Hot jobs - and those that are not
by Glenn RittThere are some hot professions on the Cape in 2005, but few rival the landscaping scene. The challenge – as with so many other jobs – is finding enough qualified people who can afford to live where the work is.
Joyce Landscaping keeps hiring to keep up with customer demand. It’s not just the 15 percent annual growth rate in business; it’s the super-sizing of so many projects. The average landscape job for a new home used to be about $20,000; now, it can easily skyrocket to $100,000. And $1 million projects are on the horizon. Five years ago, the Marstons Mills company would employ 12 to 25 workers; this summer, they will have 80 on the payroll.
Like all the hot jobs, landscaping tells a far deeper and richer story about the Cape’s economy. It measures the rapid migration of wealthy retirees and second-home owners, who want to import their suburban tastes for sod lawns, pools and rock gardens to the Cape. Older and often part-time residents, they also require year-round and far more expensive maintenance of their properties, turning what once was a purely seasonal industry into a 12-month operation. Joyce keeps 20 employees year-round.
The same second-home and retirement trends – with the building and redevelopment that comes with them – are turning other jobs and professions relatively red hot overnight. Not surprisingly, employment in the building and garden supply industry is up nearly 17 percent in the last four years. The trades – plumbers, electricians, masons and painters – are equally bullish. Meanwhile, there are 90 architectural and engineering jobs unfilled on the Cape, a 6.3 percent vacancy rate.
The Cape’s health-care industry – confronting this influx of new and demanding patients who might otherwise go to Boston hospitals – are begging for qualified employees at every level, from practitioners to support positions, where there are more than 500 total openings at any one time.
Retailers may complain about a tough winter and reduced cash flow, but statistics indicate they can’t keep up with customer demand – especially for personal and home goods. That’s not just because there are more people purchasing items, but also because second-home owners, who represent a third of the Cape’s housing stock, spend nearly twice as much money than do full-time residents. Clothing store employment by itself is up 17 percent since 1991.
Likewise, businesses that provide personal care and services to these new Cape Codders have as many as 250 jobs available at any one time. That’s about 9 percent of all positions in that industry.
The migration of wealth to the Cape also has challenged the financial services industry to find enough qualified professionals to meet demand. While recent bank mergers created some sensational headlines about layoffs among workers, financial investment companies on the Cape have increased hiring, while many individual entrepreneurs have established their own businesses in this field. Overall, 3 percent of available financial service jobs go begging. That’s nearly 150 positions.
A road map for employers and job seekers
Across all industries, there are as many as 3,500 to 4,000 unfilled jobs on the Cape at any one time. That represents 3 percent of the total workforce, which is a good third more than the statewide average.
Many of these do represent the leisure and hospitality industry, which remains very much a seasonal sector. Cape Business, in analyzing the job market, has tried to steer clear of that seasonality to focus on year-round opportunities.
But even within the hospitality industry, the most plentiful positions are in food preparation and service. Of some 1,350 overall vacancies, nearly 1,100 are in the food sector. The relative lack of demand in accommodations may reflect a continued shrinkage of hotel and motel rooms, and the rising number of second-home rentals.
Meanwhile, the best of the hospitality jobs available represent managerial positions that restaurant owners complain often go begging, even though they can pay $80,000 or more.
It may be surprising to many that after hospitality and leisure, the sector with the most openings is office support and administration, probably because it is a relatively poorly paid profession at a time of increasing housing and living costs.
If you want to translate all these statistics into a road map to find the best paying jobs or to avoid a dead-end career on the Cape, then you probably want to stay clear of fishing, agriculture, sporting, recreation, printing, publishing, transportation, children’s goods and services, information technology and government. Over the last five years, these industries either have shed jobs or idled in place. State and federal jobs on the Cape have actually suffered a combined 23 percent decline since the third quarter of 2001. Only local government employed more people over the same time.
A surprisingly risky profession right now is real estate. Over the last three years, employment has risen very modestly, less than one percent. While established Realtors are making maybe the best incomes of their careers with the rapid escalation in house prices, the supply of new and existing homes has consistently dropped month by month for more than a year, cutting deeply into the inventory to be shared by nearly 2,000 agents.
In contrast, the Cape’s hot jobs include heavy construction, business services, processed food, education, entertainment, building equipment and services, and a category established by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics called "analytical instruments." This registers a number of modest-sized high-tech companies, from Excel in Hyannis to Benthos in Woods Hole to Kerfoot in Mashpee.
Something else the statistics reveal: There are more hot jobs than cold ones. Despite some dramatic job losses in some industries, overall, the Cape has created more than 3,600 new positions since 1997.
That number nearly matches the quantity of unfilled jobs. How can that be?
Newly created jobs reflect demand; but that doesn’t necessarily mean employers can find an adequate supply of well-trained employees to precisely fill them. Again, recruitment is stymied by high housing costs. Also, not everyone forced to leave a down industry can automatically be trained to fill a hot job.
Cape Cod Healthcare, for example, recently had to eliminate dozens of jobs to cope with budget shortfalls created by rising uninsured patient costs. At the same time, it was advertising for many other positions corresponding with the acquisition of new technology and equipment within departments that are profit centers.
Inevitably, the experts also point to the growing reality facing Cape Cod. Even the most attractive and well-paid position may not be sufficient to attract the right candidate.
David Augustinho, who is executive director of the Cape & Islands Workforce Investment Board, recounts the efforts of a scientific research institute to recruit an oceanographer for a job in the Provincetown area paying $85,000 per year. They couldn’t attract a candidate able to afford a house.
That story underscores the fact that Cape Cod employers will continue to chase employees at a far more intense pace than counterparts across the two bridges. However, for those already here, or those who can commute from afar or find a home here, that spells opportunity.
Glenn Ritt Glenn Ritt is editor and co-publisher of Cape Business Publishing LLC. He is the former publisher of Cape Cod Community Newspapers and editor of The Bergen Record in New Jersey. 
Cape Business Newsletters
Keep up with the latest issues affecting your business and your life! To sign up for any of the Cape Business newsletters, click here.