Other service jobs on the increase include those in health care, an area where the Quad-Cities has many opportunities. Senior health care is one of the fastest-growing groups in our area. There are currently over 300 job openings in that field listed at our center, Keeney said. That puts the area at just an acceptable level, but Keeney said it could be much worse. In the 60s, there was less than 1 percent unemployment, but in the 80s, we had police on standby due to unemployment problems.
People just wouldn t leave without referrals.
Now we have quite a balance, he said. Hart says as the Quad-City labor force has grown, there has been good expansion in terms of jobs. Wage growth is good as well. Where we haven t seen much success is in population changes. It s actually putting pressure on the wages because, if you have more jobs chasing fewer people, wages have to go up, he said.