Survey finds skilled workers are scarce

In a poll of over 900 businesses, employers say a shortage of trained personnel is their paramount challenge.

By EDIE GROSS

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 24, 2000

Used to be, Stanley Ticktin could run an ad in the newspaper and the response from qualified craftsmen looking to work at his Largo door business was overwhelming.

Not anymore.

Jobs are plentiful, and qualified employees are growing scarce.

"I'm not having any trouble finding people if we want to bring them in entry level and train them from that point," said Ticktin, vice president of Commercial and Residential Doors. "What I'm having trouble with is finding qualified people who are experienced."

Ticktin's plight is illustrated in the results of the latest business assistance survey released by the Pinellas County Economic Development department.

The study revealed that a shortage of qualified employees was the No. 1 problem facing the 984 Pinellas County businesses that responded. Only 21 percent of those businesses rated the supply of qualified workers as good or excellent.

That's worse than in 1998, when 27 percent of the businesses said the number of competent workers in Pinellas County was good or excellent.

The problem does not seem to lie in the education system. While Pinellas County's public school system did not get top marks across the board, more than 40 percent of the employers rated the system good or excellent in preparing students for the next stage of life.

Almost 50 percent of the businesses rated public vocational schools good or excellent when it came to preparing students for the workplace.

The quality of the workers in Pinellas County, in general, appears to be fine. But fewer of them are in need of jobs.

Economists say the shortage of workers here is mirrored across the country, which boasts an unemployment rate about 4 percent.

"The labor market was tight two years ago, but it's tighter now," said Don Bellante, an economics professor at the University of South Florida. "I suspect if you took this same survey in Des Moines, Iowa, you'd get the same results."

The unemployment rate in Florida is 3.9 percent as of September. But it is much lower in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater/Tampa area, where it has been about 2.7 percent for the past three months.

The labor market is tightest along the Interstate 4 corridor, where more businesses are competing for talented workers, said David Denslow, an economist at the University of Florida.

Both professors say that a recession could push more workers back into the labor pool, but the resulting economic downturn would not help employers much.

"You have employers complaining about how tough it is to find workers and how hard it is to keep them, but the alternative is worse," Bellante said. "You can get plenty of good workers when you have nothing for them to do."

Pat Seitz, office manager for Doyle Ploch Sailmakers in Clearwater, said her company needs employees who can use a sewing machine. The business even advertised in North Carolina near a clothing factory about six months ago, offering to pay to relocate workers to Clearwater.

The response was minimal, making the 12 employees the company has even more valuable.

"We persevere, and we treat the employees we have well because we don't want them to leave," Seitz said. "The phones are not ringing off the wall here."

Ticktin, of Commercial and Residential Doors, said he, too, dreads having to replace employees. He has 11 in Pinellas County.

"Right now, we have the best crew we've ever had," he said. "But there is more competition in keeping the qualified individual, and it's tougher on the small businessman."

Even the larger businesses are having a hard time attracting trained workers. Candace Harry, human resources director for Loomis Graphics/Pinellas Press in Clearwater, said skilled printers are difficult to find.

The firm's Pinellas office employs 110 people. The company's Orlando and Sarasota operations are having the same problem. Pinellas County's survey provided some small comfort to Harry.

"At least we're not alone," she said.

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