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Jobs, jobs jobs are here; Companies having hard time finding people trained, willing to workJun 16, 2013 (Hickory Daily Record - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- HICKORY, N.C. -- You've heard it said that there are no jobs in Catawba County. It's been a common problem in the Greater Hickory Metro Area in recent years. And for a while it has been true, particularly in manufacturing. But there are jobs to be had in Catawba County now, and recent unemployment numbers seems to show that folks are going back to work. Some employers a re even having a tough time filling the jobs they have available with qualified people. Looking for work David Peterson has been looking for work for about seven years, having previously worked in roofing and construction. And he's willing to take just about any job. "Right now, I would shovel manure," Peterson said. "It's a job." Peterson, 49, was at the employment office in Newton on Friday looking for work yet again. But he says the openings listed with the employment office don't match up with what he's being told when he goes to put in an application at the company listed. "I get tired of hearing that they aren't hiring," Peterson said. "If you aren't hiring then you need not have it on the computer." Peterson said if you've listed a job with the employment office and you have 100 people chasing that job and you're not really hiring, then those 100 people are wasting their gas and time. "But I've got to keep pushing forward," Peterson said. Scottie Propst has heard the same thing when he's gone to companies looking for work. He did factory work in fiberglass , making door panels for cars and has been unemployed for more than two years. Propst, 24, said he is either told the company isn't hiring and even if he asks to fill out an application anyway, he's told they don't have the paperwork handy. "I'm not skilled at too much but I'm a quick learner," Propst said. "I'm good with my hands." Propst believes getting a job with a company is about knowing somebody at that business. He said that's how he found most of his jobs in the past. Joseph Fleming is working for a temp agency but he wants a full-time job with benefits. He's been looking for that kind of job for more than two years. Fleming did construction iron work and welding previously, traveling throughout the country wherever the jobs took him. But life on the road got tiresome, he said. Even though he made anywhere from $23 to $40 an hour, he had to pay for his hotel rooms and traveling expenses. Fleming, 43, now makes $11 an hour at his temp job. He's looking for something that's full-time and something that's stable but he doesn't see anything that fits that bill. He figures he still has a lot of good years to give to a company. And Fleming is trying to do his part, even completing a 96-hour manufacturing certificate in Burke County through Western Piedmont Community College. "I'm the type of person, I don't care what kind of work it is," Fleming said. "I can shovel horse manure and come out smelling like a rose." Even though Sharon Smith is still employed in Wilkesboro, she's been looking for work in Catawba County for about six months. She moved here two months ago and is looking for office work. Smith, 58, has had some interviews but nothing has panned out, she said. Her work in Wilkesboro is in human resources and her job was cut to four days a week. "There's a lot of manual labor jobs more so than office jobs," Smith said. Jobs are here The local employment office has seen increases in the number jobs available in recent months, said Ronne Grantham, manager of the North Carolina Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Solutions office in Newton (formerly the state Employment Security Commission). On a recent Thursday afternoon, the office had nearly 300 job listings. Between Catawba and Caldwell counties, there were 534 job postings by the end of that day, Grantham said. And one posting could represent several positions available, Grantham said. She said her office has seen a big increase in the past couple of months. Typically, Grantham said, they were seeing 100 to 120 jobs listings on a daily basis before things started to turn around. Now, it's typical for her office to see 240 or more job postings on a daily basis, she said. The jobs available are in areas such as trucking, medical, manufacturing, furniture, welders, metal working, engineering, construction, restaurant and retail, Grantham said. "So it's a wide variety of jobs available, Grantham said. Of all industries, furniture jobs in the region appear to be growing. Hickory Chair recently advertised it is looking for 90 workers to fill jobs such as CAD fabric cutter, band saw operator, rip saw operator, sewer, frame assembly and pattern maker. It's also looking for people to work in case goods, including finish repair, stain spray operator, rough end utility person and wood working machine utility. The company is growing and adding additional lines, the ad said. The company listed its website at https://careers.furniturebrands.com [https://careers.furniturebrands.com/] . "A lot of furniture companies are growing and hiring," said Nathan Huret, existing industry coordinator for Catawba County Economic Development Corporation. Greater Hickory Metro region still has three times more manufacturing than the national average. And with labor costs continuing to increase in China, the US will likely remain an attractive manufacturing location, say economic development officials. But the jobs aren't necessarily the same ones that our parents and grandparents worked in and made a living. Manufacturing isn't what it used to be Norman Coley, president of Lee Industries in Conover, said it's increasingly more difficult to find workers. His company has had advertisements in the newspaper every week for the last five month in search of people to fill positions at the company. Coley said the company currently has 20 positions it is trying to fill, including sewers, upholsterers, cutters and even administration jobs. "That just goes to show how tight our labor force is," Coley said. "You read we have 11 percent unemployment: where are they?" The market for workers is so tight, Coley has seen other companies make counter offers to keep an employee who is looking elsewhere. Coley said his company has reached out to make an offer to former furniture workers they know who are unemployed, only to be told they're not interested. That's because they're waiting on their unemployment benefits to expire, Coley said the workers say. He thinks the government extending unemployment benefits has postponed people trying to