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How OKC Workers Are Skipping Job Boards and Getting Hired Faster · The 405 Payroll

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  If you feel like every online job application you send in just vanishes into a black
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  hole...
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  you're, you're actually not crazy.
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  But here is the thing that surprised me.
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  According to data from the payroll platform Gusto, Oklahoma City just ranked third
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  in the entire nation for small and medium business job growth,
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  with a zero point seven percent jump in hiring in a single month.
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  Wait, wait, third in the country?
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  Because if you talk to anybody scrolling through job boards right now,
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  they'll tell you it feels like, like absolute crickets out there.
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  Right!
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  Exactly.
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  But Gusto's New Hires Pay Index shows starting pay for new hires actually went up
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  one point two percent at the exact same time.
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  The jobs are there, Miles, but companies are shifting where they look.
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  They are completely bypassing those massive online job boards.
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  So if they aren't posting them online where everyone is looking...
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  where are they actually hiring people?
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  They are doing direct hiring in person.
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  Specifically, through local state agencies like the Oklahoma Employment Security
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  Commission down on Lincoln Boulevard.
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  OESC hosts direct hiring events where employers show up ready to interview and hire
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  on the spot.
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  Wait, so you mean like, like walking into a room, talking to a real human being,
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  and getting an offer right then?
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  What kind of pay are we talking about for those?
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  Entry level logistics, public works, city service roles...
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  starting right between seventeen dollars and fifty cents to nineteen dollars an
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  hour.
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  And a lot of these don't require tech backgrounds or years of corporate experience.
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  Man, back when I was doing morning radio, I cannot tell you how many listeners would
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  call in during the five a m hour, absolutely exhausted.
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  They were working fifty hours a week in food service making,
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  like, fourteen bucks an hour.
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  And the wild part was, ten minutes down the road, there were warehouse shifts
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  starting at eighteen fifty an hour with health benefits on day one.
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  It's a huge gap.
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  Going from fourteen dollars to nineteen dollars an hour isn't just a slight bump.
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  On a standard forty hour week, that is over eight hundred dollars more every single
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  month in actual cash flow.
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  That is...
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  I mean, that's rent stability right there.
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  That's taking your breath for a second instead of deciding which bill gets paid late
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  this month.
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  And it doesn't stop at nineteen an hour.
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  There is a very clear ladder from that entry level floor up to twenty five dollars
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  an hour, and it doesn't require taking on tens of thousands in student debt either.
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  Okay, hold on.
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  Twenty five dollars an hour without debt?
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  What's the catch?
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  Is this like a three year apprenticeship program or something?
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  Try six to twelve weeks.
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  Metro Tech at their Springlake Campus on Springlake Drive has partnered with the
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  Central Oklahoma Workforce Innovation Board, or COWIB.
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  They run short term career training in commercial driving, healthcare support,
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  and logistics technology.
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  Six to twelve weeks...
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  wait, but what does the tuition cost for something like that?
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  For qualifying adult learners in Oklahoma City, COWIB actually covers one hundred
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  percent of the tuition through funded workforce vouchers.
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  You train for a couple months, get the credential, and walk straight into local
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  employers who are actively looking for those specific skill sets.
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  See, that is what people actually need.
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  But, okay, let's talk about what happens when you get that raise.
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  Because when you jump from fifteen an hour to twenty four fifty an hour,
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  if you aren't careful, inflation and sudden expenses can eat that whole raise up
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  before you even see it in your account.
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  That is a really fair point.
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  Making more money is only half the equation.
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  Keeping it and stabilizing your household is the other half.
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  Yeah, exactly.
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  That's where groups like the Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City come in.
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  They offer utility assistance and completely free financial coaching.
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  So when that bigger check starts hitting, you can smooth out seasonal electric bill
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  spikes and actually put money away into emergency savings instead of just watching
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  it disappear.
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  It makes a massive difference.
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  I was looking at a case study from a local renter here in OKC.
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  She spent two years stuck in a fifteen dollar an hour retail spot,
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  constantly stressed.
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  She went to one OESC event, connected with a COWIB representative,
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  enrolled at Metro Tech, and within eight weeks she was working in healthcare
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  logistics making twenty four dollars and fifty cents an hour.
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  Man, eight weeks to totally transform your monthly budget.
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  That is incredible.
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  It really is.
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  So if you are listening to this right now and feeling stuck,
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  don't just keep sending resumes into the online void.
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  Check the weekly OESC hiring calendar on their website, and look up the COWIB
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  training grant application before five p m today.
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  Take the step.
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  Alright, good chatting today, talk soon!