Iowa courts are facing a serious shortage. The Gazette's courts reporter Trish Mehaffey talks with Becky Lutgen Gardner on the opportunities available to Iowa job seekers.

Key points:

• Iowa is facing a 'beyond crisis' level shortage of court reporters, with 33 job openings in the state and a nationwide high demand.
• Court reporting offers an annual starting salary of nearly $56,000 and involves transcribing court proceedings using specialized stenography skills.
• There's only one school in Iowa offering a two-year real time/court reporting degree, contributing to the shortage. The program recently went virtual and saw its highest enrollment in years.
• Despite the strenuous certification process, court reporters enjoy the varied nature of the job and the learning opportunities it provides.
• The shortage is affecting court proceedings, with court reporters having to juggle between different judges and hearings, causing delays and increased stress.
• Temporary solutions include hiring retired court reporters and conducting remote hearings, but a long-term solution is still needed.

Questions, comments? Contact us at Corridor Careers

In this podcast we discuss the recent trends in employee onboarding. Joining us is new product manager for Corridor Careers, Becky Lutgen Gardner. Becky brings a wealth of experience as well as recent employee onboarding experience.

Resources:

• Back to Human, 9 employee onboarding trends for 2023
• Trends in employee onboarding that can shape your onboarding process

This week we chatted with Gazette reporter Izabela Zaluska. Izabela walked us through her story on the Iowa City program that builds connections for job seekers to the skilled trades.

This interesting program helps job seekers learn more about trades before entering an apprenticeship program so they will better understand what trades are a good fit for them.

Resources:

• Izabela's article on thegazette.com
• Link to program opportunity
• Other skilled trades opportunities

Job openings in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City in trades