The job market in Springfield is filled with career opportunities.

"There are more jobs available than we have workers," said Ryan McCrady, president and chief executive officer of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance.

He estimated that 5,000 jobs representing most, if not all, employment sectors are available in the Springfield metropolitan area.

The pandemic continues as one of the biggest contributors to the high number of job vacancies, McCrady said. Springfield-area workers are like millions of other Americans who quit jobs over the last two years causing a reshaping of the labor market.

Among them are older workers who accelerated retirement over COVID-19 health concerns, McCrady said. Also, dramatic gains in the investment markets, until recently, beefed up portfolios allowing others to comfortably leave careers.

Family responsibilities also caused some women to leave the workforce to care for children who were not in school or whose school attendance was not predictable due to the pandemic. More than 600,000 women remain out of the labor force in May 2022 than in February 2020, according to a National Women's Law Center analysis of the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

Still, others have gone into the gig economy like freelancing information technology work or driving for Uber, according to McCrady.

The most recent BLS data shows the Springfield area exceeded the pre-pandemic employment rate. In February 2020, the area had 107,100 workers. As of...

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