WINONA WHITAKER, Managing Editor
MOBERLY — Missouri businesses tell State Rep. Louis Riggs that they have an employee shortage. “We don’t have enough folks trained up to do the jobs they want them to do,” Riggs said Tuesday during a town hall meeting at Moberly Area Community College.
Riggs, who represents District 5 – Marion and Ralls Counties – spent his break from the current legislative session visiting with Missourians. “We get a lot smarter when we talk to smart people,” said Riggs. Or, as he calls it, getting out into the “land of the sane.”
The workforce is changing, Riggs said. Technology has advanced, and the pandemic trained people to work from home. State representatives need to “have a broader idea about what we need to do from a Jefferson City perspective.”
“Our worker participation rate was historically around 70%,” said Shari Schenewerk, of the Missouri Department of Economic Development. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which calculates the rate, defines it as the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work.
“We have hovered, as a state, between 62 and 63% the last three years,” said Schenewerk. “So that’s something we’re really trying to work on right now. … Where are the workers? What are they doing?”
Nationally, according to Labor Statistics, after trending up for more than three decades – from 58-60% in the 1950s and 1960s to more than 65% in the 1980s – the labor force participation peaked at 67.3% in early 2000.
Over the next few years, the rate receded to about 66% where it stayed through 2008, after which it dropped again, hitting 62.7% in mid-2016, according to Labor Bureau statistics.
Companies have moved to a grow-your-own model, said Schenewerk, training employees in skills needed to fill open positions. Missouri is third in the nation in apprenticeships, she said, and community colleges play a pivotal role in that.
For many of people, just getting a paycheck is not enough. A company has to offer other incentives. The more flexible a company can be, the better its retention rate, Schenewerk said. “It’s just what the people are looking for.”
Childcare and housing are two big issues employers face in Missouri. “Low-income housing is good, and there’s a place for it,” said Schenewerk, but the state needs more homes for people making higher wages, people who make too much to benefit from federal housing programs.
The legislature is addressing childcare with the introduction of several bills, including one offering tax incentives to childcare providers and another offering tax incentives to industries that invest in childcare, Schenewerk said.
“We’re still seeing business growth [in Missouri],” said Schenewerk, but business is more automated, so a million dollar investment employs fewer people than it would have several years ago.
Randy Asbury, president of Moberly Area Economic Development, told Riggs and others at Tuesday’s town hall meeting that Randolph County has 511 employers, nearly 7,500 workers and adds 300 jobs a year.
The average pay is $21.31 and average salary is $44,000. December’s unemployment rate was 2.2%, Asbury said.
Workforce problems have no unilateral reasons, said Asbury. Companies have tried raising wages and giving perks. Being flexible and thinking outside the box has kept them in business, he said.
Workforce is the biggest issue across the state, said Moberly Area Community College President Jeff Lashley. MACC attempts to contribute to the workforce in the 16 counties it serves with its five campus locations in Moberly, Columbia, Mexico, Kirksville and Hannibal.
Middle skills jobs – those that need more than a high school diploma but less than a four-year degree – is one of the largest sectors of the U.S. and Missouri labor market, said Suzi McGarvey, MACC dean of workforce development and technical education.
MACC provides programs to move people into the workforce as quickly as possible through certificates, associate of applied science degrees and non-credit skills classes. “We’re trying to make things as easy and smooth as possible” as people move up in the workforce, said McGarvey.
The college also tries to change the perception of middle-skill education. Factory work is not what it used to be and not what people perceive it to be, McGarvey said. With the increase in automated systems in manufacturing, businesses need more employees working behind the scenes to keep the automation running.
Many manufacturing jobs pay more than positions that require a four-year degree, said McGarvey, and employers are realizing that some positions they’ve traditionally required bachelor’s degrees for may not need that level of education.
The MACC Manufacturing Technology and Mechatronics programs see a high placement rate for graduates, said McGarvey. “This has been one of our most popular programs,” she said.
Manufacturers snatch up graduates as soon as they finish the programs, sometimes before. “We can’t produce enough of them,” said McGarvey.
“We prepare people for the workforce,” said McGarvey, not by talking theory in class, but by giving students hands on experience. “We try to buy equipment that they will truly use.”
MACC offers hybrid and online classes so students who have jobs can increase their skill levels and their earning power with programs in business and accounting management, early childhood education and information technology and with the new veterinary technician program on the Mexico campus.