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Employers: the state of employment

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published October 9, 2005

Florida's unemployment rate has dipped to 3.6 percent, the lowest since the state started keeping records nearly 30 years ago. But not all are celebrating. There's angst on opposite sides of the spectrum: employers struggling to fill openings and thousands of would-be employees still unable to find a job because of their individual circumstances.

Out of Florida's civilian labor force of 8,701,000, there were 8,390,000 employed and 310,000 unemployed Floridians in August. The number of unemployed has not been this low since December 2000, when there were 306,000 unemployed residents.

- Florida Agency for Workforce Inovation

CLEARWATER - Kemco Systems Inc., a manufacturer of industrial water systems here, held a job fair on a recent Saturday, trying to attract candidates for a half-dozen factory openings.

Nobody came.

"I ran two ads in the paper and even brought in doughnuts and drinks," said Rod Kummer, Kemco's operations manager. "The guys in the shop ended up eating them."

With unemployment in Florida at a record low of 3.6 percent in August, employers are being challenged to find more creative ways to fill vacancies.

They're building closer relationships with universities and vocational schools, trying to pluck trained candidates before they look elsewhere.

They're offering employees bonuses for referring friends to the company.

And they're using recruiting firms to pull talent from outside the area for the higher-end positions, even covering relocation costs more frequently than in the past.

One tactic they don't yet appear to be using as a lure: higher wages.

"I keep trying to educate employers that in this day and age, they can't pay $9 an hour and hope to get someone who passes a background check," said Luanne Haver, operations manager for Snelling Personnel Services in Clearwater. "I keep hoping, but I'm not yet seeing pressure on wages."

That pressure may be delayed because Florida still sees a constant stream of new residents, with a broad range of talents. But even Haver, whose agency sees many newcomers who relocate without jobs, said the quality of those candidates is declining.

"The skill sets out there overall are lower than they normally are," she said. "We're also seeing a lot of job-hopping on resumes and that's a red flag to a lot of people."

Carroll Gorrell, Kemco's president, said his factory's average entry-level wage has risen about a dollar, to $14 an hour, in the past two years. But filling openings has never been harder. That means his current work force of about 80 are working 50-hour weeks to keep up with demand for the company's systems.

"I've seen this coming for a year or so," said Gorrell, who has been with Kemco for 23 years. "I'm definitely open to suggestions."

Gorrell bemoans the shortage of skilled welders and fabricators in the area, saying light manufacturing jobs are the exception, not the rule, in Florida. "It's like you wouldn't want to post an ad for a potato picker here," he said.

But even employers with openings for skills that should be more prevalent in the Tampa Bay area are having problems. Haver at Snelling said sales people and clerical staff, particularly those with medical expertise, are tough to find. Accounting slots, from entry-level to chief financial officer, are going begging.

Fritz Eichelberger, whose recruiting company in Tampa is trying to fill about 32 positions, said that once employers find a candidate they like, they're acting quickly.

"Some people are getting offers almost on the same day," he said.

Kemco's Gorrell said his work force is being hit with more than normal turnover that exacerbates the low-unemployment situation.

"Some of these young guys will move to another company for a buck more. They don't look at the benefits we provide," he said. Another factor adding turmoil to the market is record gas prices.

"A lot of our people live in the northern part of the county or in Pasco, where the housing situation is more affordable," Gorrell said. "If they're driving 60 to 80 miles a day and paying $3 a gallon for gas, it doesn't take long to chew up your pay."

Kemco recently filled a couple of engineering positions by using headhunters to recruit outside Florida. But Gorrell said it's not realistic to relocate someone who will earn $30,000 a year.

"Though if there are folks in Louisiana or Texas who are looking to relocate, I'd be interested in talking to them," he said.

Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.

[Last modified October 7, 2005, 18:41:55]