The great thing about our region's economy is its diversity. Like nature itself, that diversity helps buffer it from huge swings in individual sectors. But even within that diversity, we get caught up in talking about "the economy" in broad strokes. U.S. Dept. of Labor statistics, university researchers and even employers often speak of "the workforce" in monolithic terms. The "service industry," "manufacturing," and "health care" ― some of the Savannah-area's largest employment segments ― carries within them multitudes, from janitorial staff and home health care workers to assembly lines.

And behind every one of those numbers is a person.

And despite the area's continued optimism in job growth, there are challenges with helping our workforce thrive, in minding the gap between education and skills, especially in the area of the Four Cs (collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking), and in bridging the divide between wages and the cost of living. Savannahians reportedly pay 7% more than the national average on fundamental expenses.

Savannah Morning News education and workforce development reporter Joseph Schwartzburt launched a series two weeks ago that began teasing out local workforce initiatives designed to help employers get to know employees better and to connect employees of all skills and abilities with opportunities to develop professionally. These three articles represent the beginning of our continued focus on this area. You will see more of these kinds of articles that help connect the dots as the year progresses.

So, in case you missed it, here are the first three articles in this series >>

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: savannah's workforce initiatives help employers understand employee needs