find work. "Manufacturing is no longer attractive," Coley said. "We just have to figure out how to make manufacturing attractive again." Coley said it's not the hot, sweaty and dark manufacturing of old. His company is climate controlled, well lighted and there is the potential to make a good living. Workers deal with computers, automation and computer -- assisted design, Coley said. "Furniture isn't what it was 20 years ago," Coley said. "People think we're still in the dark ages." The other problems filling jobs are young people who have a preconceived notion about manufacturing jobs and some lack a work ethic, Coley said. The work ethic that was alive and well 20 years ago can be found in fewer and fewer young people. He said managers at the company are getting better at assessing a potential employee's work ethic to get a feel for their drive. "Because we can teach them the skill they need but it's almost impossible to teach them how to work hard," Coley said. Jim Packer, vice president of human resources for HSM Solutions, formerly Hickory Springs, said all of his company's available hourly jobs are listed with the employment office but it's not getting a good flow of applicants. And of the ones they do get, the company has had some issues with people not being dressed appropriately. The company also has had the problem of making a job offer but the potential employee can't pass a drug test, Packer said. "It has not been as bad lately," Packer said. There also are those who appear to just be fulfilling some unemployment benefit requirement. Packer said there are those who the company tries to interview for a job and it's as if the applicant is in another world. They act like the only reason they are there is because it's required, he said. And that's just the hourly jobs. Trying to fill salary jobs also has been difficult, Packer said. The company has its salary job openings posted on its website at www.hsmsolutions.com [http://www.hsmsolutions.com/]. The jobs include materials manager, manufacturing engineer, formulation chemist, mechanical design engineer, two product managers and two directors of engineering, research and development/innovation. Those are jobs HSM is recruiting for throughout the country. Packer said the company isn't getting local folks applying for their salary jobs. Huret said some folks out of work have the s k ills needed and could go back to work but they either aren't seeking work or they don't want to get back into furniture. He said not as many people are going into manufacturing and those who were in it are reluctant to go back. Manufacturing workers started losing their jobs in the late 1990s and at the turn of the millennium when owners started closing up shop to move overseas for cheaper labor and production costs. And most every sector suffered job loss during the Great Recession. The trend in manufacturing now is to produce goods where they are sold to be closer to the customer and to cut down on transportation costs, county economic development officials have said. The question is how does industry and local leaders sell people on the opportunity for work that's available now in manufacturing, Huret said. "There are tons of opportunity but are people taking advantage of it?" Huret said. With new unemployment laws expected to go into effect, it will be interesting to see if applications at local companies go up, Huret said. Companies are anticipating job applications to increase, he said. Packer said all of the extensions on unemployment benefits, he thinks, have been a drawback to hiring. There's training, re-education help The local employment office and Catawba Valley Community College are trying to help put people back to work. Grantham said the employment office holds workshops where employers are invited to join a panel to answer questions and talk to people looking for work and what they're looking for in an employee. Employers will talk about what they look for in a resume and in interviews, as well as the values important to the company. Some of the values are professionalism, flexibility, critical thinking and good communication skills, Grantham said. North Carolina Department of Commerce's Division of Workforce Solutions accesses and works with people looking for jobs on their skills and other barriers to employment, Grantham said. Those looking for work who are found to have barriers to employment or skills gaps are referred to the community college, she said. Barriers could be anything from problems with child care to transportation problems. "Today, jobs require well-trained, higher-skilled people," Grantham said. For instance, cutters in the furniture industry no longer are cutting fabric by hand. Now it's automated and requires Computer Aided Design, she said. "Education is vitally important to today's workforce," Grantham said. Grantham added, "There are jobs. The jobs have changed over the years." Catawba Valley Community College is working to help folks train for new manufacturing. College President Garrett Hinshaw said CVCC is working directly with local companies to offer programs that are tailored to what is needed in today's manufacturing. One of those programs is mechatronics, which is a combination of mechanical engineering and electronics. It's a degree that's in high demand because of the changes in manufacturing, Hinshaw said. A person trained in mechatronics can work on the physical part of the automation process, as well as the computer technology part of it, he said. Hinshaw said the college started offering the program in the last year. Another program the college offers is enhanced robotics programming and has made advancements in its machining and metal working program, he said. Welding classes at CVCC have been full for years, and students have been hired even before they finish the welding program because companies have such a demand for trained welders. The college is putting together a manufacturing institute with a portal that will introduce people to modern manufacturing and businesses, Hinshaw said. It will allow students to see productions and discover where they could match up in the industry through academic and skilled assessments, he said. Companies also are developing internship and apprenticeship opportunities, Hinshaw said. One of the big challenges is the perception that manufacturing is gone, Hinshaw said. The college has been working directly with companies to put together recruitment videos. He said manufacturing is still the strongest economic base in the region. ___ (c)2013 the Hickory Daily Record (Hickory, N.C.) Visit the Hickory Daily Record (Hickory, N.C.) at www.hickoryrecord.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |