You can pick an industry sector from the list below and choose to look at different jobs within that category. You will see a job description of the specific position as well as a salary range and whether or not the job requires any degrees – and if so, where to obtain them.

» Health Care and Education
» Professional and Technical
» Service
» Manufacturing and Construction
» Non-Sector Specific

Statement of Purpose

The West Michigan Regional Career Guide is a tool designed primarily to inform Michigan Works! employer customers, jobseekers and Michigan Works! staff about regional high–growth, high–demand occupations and employment.

This Guide was developed mainly from objective data reported from a variety of economic and employment databases, and is intended to be used chiefly as an information resource.

It is intended for research and informational purposes, and is not meant to recommend to individuals any specific career path, occupational choice or employment decision.

Printed copies of the Guide are currently distributed internally within the Ottawa County Michigan Works! (OCMW) organization only.

For more information, please contact OCMW staff at 616-494-3400, or email Rachel Cleveland, Workforce Data Analyst, at rcleveland@ocmwa.org.

Methodologies

The West Michigan Regional Career Guide is designed to introduce job seekers and individuals working in workforce development, education and other relevant fields to a set of high growth, high demand careers in the West Michigan region. The guide will be printed yearly and electronically updated quarterly. Due to the frequent updates and changes occurring to labor market data, we recommend looking at the online version of the guide for the latest up-to-date copy.

A few notes on the information contained in the West Michigan Regional Career Guide:

The data is pulled from a four county region in West Michigan that includes Ottawa, Kent, Allegan and Muskegon counties.
The data presented in this guide is strongly empirical, pulled from labor market databases. Over the coming years Ottawa County Michigan Works will engage in anecdotal data gathering from employers, educators, economic developers and other partners in West Michigan. This anecdotal data will be combined with the empirical data to improve the information available in the guide.
Current anecdotal data gathering has focused on growth in the advanced manufacturing sector of West Michigan. Many of these advanced manufacturing jobs, poised for growth in the next few years, are introduced in the “Up and Coming Careers” section. Updates to these occupations will be provided as data becomes available.

The West Michigan Regional Career Guide is based on data gathered from a variety of sources. Sources utilized include:

Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc.
The State of Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.
Census Bureau.
O*Net Online Occupation Database.
United States Department of Labor.
Industry and Occupation information from Employers, Economic Developers, Educators and other Partners in the West Michigan Region.

The high growth, in-demand occupations in this guide were identified utilizing empirical data from a variety of labor market data sources. This list was then vetted by individuals with regional labor market expertise and has been presented in this guide in six different sections. The first five sections represent empirically confirmed high growth, in-demand occupations by sector. These occupations were identified with a combination of projected growth through the next 4 years, wage level, education level, and local knowledge relating to occupation demand.

The guide’s high growth occupations have been divided into the sectors of:

Please address any questions related to the Ottawa County Career Guide or its contents to Ottawa County Michigan Works Administrative Offices at 115 Clover Street in Holland, Michigan or contact Ottawa County Michigan Work’s Workforce Analyst via phone at 616-494-3406 or email at rcleveland@ocmwa.org.