Thursday, January 29, 1998

Local businesses facing worker shortage

By DOUG WILLIAMSON / Abilene Reporter-News

Joe Davis has a problem.

He needs 25 full-time workers for his Skinny's stores.

He can't find the people to fill those jobs.

"It is difficult to hire folk in Abilene and outlying cities," he said. Davis heads the 59-store convenience store chain in the Big Country.

"We are having to scramble to get shifts covered," Davis said. "Our overtime expense has definitely gone up. The pressure is put on management and supervisors to cover shifts. When they are doing that, they are not managing and supervising."

The last time Skinny's was scrambling like this was at the peak of the oil boom in the early 1980s. Unemployment was as low as 2.5 percent.

Davis questions whether are enough people in the local workforce to cover all the jobs.

"We don't know how to solve the problem," he said.

He partially blames the high standards to which he holds his employees.

"The higher standard you have, the more turnover you are going to have. Our turnover rate (for entry-level workers) goes from 100 percent to 125 percent annually. That is common for the industry," he said.

A UNIVERSAL PROBLEM

Other employers are facing the same shortage, or a shortage of workers with the specific qualifications needed for the jobs.

Help-wanted advertising in the Abilene Reporter-News has grown by about 20 percent in recent months, according to Jennifer Carthel, classified advertising manager.

Joanne Meyer of the Career Stop in Abilene senses frustration on the part of many employers with which she deals. They cannot keep entry-level jobs filled, she said.

"The jobs are out there, but finding the qualified people is difficult," said Carole Langner of Temporaries Plus.

Corye Beene of Snelling Personnel Services said her agency has plenty of jobs -- 7 to 10 new ones each day -- but skills are needed to fill them.

"I don't think it is as bad for us as it is in the eyes of the employers. We do not see a shortage of employees. On any given day we have 7-10 positions open for very specialized, very technical job qualifications," she said.

Charles Lawrence of the Texas Workforce Commission's Abilene office deals with the situation daily.

"The pool of available, experienced help is very, very limited," he said. "Those (people) without sellable experience have trouble finding full-time employment with benefits, and those who are new to the workforce have trouble finding entry-level full-time work with benefits."

Lawrence describes the situation as "a huge mismatch between the skills people have and what is needed for the available jobs."

LOW NUMBERS

For the last 15 months, Abilene's unemployment rate has been less than 5 percent. Today it sits at slightly more than 3 percent. Fewer than 3,000 people are seeking employment, according to TWC figures.

"The unemployment figures do not indicate the underemployment situation," Lawrence said. "A lot of applications are from people who are employed but who are not employed full time, working for minimum wage or don't have benefits."

More people come through TWC who are not employed than who are underemployed, he said.

In the five months from July to November, his office had 2,000 jobs openings. Approximately 15,000 work applications were completed by prospective employees, but few got jobs.

Lawrence estimates that half of the people filling out applications are referred for possible employment and about 20 percent of the pool are placed.

"We are always facing one of two situations -- either there are more jobs than people or more people than jobs. Today, we are right between the two. There are not enough jobs for the people seeking employment, and there are not enough people with the right qualifications for the jobs that are out there," Lawrence said.

Nationwide, labor markets are "tight or very tight," according to a report last week from the Federal Reserve banks around the country.

The tightness is most acute in computer-related, skilled construction and technical fields.

In the Big Country area, the service industry is looking for the greatest growth.

Joanne Meyer of the Career Stop in Abilene said those service industry jobs "are characterized by high turnover, low wages and a lack of employer loyalty. Nonetheless, the projections ... indicate the strong need in the service industry, including fast food, food and beverage and health care."

The number of jobs is about the same, but the skill level required to fill them is greater than two to four years ago, Bolt said.

The universal qualification needed for every job is computer skills.

Corye Beene of Snelling Personnel Services said her agency is always looking for people with strong computer skills and other specialized skills.

"We get a lot of orders for bookkeeping, clerical, accounts payable and accounts receivable positions," she said. "That's our biggest challenge, to get applicants with the computer skills needed."

"In the last four to five years, we have not placed anyone in a job where the job did not need computer skills," Langner said.

Davis agreed.

"In today's technology, things have changed greatly compared with 20, 15 or 10 years ago," he said. "Back then, years ago, how to operate a cash register was about all you needed to know. Today, we are computerized at the store level. Accounting procedures have been moved to the store level. You need to be good with a computer to be a clerk at Skinny's."

To lure more qualified workers for the temporary employment portion of Temporaries Plus, Bolt and Langner have has raised the minimum wage rate for many jobs from $6.50 an hour to $7.50 in recent months.

Davis said he, too, is paying more for entry level workers.

Beene said the wage rate depends on the job -- what the job characteristics and qualifications are.

"The rates are defined to us," she said.

FACING REALITY

"We have the vacuum effect," Bolt said. "When Blue Cross/Blue Shield came in, we lost 10-13 people directly."

Langner noted that some of those workers "are floating back. They were used to the smaller company environment."

"It has been a great adjustment for our (business) clients. A couple of years ago, we would send six applicants to the business for a job. Today, we are sending one applicant to six (potential) jobs," said Rhonda Bolt, also of Temporaries Plus.

Businesses owners do not understand why a job candidate who interviewed a day or two ago is not available. What is happening is those applicants may have three job offers on the table and they are looking for the one with the benefits, the one with more pay or the one with growth opportunities, Bolt said.

A REASON?

Davis questioned the city's efforts to bring in new businesses, draining the labor force and subsidizing the new industries with tax dollars.

"It is a egg and chicken type thing," he explained. "We are all delighted with new businesses in Abilene, when they take your workers away from you with an (tax-subsidized) advantage, they are not making all things equal."

Of course, "business is good. Ours has been good. I'd rather have good business and lower unemployment and its challenges than have an easy time hiring employees and bad business.