Invest Hamilton County, in coordination with over a dozen corporate, civic, education, and philanthropic partners, has produced a labor market forecast for the state’s fastest growing county going out to the year 2030.
Talent InSight 2030 is a comprehensive forecasting project that measures the county’s population, occupation, educational demographics and commuting patterns to establish long-term demand forecasts for multiple subsets of high demand employment.
Thibideau
“Hamilton County is a destination for high-wage, highly educated talent from across the country,” Invest Hamilton County President & CEO Mike Thibideau said. “We also possess dynamic communities, led by visionary individuals that have seen job growth explode over the past multiple decades.”
Talent InSight 2030 was compiled by bringing together the economic development goals of Hamilton County’s cities, growth projections of school corporations, projected home building plans for local builders and a diverse array of private and governmental data sources such as Lightcast, ESRI, the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, IN Department of Education, and STATS Indiana.
Other notable data insights through the year 2030 include:
- Hamilton County’s prime age labor force participation (ages 25 to 54) will increase, as opposed to a significant decline nationally.
- Over 62 percent of county residents possess a bachelor’s degree or higher education, an 8 percent increase since 2010. Only one of the top 20 posted occupations (Registered Nurses) in 2023 required that equivalent level of education.
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, Healthcare and Social Services, and Accommodations and Food Service will be the three fastest growing industry sectors, collectively adding nearly 10,000 jobs.
- Restaurants and Other Eating Places represent the largest four-digit sector growth with over 2,000 positions added, with Full Service Restaurants expected to add over 1,300 jobs.
- Home Health and Personal Care Aides is projected to be the county’s largest growing occupation, followed by Cooks and Fast Food Counter Workers.
- The three largest occupations for Hamilton County Residents are Office and Administrative Support, Sales and Related, and Business and Financial Operations.
- In 2026, Hamilton County will be importing 2,000 more workers than it exports, representing a 15,000-person net shift in commuting patterns since 2015, even when excluding hybrid and remote working trends. In 2022, over 95,000 workers commuted into Hamilton County for work on a daily basis.
“This project is intended to provide a tool that our local leaders, education stakeholders and business community can use to forecast how our community will continue to grow and change through the rest of this decade,” Thibideau said. “Invest Hamilton County, as a regional workforce development leader, will also be using this data as a backbone for pathway creation, training programs, and strategic community impact.”
Invest Hamilton County will host a State of the Workforce luncheon on March 19 at the Bridgewater Club. Thibideau and a national speaker from Lightcast, leaders in labor market analytics, will dive into the data learned from the Talent InSight 2030 project and how it compares to national trends.
Thibideau will also spend time in 2024 delivering presentations on this data to diverse associations and boards. If you would like to have a presentation scheduled, please reach out to Director of Programs Jill Doyle at jdoyle@investhamiltoncounty.com.
This project was made possible with support from Hamilton County government, City of Noblesville, City of Fishers, Duke Energy, Hamilton County Community Foundation, MIBOR, Hamilton County Tourism, OneZone Chamber of Commerce, Noblesville Chamber of Commerce, and Westfield Chamber of Commerce.
About Invest Hamilton County
The Hamilton County Economic Development Corporation (dba Invest Hamilton County) is an economic development organization focused on talent attraction, retention, development, and quality of life initiatives throughout Hamilton County. Invest Hamilton County works with diverse and dynamic stakeholders from throughout the community to help local residents, businesses, and communities address barriers to economic vitality, and build systems that provide every person in the county a path to live the best life they are capable of living. For more information, visit investhamiltoncounty.com.