• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

High Unemployment?

A

Anonymous

Guest
Help wanted: Billings-area businesses struggling to hire, keep workers
• By Erik Olson

Stacey Ronquillo is down to one part-time employee at his Billings lawn care business this summer, and it’s costing him precious work.

A nine-year employee found a better job, and the normal three-man crew is gone. Possible replacements either had spotty driving records or required too much training on the machinery, Ronquillo said.

He’s turned down three jobs in the last few weeks because he doesn’t have the manpower.

The right employees, he said, are hard to find.

“They’re not out there. They’re just not,” said Ronquillo, 46, who’s owned Ameriscape for the past 20 years.

Call it the flip side of the Bakken boom.

The North Dakota oil fields — and the promise of big paychecks — have lured hundreds of workers away from the Yellowstone Valley, leaving Ronquillo and other businesses struggling to compete. Montana wages have also been traditionally low compared to other states, creating a “brain drain” of skilled talent, state officials say.

In Montana, worker shortages, particularly in the service sector, are putting the brakes on an otherwise fast-moving economy. The business television network CNBC recently ranked Montana as the 33rd top state for business, just barely ahead of Alabama, largely because of a workforce shortage.


This low ranking was despite a low unemployment rate — 4.5 percent in June, 10th-lowest nationwide — and big jobs gains, 11,000 since the beginning of the year.


Economists have been warning that businesses can’t maintain this fast pace of job growth with a shallow labor pool. Worker shortage was a major theme two months ago in Billings at a roundtable discussion among business owners with U.S. Sen. John Walsh. Gov. Steve Bullock has also identified worker shortage as a top priority in his Main Street Montana plan to improve the economy.

Without workers, businesses can’t meet demand and will look to expand in other areas, experts say. But it’s also a chance for private industry to reach out to state institutions, particularly two-year community colleges, to beef up training geared to what Montana employers need.

“It was the number-one issue — and opportunity — spotted by Montana’s business community,” said Pam Bucy, commissioner of the state’s labor and industries department.

Last month, the state received a $5.125 million federal grant to increase apprenticeship and worker training programs, designed to retrain long-term, unemployed Montanans.

Improved training will help, but private employers must also find ways to improve pay or watch skilled workers continue to stream out of state, Bucy said.

“There’s definitely a skills gap… You couple that with the fact that we’re 39th (nationwide) in wages… it absolutely exacerbates that skills gap problem,” she said.

Workers’ advantage

In Billings, the fast-food industry is even struggling to compete for low-cost labor.

Instead of highlighting deals on burritos or nachos on their high-profile reader boards, the four Taco Bells in Billings are advertising what pay they’re offering.

The restaurants have boosted pay for new employees from $8.50 to $9 an hour, with scheduled additional hikes to keep workers, said Alisha Burke, general manager of the Grand Avenue Taco Bell. Montana’s minimum wage is $7.90 per hour.

The plan also includes pay hikes for current employees and supervisors, Burke said. In Billings, employee turnover is the highest in the state for the owners, TLC Restaurants, who also own Taco Bells in Great Falls, Bozeman and Belgrade, Burke said.

“We just want to get better people in by hiring at the higher wage. We think they stay because of the atmosphere,” she said.

The Bakken boom has hurt the Billings restaurants, but Burke said Taco Bell was also losing employees to other fast-food restaurants in town. Burke, who’s worked for the company 18 years, said customers appreciate service from employees who have experience and are happy to be there.

That’s required an attitude change from management, which is placing greater value on employee satisfaction, Burke said.

“Our company is completely focused on the way that we treat people. Our employees are our number-one customer,” she said.

For skilled trade workers in Yellowstone, the Bakken jobs have not lured away too many union workers because the oil fields offer smaller, if any, benefit package, area union officials said.

Locally, electricians and pipe fitters are in high demand during the busy construction season, said Darrell Johnson, president of the Greater Yellowstone Area Central Labor Council. And while unions have been keeping up with demand for labor so far, Johnson said they need to bring in new members too.

“If you want to keep good people here, you train them,” he said.

