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Every Monday at 6:42 a.m. and 8:42 a.m., Rob Gilligan provides information on what's happening in the area of regional development in Southeast Missouri. Rob is the President and CEO of the Cape Chamber. Local support for "Let's Talk Business" is provided by Carved + Crafted Catering. (573) 651-2569

Let's Talk Business: Healthcare Sector Employment in Cape County

Employment sector information reveals valuable details about our local economy.

The Missouri Economic Research and Information Center provides detailed employment statistics for the state of Missouri. In their last data release, there was interesting information about our area. It is not too surprising Cape Girardeau County has larger percentage of employees in certain sectors than the State of Missouri average. As a regional hub, we have higher than average employment numbers in several key categories including retail, accommodations and restaurants, and health care while maintaining the state average in manufacturing. But I’d like to focus on one of these areas: health care.

In this release, an average of 17% of the Missouri workforce was employed in the health care and social assistance sector compared to 27% of the Cape County workforce. The good news is average wages in this sector are higher than many others and job growth in this sector continues at a strong pace. Challenging news is that is a large percentage of workers in one sector.

In the next two years, we will see many more jobs added as the Psychiatric Hospital and the new Veterans Clinic come online. These facilities add much needed services to the area.

The bottom line is we know the health care sector employs more people in Cape County than any other and pays above county average wages. This certainly makes it one of our leading economic engines.

John Mehner is the former President and CEO of the Cape Chamber.
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