The RA sponsor — frequently a private business, trade organization, or union — oversees the program by facilitating the apprentice's training and employment opportunities. The map depicts the apprenticeship sponsors with at least one active apprentice as of December 31, 2015, where the symbol size represents the number of apprentices per sponsor. The five counties with the greatest number of registered apprentices per 5,000 labor force participants are Forest County, PA (175), Huntingdon County, PA (37), Union County, NJ (35), Philadelphia County, PA (26), and Allegheny County, PA (23). While New Castle County, DE, ranks 12th on this measure, it is home to the greatest number of RA sponsors. Eleven Pennsylvania counties had no RA sponsors at the end of 2015.
Registered apprentices in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are concentrated in a few industries, as shown in the bar chart.1 In the two states combined, apprentices are largely employed in construction (71%), public administration (16%), and manufacturing (6%). When the states are considered separately, a greater share of RAs are employed in construction and manufacturing in Pennsylvania (82%) than in New Jersey (68%), where apprenticeships in utilities (5%) and education (8%) are more common.
Data sources: Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Data System (RAPIDS), managed by the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration; Delaware Department of Labor; and Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics program, 2015 annual averages (available at www.bls.gov/lau/#cntyaa).
Map source: U.S. Census Bureau.
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia or the Federal Reserve System.
[1]The industry classifications of Delaware apprenticeship sponsors were not available.