The May hailstorms also generated a lot of work for roofers and contractors, who have turned to local temp agencies to hire help.

“The demand is definitely high. We are very busy,” Staci Miner, office manager of Billings-based Advanced Employment Services, said.

Priced out of business?

Ronquillo said he’s tried to do right for his employees, paying $14 to $15 hourly, but he’s struggling to keep going.

He survives with three regular commercial lawn care projects at Billings Clinic, Rimrock Mall and Hunter’s Pointe Apartments on Central Avenue. But with costs rising, he said he’s considering getting a real-estate license and scaling back Ameriscape, maybe stopping altogether.

He said he has less time to train people on his $15,000 mowers, especially if he’s uncertain how long they will stay.

“To find those guys anymore is tough,” Ronquillo said.


Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/business/features/help-wanted-billings-area-businesses-struggling-to-hire-keep-workers/article_1eda58a6-0af0-5a46-bc2f-b7f13b68617b.html#ixzz39M31dTY1

And Billings is three hundred miles from the main oil fields/Williston area...

Last week Williston was still 18 teachers short- with only weeks to go before school starts...
Neighboring Roosevelt County had to go around the law (executive discretion) and give all their employees and deputies monthly inducement bonus's since their salaries are set by state law... They were losing too many to oil field related jobs that paid much more...

Its all you hear anymore- folks crying for help... I've heard of several combine crews/farmers that needed truck drivers....

If folks want to work there are definitely jobs to be had...
 

Steve

Well-known member
actually it is more about infrastructure. and the lack of leadership from the President..

back in Roosevelt's day.. if we needed work done, he just had a camp built to house the workers..

today our President tries to stop any energy development he can and ignores the people's needs.. I guess food stamps and welfare is easier and doesn't cut into fundraising and golf..
 

Tam

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Help wanted: Billings-area businesses struggling to hire, keep workers
• By Erik Olson

Stacey Ronquillo is down to one part-time employee at his Billings lawn care business this summer, and it’s costing him precious work.

A nine-year employee found a better job, and the normal three-man crew is gone. Possible replacements either had spotty driving records or required too much training on the machinery, Ronquillo said.

He’s turned down three jobs in the last few weeks because he doesn’t have the manpower.

The right employees, he said, are hard to find.

“They’re not out there. They’re just not,” said Ronquillo, 46, who’s owned Ameriscape for the past 20 years.

Call it the flip side of the Bakken boom.

The North Dakota oil fields — and the promise of big paychecks — have lured hundreds of workers away from the Yellowstone Valley, leaving Ronquillo and other businesses struggling to compete. Montana wages have also been traditionally low compared to other states, creating a “brain drain” of skilled talent, state officials say.

In Montana, worker shortages, particularly in the service sector, are putting the brakes on an otherwise fast-moving economy. The business television network CNBC recently ranked Montana as the 33rd top state for business, just barely ahead of Alabama, largely because of a workforce shortage.


This low ranking was despite a low unemployment rate — 4.5 percent in June, 10th-lowest nationwide — and big jobs gains, 11,000 since the beginning of the year.


Economists have been warning that businesses can’t maintain this fast pace of job growth with a shallow labor pool. Worker shortage was a major theme two months ago in Billings at a roundtable discussion among business owners with U.S. Sen. John Walsh. Gov. Steve Bullock has also identified worker shortage as a top priority in his Main Street Montana plan to improve the economy.

Without workers, businesses can’t meet demand and will look to expand in other areas, experts say. But it’s also a chance for private industry to reach out to state institutions, particularly two-year community colleges, to beef up training geared to what Montana employers need.

“It was the number-one issue — and opportunity — spotted by Montana’s business community,” said Pam Bucy, commissioner of the state’s labor and industries department.

Last month, the state received a $5.125 million federal grant to increase apprenticeship and worker training programs, designed to retrain long-term, unemployed Montanans.

Improved training will help, but private employers must also find ways to improve pay or watch skilled workers continue to stream out of state, Bucy said.

