The Roanoke Roanoke has long been known as an outdoor enthusiast’s haven, but being featured as one of the nation’s premier hiking destinations is an extra feather in the cap.
Roanoke was recently featured as one of the “25 Best Hiking Cities in the U.S.” by CNN.com. Roanoke was featured at the top of the list behind only Boise, ID. – coincidence? We don’t think so!
Proximity to assets like green spaces, hiking trails, waterfalls, and mountains played a big role in which cities made it on the list. This is one of the main things people mention when talking about the Roanoke hiking scene – some of the most beautiful hikes in the U.S. are just a 15-minute drive from downtown.
This is timely news considering the City of Roanoke just announced over 100 miles of trails and greenways within its limits, and they plan to celebrate with a trail work day and party on Mill Mountain, September 23. And that’s 100 miles solely in the urban core!
A job board is a webpage used by employers to advertise their job vacancies to job seekers, and this regional version pulls opportunities for all regional employers and offers special filtering tools making it easier to use.
The Get2KnowNoke site is free for employers and job seekers to use and includes listings for all companies in Roanoke, Franklin, Botetourt, and Alleghany counties, the cities of Salem, Roanoke, and Covington, and the town of Vinton. Job seekers can filter jobs by job category, employer, or use the search bar to filter by key terms.
“While there are many job sites specific to one town or one employer, the Partnership identified that our region was lacking a user-friendly tool for job seekers and employers that encompassed our entire labor shed, said Julia Boas, director of talent strategies for the Roanoke Regional Partnership. “Now technology exists that allows us to keep listings up to date without employers having to lift a finger.”
Currently, 8,164 job listings are populating the jobs board, which are pulled from the best-in-class platform Jobs EQ. Jobs EQ uses website crawling technology to scrape data from over 14,000 websites daily, including top sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. If any employers’ listings are not showing, their internal websites can be submitted to Jobs EQ.
As part of the Thrive 2027 plan, the Partnership recognized the importance of expanding the Roanoke Region’s ability to attract and retain in-demand talent as one of the top priorities over the next five years. In addition to developing web assets like the jobs board, Get2KnowNoke focuses on marketing and brand-building around the talent narrative, as well as supporting the advancement of the education pipeline and workforce development initiatives.
An entirely new talent portal, currently being developed in collaboration with the Greater Roanoke Workforce Development Board thanks to a grant from GO Virginia, will feature livability assets, neighborhood guides, employer resources, internships, and networking opportunities with a scheduled finish date of early 2024.
With the current demand for qualified labor at an all-time high, employers need to remove any barriers for potential talent looking to relocate to the region. This tool, coupled with the development of a more robust website, will provide all the resources a prospective resident may need in one place.
“Now that we’ve developed this useful tool, we can promote it to potential employees in key markets where we know that people are leaving to move to Roanoke, or places that have a labor-pool density with skills our employers are seeking,” said Boas, “We expect the site to become the go-to resource for regional job opportunities and intend to glean valuable insights into the demographics of people using the site.”
Where are the coolest and most affordable cities for millennials? If you guess Roanoke, then you are right.
The Roanoke Region was noted as one of “25 Cities that Millennials Can Afford and Actually Want to Live In” by The Penny Hoarder. Roanoke came in at No. 12 with an affordability rank of 5, millennial happiness rank of 18, and economy health rank of 15.
Job seekers, you don’t have to look any further than the Roanoke Region to find the perfect fit.
A report in USA Today notes that Roanoke is one of the best metro job markets in 2018. The ranking was produced by Zippia, a job search website, which used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistic to tank the top markets. Rankings are based on based on how much local wages rose, how much unemployment dipped, and the current jobless rate. Continue reading “Roanoke Named Top Market for Jobs by USA Today”
The August 2018 edition of Outside magazine features Roanoke as one of “America’s Smartest Towns.”
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