A recently released state report outlines a significant overlap between wage expectations and realities for Dubuque-area job seekers.

That data was outlined in Iowa Workforce Development’s most recent Dubuque-area laborshed analysis, which documents worker dynamics across various industry-specific and socioeconomic demographics.

According to resident surveys, hourly workers in the Dubuque laborshed receive a median hourly wage of $22. That aligns exactly with the $22-per-hour wage respondents said they would need to consider a new or different job in the city.

The same is true for surveyed salaried workers, where the median salary of $70,000 matched the median $70,000 per year that job seekers said they would require to take a job offer.

“What we’re getting from this is that people who were reached for this survey didn’t have outsized opinions,” said Nic Hockenberry, Greater Dubuque Development Corp. director of workforce programming. “People aren’t looking for anything crazy, and that means local employers can meet (job seekers) where they are.”

The Iowa Workforce Development analysis focuses on major employers in Dubuque, tracks the residential zip codes of their employees and then conducts extensive outreach to residents in those areas.

For Dubuque, that entailed outreach across the tri-state area after the analysis found that roughly 34% of Dubuque employees live outside the city limits, with the highest percentage coming from Peosta, Iowa; East Dubuque, Ill.; and Bellevue, Iowa.

The analysis showed, however, that Dubuque employees come from all over the region, with some coming from as far as Prairie Du Chien, Wis., or Davenport, Iowa.

“For employers, this survey shows where they might look to find new employees in a time when they really need them,” Hockenberry said. “… And for the community as a whole, it really shows off that this region is very interconnected.”

The report also outlines that approximately 32.8% of the working-age population within a 50-mile radius of Dubuque — equating to roughly 39,457 individuals — would be open to changing or accepting employment within the city of Dubuque.

Fortunately for area employers, the respondents also generally expressed an expectation or desire for wages and benefits that align with those that currently are available.

The top three benefits survey respondents desired in a job include paid vacation, a retirement plan and medical insurance — which also are the three most frequently offered benefits at Dubuque employers.

Wage expectations and realities are also similarly aligned, data shows, even when accounting for varying expectations across respondents’ age groups, education levels and industry of interest.

Nikki Kiefer, president of Sedona Staffing Services in Dubuque, said she was unsurprised by those findings. Many employers are in dire need of workers given the tight labor market, Kiefer said, making them more likely to offer higher wages or robust benefits to entice potential employees.

Kiefer runs multiple Sedona locations and serves clients nationwide to connect job seekers with potential employers, and she said that trend is true across multiple industries in the tri-state area and beyond.

“We’re still in the battle of the wages,” she said. “Companies desperately need people, so they keep bumping the wage up, and that means people can move around to find what they want.”

In the most recent data release, Iowa Workforce Development provided information that quantifies that statement in several tri-state area municipalities.

In the Manchester and Elkader, Iowa, laborsheds, surveyed individuals reported current median earnings at or above hourly and salaried wage expectations.

The same is true of hourly workers in Maquoketa, Iowa, though salaried workers reported they would need a slightly higher salary to consider taking new or different employment in the city. Currently, the median salary is $66,500 while respondents say they would need $70,000 a year to take a new offer.

Jackson County Economic Alliance Executive Director Kelley Brown said wages are trending higher countywide as employers do their best to remain competitive and recruit new workers, while those from older generations retire in increasing numbers.

She said wages are just one part of the recruitment puzzle, however, stressing that workers also make employment or relocation decisions based on factors such as the cost of living and availability of housing or child care.

“We have to be competitive in all of those areas, especially if we’re asking people to relocate or commute,” she said. “There’s so many pieces to the equation to consider beyond just the wage aspect.”