The hottest jobs for 2012 in the Wichita area
With all of the dramatic news about plant closings and layoffs, it’s easy to forget that the Wichita-area economy added jobs in 2011 and probably will again this year.
There are nearly 5,000 job listings in the Wichita area posted on the state’s inclusive online job listing KansasWorks.
But even though the economy seems to be looking up slightly, it pays to look for the right job.
Ron Thomas was at the Wichita Workforce Center on Friday, looking for work. He was laid off as a cook two years ago and again in October. His unemployment benefits ran out, and he’s surviving on food stamps and a generous landlord.
“The number of jobs is up,” he said, “but there are so many people looking.”
The hottest jobs of 2012 will look a lot like earlier lists, with a lot of health care and accounting jobs, but they also include some lower-paying, lower-skill jobs.
So here are some of the hottest jobs of the year, from lists and suggestions from the Kansas Department of Labor, the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas and Wichita State University.