almost recession-proof."

While pay for some low-skilled workers remains stubbornly low, particularly for direct care workers like nursing assistants, Denson said the ultra-tight labor market appears to be driving up wages in many occupations.

"Supply and demand works. Iowa used to be known as a low-pay state," Denson said. "It really is not as much as it used to be. We’ve got such great companies here and there's so much demand for that pipeline."

Direct care workers: High demand, low pay

Iowa's home care aides, certified nursing assistants and personal care assistants earn between $9 and $13.50 per hour, said Di Findley, executive director of Iowa CareGivers.

That's far below the state's median wage of $17.27.

Iowa CareGivers, an association that advocates for CNAs and home care aides, recently held 13 listening sessions with health care employers.

Many are struggling to fill their current vacancies, she said. And the projections forecast increased need for home health aides and personal care aides through 2019.

"They also expressed concern about the age of the workforce and the number of retirements they expected over the next few years," Findley said. "Employers also stated that the reason they can't find and keep people is because of the low wages and lack of benefits."

More: How Broadlawns is changing lives in its poor north-side neighborhood

Findley said her group was "extremely disappointed" that direct care workers weren't included as a targeted occupation in the governor's Future Ready Iowa program, despite demonstrated demand for workers in the field.

She said policymakers wanted to target jobs that pay at least $16 per hour like nursing, which pays more than $27 per hour on average.

"Exclusion of this segment of the workforce simply doesn't make sense," Findley said.

She said direct care workers have a wider influence on the overall economy: Home care aides provide needed care, but also enable family caregivers to remain in the workforce.

"When family caregivers are forced to reduce hours or even give up employment, they put themselves at risk and the business community experiences a reduction in productivity," she said. "The direct care workforce impacts so many facets of our lives."

'The demand for employees has driven up wages'

Jessica Dunker, president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association, said her industry expects net growth of 1,000 jobs per year over the next decade in Iowa.

"So a net increase of 10,000 jobs over the next 10 years," she said.

Iowa's population is increasing slowly. So why the need for more and more restaurant workers?

Dunker points to long-term trends about how consumers purchase food. In 1955, 25 percent of U.S. food dollars were spent on purchases outside the home, mainly restaurants. Now, ever-busy Americans spend more than half their food budget on eating away from home, Dunker said.

"It's changing consumer habits," she said. "And more and more of the food dollar is going outside the home."

While federal data show low wages for many restaurant occupations in Iowa, Dunker said the ongoing labor crunch has driven up pay, particularly for workers in the Des Moines metro area.

"You can't get someone to wash dishes for less than $12 an hour in downtown Des Moines," she said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that dishwashers in Iowa earn a median hourly wage of $9.06, earning an average of $19,310 per year. Similarly, the agency calculates Iowa waiters earn a median wage of $9.10 per hour, banking $21,340 per year on average.

But Dunker said her own surveying of restaurateurs has found higher wages. Using data from a major point of sale provider, the restaurant association found an hourly average wage of $16 for tipped workers in Iowa.

"And to me, that still feels a little bit low," she said.

Many restaurant jobs in smaller communities now start at $10 and $11 per hour, she said.

"That is not a living wage. But the kinds of jobs paying $10 and $11 an hour are not thought of as head-of-household jobs," she said. "They’re considered entry-level positions."