As people across the country celebrate Labor Day on Monday, local economic development leaders are scrambling to improve and grow Knox County’s workforce.
Knox County Chamber of Commerce president Marc McNeece said the state of the county’s workforce can be summed up by a simple drive along Sixth Street.
“Fast food places, retail stores, many of them have signs up in front saying they’re hiring people, they need workers,” he said. “They need managers. You see it everywhere right now — marquees, drive-thru windows, newspaper ads. I think you’re even seeing their wages inch up a little bit as a result.
“The fact is, we have more jobs than we have people to work.”
Kent Utt, the executive director of the Knox County Development Corp., said it hasn’t taken him long on the job — he took over the post on Aug. 1 — to see the problem as well. Local business and industry leaders often can’t find the workers they need and in many cases they simply can’t find people willing to show up on time.
Recently he said officials at SCHOTT Gemtron told him they had implemented a hiring program with new employees put on a six-month probation program. If completed successfully, their pay is increased by 40 percent.
Fewer than one in five, Utt said, end up qualifying for the increase.
“This is a regional problem,” he said, adding that the issue was discussed recently at a business retention seminar he attended in Indianapolis. “We don’t have enough people to fill the jobs, and we need to come up with some solutions.”
Both McNeece and Utt say the jobs out there to be had are both skilled and unskilled alike. Retail stores need dependable workers as much as local industry leaders need educated, qualified employees.
Much of the problem, they say, is a lack of population, so, they argue, Knox County’s leaders need to begin focusing efforts on recruitment.
Utt called a “leveled-off population” an opportunity to look for ways to draw in new people. And quality of life improvements, he said, especially with things like the construction of a new $3.8 million aquatic center and more retail shopping, can and should be used as a marketing tool.
“We’ve got to get a group of people together, business and human resources professionals, educators and try to brainstorm ways to solve this problem,” Utt said.
Improved communication and networking, he added, could also help to connect businesses with qualified workers, both here and elsewhere. Recently, KCDC members worked to help find jobs for the spouses of several accountants moving to Vincennes to work at Pioneer Oil’s new downtown location. They were successful in multiple cases merely by sending out an e-mail to members asking for help.
Utt envisions the implementation of a “job board,” with KCDC members, chamber members and many more local resources pooled together to form one giant job-finding body.
He also touts Vincennes University’s recent partnership with Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana in allowing students to work two days a week and attend classes three, all in the hope of gaining full-time employment upon graduation.
That same model, he said, could be applied at other industries in an effort to help them find and attract qualified workers.
“I really do think local students want to stay here,” Utt said. “I think graduating students want to come here from other universities. The technical jobs are there if we can only find ways to connect them.”
But, as McNeece pointed out, not all businesses need skilled labor. They need people with a good work ethic, and that, for some reason, is proving difficult to find in Knox County.
Several retail stores that have opened in the last couple of years have had difficulty filling their schedules, McNeece said. And constant turnover has proved troublesome as well.
“Everybody is in need of good employees, people who will stay sober and show up to work on time,” he said. “We need more people willing to work and put in the effort. That’s what it boils down to.”