NEW ECONOMY: Lack of skilled workers biggest barrier to Ellis County growth

A worker welds a piece of equipment at A-1 Scaffolding in Hays.

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series about technical training for a new workforce.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Finding qualified workers to meet the demand of Ellis County’s growing industries is the biggest obstacle to growing its economy, said the interim director of the Hays-area economic development agency.

Doug Williams, Grow Hays interim director, said Ellis County’s problem is a combination of low unemployment and lack of skilled workers.

“If a company cannot find capable workers, they are going to go some place where they can,” he said. “They are not only not going to grow with those workers they would potentially employ, but they are also going to potentially take the workers they have out of our community. It is a big problem, so that is why it is a high priority for us.”

Unemployment in Ellis County remains low at 2.9 percent as of July. Unemployment hit a 25-year low of 2 percent in October 2017. The Ellis County unemployment rate hasn’t been more than 4 percent since right after the 2008 recession.

“We have a very low unemployment rate,” Williams said. “Really the rate of unemployment would tell you anyone not working probably is choosing not to work. But what we are trying to do is increase skills amongst the workforce so they can get a better job or a higher-paying job because those are critical to our area, not just minimum-wage jobs, but technical jobs where they have a skill and can earn a higher living so they can buy a home, buy a car and live a better life and provide more economic growth.”

During the early 1990s, Dwight Allenbaugh was recruited to bring his A-1 Scaffolding business to Hays because the community needed employers. Today, Allenbaugh struggles to find employees of any skill level.

“It is not so much a need for skilled workers,” he said. “It is being in need of anybody that wants to work. The absence of workforce is huge.”

He said he thought a lack of affordable housing was a significant contributor to lack of workers.

“The cost of housing is way too high compared to Salina, Wichita, anywhere else in Kansas. It’s way too high,” Allenbaugh said. “For people to be able to afford housing here, they have to be in the $20 to $25 an hour range.”

A-1 Scaffolding owner Dwight Allenbaugh said he would hire at least six more employees at his Hays plant if he could find them.

Allenbaugh said he can’t keep up with that wage and stay competitive nationally.

He said he struggles to find workers with basic soft skills, such as showing up on time. He said the company used to have a policy that no-call, no-show meant automatic termination. Now he said he has had to ease such basic policies to maintain his workforce.

“It’s gone from a job interview to fog a mirror. If you can fog this mirror, you are hired,” he said.

A-1 Scaffolding implemented an Earn as You Learn program. A-1 starts new, unskilled workers out at about $9 an hour. He allows unskilled workers to spend the last hour or two of the day in the shop practicing their welding skills. As workers prove themselves, they are promoted quickly and given raises.

Grow Hays is trying to help match employer demands with the available workforce by promoting training programs.

“I do think it is more important than it has been in the past,” Williams said of vocational training. “For no other reason, there seems to be a huge shortage of technical workers. We work with manufacturers locally, and we constantly hear from them they can’t find qualified workers.

“We have taken the position as an engine for economic growth here in Ellis County, we need to come up with programs educate workers and provide more qualified workers to the job market, and that is what we are trying to do.”

A-1 Scaffolding has an Earn as you Learn program. Workers spend the last hour of the day learning to more advanced skills, such as welding.

Williams said employers are saying they especially see a need for welders and CDL drivers. Allenbaugh said having more welders in the workforce would benefit his recruiting efforts.

The demand for truck drivers is on the rise nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Demand is anticipated to grow by 6 percent between 2016 and 2026.

NPR, in a January article, said an American Trucking Associations report indicated more than 70 percent of goods consumed in the U.S. are moved by truck, and the industry needs to hire almost 900,000 more drivers to meet rising demand. The current trucker pool is also aging, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting the average age of a trucker at 55 years old.

The bureau stated the median pay for drivers nationally was $42,480 per year in 2017.

Most truck drivers have high school diplomas, but attend truck driving school to attain the commercial driver’s license needed for the profession. Until this fall, the closest truck driving course was offered through NCK Tech in Beloit.

However, this fall a new free class will be offered at NCK Tech in Hays. Funding for establishing the class and a another welding class the partners hope to offer before the end of the year came from a $200,000 grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation.

Students in the program will have both in-class and in-truck experience.

“The theory is that we can turn out workers. They may not be able to step into a job and do what the company needs, but they have a basic skill level, and the company can then train them to specs they would want,” Williams said.

“We solve two problems,” he said. “We take someone who is not making a lot of money and having a tough time making ends meet and give them the opportunity to get to a higher level of pay. We also solve the problems that the companies have of finding qualified workers so they can get their products out of the door and continue to grow.”

Williams said the gap between what white-collar workers make and blue workers make is closing. This in addition to changes in emphasis in K-12 education in Kansas on career readiness may lead to more emphasis being placed on teaching trade skills in schools.

“I know some electricians, some plumbers, some welders, they can make a very good living now doing what they do in a technical capacity. I don’t think that has always been the case,” Williams said. “Historically the path to a really good, high-paying job was always through a four-year institution or a master’s — that kind of thing. I don’t think that is quite the path that it once was.”

Allenbaugh said vocational training in high school or at a technical school can be an option that can lead to good-paying jobs.

“I think vo-tech is an awesome for people who want to learn skills,” he said. “I think that is a good place to start. …

“It gives kids an option. They feel so much pressure to continue their education and go to higher education. They take it for granted their next step is college. Maybe there are some people who shouldn’t be in college.”

And it is not just young men who are going into the trades anymore.

Trade jobs, manufacturing and truck driving have been historically male-dominated. Only about 6 percent of truck drivers are women, according to the American Trucking Associations. However, Williams said some of those stereotypes and barriers are beginning to break down, and there is room for women in the new skilled workforce.

Filling the gaps in the workforce is not a problem that will be solved overnight, Williams said.

“It is not going to be something that we can find skilled workers easily,” he said. “It is going to take time, but every program that we put on that we can bring eight to 10 through, brings eight to 10 people into the job force that have a set of skills that they didn’t have before.”