WASHINGTON, DC - With the housing market still on shaky ground, more than 98 million Americans -- just over one-third of the nation’s households -- are choosing to rent instead of buy, creating a wealth of employment opportunities for job seekers from a wide variety of backgrounds. February marks Apartment Careers Month. The National Apartment Association Education Association (NAAEI) launched this annual event in 2010 as a way to spread the word about multifamily housing industry career opportunities, as well as help recruit and train people for the industry.
The multifamily housing industry employs more than 1 million people. Large, national apartment management companies may hire as many as 2,000 new employees in any given year. Thousands of others work in industries that provide products and services to apartment communities. It’s also an industry that has an annual employee turnover rate of 30 percent to 35 percent, particularly for positions such as maintenance technicians and leasing consultants. So, the industry has a constant need for a steady pipeline of skilled talent.
NAAEI President Maitri Johnson, CAPS, executive vice president-property services of Riverstone Residential, said many people don’t think about the apartment industry when looking for a job because they aren’t aware of the many career opportunities and the types of jobs available. Managing apartment communities requires a team of employees performing a variety of functions such as management, customer service, accounting and preventive maintenance. Employees often come from a variety of backgrounds.
“No other industry offers a career that is portable and that welcomes people from so many professional backgrounds,” she said. “Almost every town – no matter how small – has at least one apartment community.”
To mark Apartment Careers Month, NAAEI will offer two free webinars to people interested in a career in the industry. They will be held on Feb. 16 and Feb. 29 and feature information on careers in the apartment industry and how to find and secure a job in the industry. More information may be found at www.apartmentcareerhq.org
NAAEI is partnering with two multifamily housing management companies -- Asset Plus Companies and Campus Apartments -- in a pilot program to market apartment industry careers to more than 60,000 college students who reside in their apartment communities. The Pinnacle Family of Companies, a global real estate provider that specializes in multifamily residential communities, also is celebrating Apartment Careers Month by holding career fairs on Feb. 21 in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Memphis, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, Sunnyvale, Anaheim, San Antonio and Dallas.
Many NAA affiliates are holding Apartment Careers Month activities in their own communities. These activities typically include job fairs, apartment career training opportunities, outreach to community colleges and universities and job shadowing programs for high school and college students.