An overwhelming number of employers included in the municipality's latest workforce survey are planning to hire in 2017.
But they're having trouble finding the skills they need in Chatham-Kent.
Of the 198 local organizations who completed the EmployerOne Survey earlier this year, 63% are growing their staff because of expansion, for a total of 1036 new positions.
"There was still a percentage that were filling vacancies or replacing positions, but overwhelmingly that 63% of the organizations were saying [they're] growing," says Workforce Planning Board Project Manager Kristy Jacobs.
Still, 37% of respondents had different positions -- running the gamut from entry level to more senior jobs -- that they classified as hard-to-fill in 2016, mostly in the agriculture sector and manufacturing.
"Employers are still saying they're looking for soft skills and having a hard time finding that [in their employees]," Jacobs says, adding this mirrors other communities in the province, country, even internationally.
A total of 1,842 employees were hired in 2016, with more university and college grads getting jobs here at home.
"So 350 recent grads, which are classified as having graduated in the last two years, were entered into the workforce, versus 119 the year before," says Jacobs. "That was phenomenal."
This year's survey only represents 6% of Chatham-Kent's employers. While response rates are increasing, the Workforce Planning Board says its striving for a 12% benchmark next year, to help tell a better story.