Businesses wishing to locate in Trenton, Grundy County and the surrounding area will find plenty of available employees even though unemployment rates in this area remain low.
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Businesses wishing to locate in Trenton, Grundy County and the surrounding area will find plenty of available employees even though unemployment rates in this area remain low.
A labor survey conducted by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs in Hays, Ks., indicates that there are as many as 18,655 persons in the Trenton “labor basin” who would be interested in seeking new employment or willing to change jobs if the right employment opportunity came along. The “labor basin” surveyed included the counties of Grundy, Mercer, Daviess, Livingston, Linn, Sullivan, Putnam and Harrison. There were 1,057 persons interviewed for the survey, which was done as part of a 48-county project and commissioned locally by the city of Trenton and Grundy County Industrial Development Corporation.
According to the survey, made public at a meeting on Monday night, approximately 3,375 persons are looking for new jobs while another 15,280 would consider changing jobs if the right opportunity presented itself. The right opportunity, according to Docking Institute Director Dr. Joseph Aistrup, would include higher wages, improved benefits and continuing education.
It was noted in the survey that 32 percent of the labor pool, or around 6,055 workers, were considered “underemployed.” That means those individuals are working at jobs in which their skills or education exceed the responsibilities of their current job. Dr. Aistrup said that those individuals would be a key market of consideration for businesses looking to relocate in a specific area.
Wage demands of the available labor pool showed that 44.2 percent of the total pool would be interested in an employment opportunity with a wage of $10 an hour, while 56.1 percent would be interested at $12 per hour and 23.8 percent would be interested in a wage of $8 per hour.
Other information gleaned from the survey indicates that at least 50 percent of the workforce in this area has some college education, which Dr. Aistrup noted was a relatively high number for a rural area. A total of 93 percent of the labor pool has at least a high school diploma.
Assistant City Administrator Kerry Sampson, who was local coordinator for the survey, said the information from the document would be important as the area looks at ways of attracting new industry and creating more jobs.
“This is the type of information that we knew was out there, but really didn’t have in hand until we completed this survey,” Sampson said.
Sampson noted that available labor force is one of the top two subjects he is asked about by prospective businesses looking at this area; the other being availability to a four-lane highway.
“Having this information available to us will now make those questions easier to answer,” he said.
Sampson went on to say that many times, businesses will look at only what the unemployment rate in an area is before deciding whether or not enough workers would be available to fill the jobs they have.
“This shows that yes, we do have the workers even though we have a relatively low unemployment rate,” he said.
The survey showed that 91 percent of the labor pool would be willing to drive up to 20 miles to get to a job, while 46 percent would drive up to 35 miles and 27 percent would drive up to 50 miles.
“And a lot of this has to do with quality of life issues, people wanting to live in certain areas,” Sampson said. “If we have the right jobs here, the people are here to fill them, whether they live in Trenton or in the surrounding area.”
Rick Childers, who is project manager for business expansion and attraction for the Department of Economic Development’s northwest office in Trenton, said the survey is also important to existing businesses.
“Businesses are realizing that with the competition that is out there for the labor force, there could be some (job) flight risk,” Childers said. “This survey can help them recognize the types of things they need to do to stay competitive.”