The 4.4 percent unemployment rate in Kansas is enviably low. Allen County’s is lower still at 3.8 percent. While these are encouraging figures, they do not, in themselves, describe a healthy economy. A second point of attraction — education — also remains under the microscope, as educators struggle to ensure students leave school with basic skills necessary to become productive members of society (and, potentially, with job skills training.) Starting Monday, the Register will explore in depth the benefits and challenges facing Allen County’s labor pool, and hurdles companies must clear in order to continue to thrive in today’s hyper-competitive economy.
In fact, in some cases, according to our area’s largest industries, these figures may even obscure the outlines of the real problem facing local employers: namely, a persistent shortage of skilled labor.
There are more jobs than qualified employees in Allen County.
“Iola has a great pool of hard workers,” said Lonnie Larson, director of quality assurance at Iola’s Sonic Equipment Company. “And Iola has a great source of jobs. We’re fortunate to have places like Herff Jones, Sonic Equipment, Gates, Russell Stover, Precision and Catalyst.
“But we’ve saturated our workforce,” he continued. “The lack of available employees to hire is a concern, and it’s a Catch 22. You can’t get people here because they can’t afford the housing. And you can’t get the housing in here, because you don’t have the employees.”
There is some hope in the fact the labor pool in southeast Kansas is not limited by specific county boundaries; this is a commuter-heavy part of the country.
And Allen County ranks high in the number of workers it draws from surrounding counties. As of last month only Montgomery County had a higher percentage of commuters — a statistic not likely to survive the new year, when that county waves goodbye to two of its largest employers, Amazon.com and Southwire.
If any advance is to be made on the problem of how to attract a qualified workforce to Allen County it has to elicit, as one expert put it, “a multitude of solutions.”
One prominent proposal put forward by those who study rural workforce issues concerns housing. Iola has an insufficient stock of affordable housing — a category, in this case, defined by the type of starter home or apartment that would fit the pay scale of the worker being recruited by our understaffed industries.
These problems are so well-known as to have become an almost invisible feature of the landscape in rural Kansas. So much so that it is easy to overlook the many people who every day devote their professional lives — and so often their free time — to see the local economy grow.
The Register sat down with a few of them to help clarify the questions and eye potential solutions.
Monday — Iola Industries has taken a leading role in helping the local economy grow
Tuesday — Local employers discuss issues they have with finding available employees, and steps they’ve taken to meet those rising challenges
Wednesday — The planned closing of Coffeyville’s Amazon and Southwire facilities may have a ripple effect in Allen County
Thursday — Allen Community College and local school districts are taking steps to make sure graduates are ready to enter the workforce upon leaving school
Saturday — Available, quality housing may be the biggest hurdle in realizing more jobs in Allen County.
Employment challenges in focus
