Southwest Missouri has a workforce that is historically known for its strong work ethic. The skills that our workforce posses is one of the most important reasons why Southwest Missouri is home to such a diverse group of businesses, from advanced manufacturing to technology, medical, and professional services.

World class manufacturers such as La-Z-Boy, Leggett & Platt, Owens-Corning, O’Sullivan, BASF, Tyson Foods, General Mills, Butterball Turkey, Premiere Turbines, & Cardinal Scale are among the many advanced manufacturing facilities that call Southwest Missouri home.

Cingular/AT&T recently announced the location of a new 600 seat customer service center in Joplin. It should be up and running by the end of 2007.

St. John’s Regional Medical Center and Freeman Health Systems, two major, nationally recognized medical centers in Southwest Missouri are two of the largest employers in the area. They continue to grow, attracting new talent and providing quality medical care to our area.

Southwest Missouri also has a highly-skilled workforce in the technology field. Eagle-Picher Technologies provides the power supply for NASA and the Department of Defense. E-P has had its batteries on every manned space flight in NASA’s history and just surpassed its 1 billionth hour in space. Gestalt provides classified software and several other Southwest Missouri companies provide goods and services for DOD.

Southwest Missouri also provides the tools necessary to assist both employers and job seekers. The Workforce Investment Board of Southwest Missouri is a progressive workforce intermediary that oversees employment and training programs across the region while leveraging resources to improve Southwest Missouri's portfolio of human capital.

In 2003, Missouri Southern State and Crowder College formed the Alliance for Business Consulting. The A.B.C. is focused on providing innovative training and performance improvement solutions for SW MO businesses.

Missouri Southern State College (Joplin) has an international mission and is home to the Center for Regional Economic Development. Crowder College (Neosho) has its Technical Education Center (CCTEC) which is one of four area vocational schools in Missouri that is affiliated with a community college. CCTEC serves high school juniors and seniors from five sending schools in the Newton/McDonald county area. It offers nine technical training programs. Crowder is in charge of disbursing training funds for area businesses and has allocated the 2nd most amount of training dollars in Missouri, second only to St. Louis. 

Workforce Characteristics

• The population of the Southwest Missouri Labor Region, which includes 11 counties in Southwest Missouri, 4 in Southeast Kansas, & 3 in Northeast Oklahoma, is estimated to be 529,064. Almost 21% of the total population (110,813 people) is considered to be part of the Available Labor Pool (ALP).

• About 62% of the ALP has at least some college experience and 93% has at least a high school diploma.

• About 42% of the ALP will commute up to 45 minutes, one way, for an employment opportunity. 82% will commute up to 30 minutes for employment. While commutes of  one hour are not unusual, the average commute time in the metropolitan area is 17  minutes. 

• While Southwest Missouri has a few unions, these are generally with companies that have been in the community since the 1930's and 1940's.  More recently, unionization activity has been minimal and not well received by employees. Since 1990, there have been only thirteen union votes in the Joplin Metro Area. Of these thirteen, unions have won only 2.

• Wages are competitive compared to both the rest of Missouri and the U.S. Typically wages in Southwest Missouri are 80%-85% of the U.S. average.