“There’s definitely a skills gap… You couple that with the fact that we’re 39th (nationwide) in wages… it absolutely exacerbates that skills gap problem,” she said.

Workers’ advantage

In Billings, the fast-food industry is even struggling to compete for low-cost labor.

Instead of highlighting deals on burritos or nachos on their high-profile reader boards, the four Taco Bells in Billings are advertising what pay they’re offering.

The restaurants have boosted pay for new employees from $8.50 to $9 an hour, with scheduled additional hikes to keep workers, said Alisha Burke, general manager of the Grand Avenue Taco Bell. Montana’s minimum wage is $7.90 per hour.

The plan also includes pay hikes for current employees and supervisors, Burke said. In Billings, employee turnover is the highest in the state for the owners, TLC Restaurants, who also own Taco Bells in Great Falls, Bozeman and Belgrade, Burke said.

“We just want to get better people in by hiring at the higher wage. We think they stay because of the atmosphere,” she said.

The Bakken boom has hurt the Billings restaurants, but Burke said Taco Bell was also losing employees to other fast-food restaurants in town. Burke, who’s worked for the company 18 years, said customers appreciate service from employees who have experience and are happy to be there.

That’s required an attitude change from management, which is placing greater value on employee satisfaction, Burke said.

“Our company is completely focused on the way that we treat people. Our employees are our number-one customer,” she said.

For skilled trade workers in Yellowstone, the Bakken jobs have not lured away too many union workers because the oil fields offer smaller, if any, benefit package, area union officials said.

Locally, electricians and pipe fitters are in high demand during the busy construction season, said Darrell Johnson, president of the Greater Yellowstone Area Central Labor Council. And while unions have been keeping up with demand for labor so far, Johnson said they need to bring in new members too.

“If you want to keep good people here, you train them,” he said.

The May hailstorms also generated a lot of work for roofers and contractors, who have turned to local temp agencies to hire help.

“The demand is definitely high. We are very busy,” Staci Miner, office manager of Billings-based Advanced Employment Services, said.

Priced out of business?

Ronquillo said he’s tried to do right for his employees, paying $14 to $15 hourly, but he’s struggling to keep going.

He survives with three regular commercial lawn care projects at Billings Clinic, Rimrock Mall and Hunter’s Pointe Apartments on Central Avenue. But with costs rising, he said he’s considering getting a real-estate license and scaling back Ameriscape, maybe stopping altogether.

He said he has less time to train people on his $15,000 mowers, especially if he’s uncertain how long they will stay.

“To find those guys anymore is tough,” Ronquillo said.


Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/business/features/help-wanted-billings-area-businesses-struggling-to-hire-keep-workers/article_1eda58a6-0af0-5a46-bc2f-b7f13b68617b.html#ixzz39M31dTY1

And Billings is three hundred miles from the main oil fields/Williston area...

Last week Williston was still 18 teachers short- with only weeks to go before school starts...
Neighboring Roosevelt County had to go around the law (executive discretion) and give all their employees and deputies monthly inducement bonus's since their salaries are set by state law... They were losing too many to oil field related jobs that paid much more...

Its all you hear anymore- folks crying for help... I've heard of several combine crews/farmers that needed truck drivers....

If folks want to work there are definitely jobs to be had...

Oldtimer there may be a lot of jobs out there but how hard do you think it is going to be to hire somebody if possible employees finds out they will loss their Obamacare subsidy if they take a job? See that is why Obama and the Dems say the US needed Obamacare, so poor employees are not trapped in low paying jobs like cutting grass verses excepting government handouts and smoking grass. :wink: :roll:
 

Mike

Well-known member
If things are so great around there why is the Indian Unemployment Rate so high?

Are you folks racist or something? :roll:
 

Traveler

Well-known member
August 1, 2014
Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the latest unemployment data.

Here’s the not-so-good word: 17.9 million Americans are still looking for work and the average amount of time spent unemployed has increased from 19.8 weeks in 2009 to 32.9 weeks.

These are some more BLS highlights:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 209,000, falling short of the 230,000 expected.

Unemployment rate: Rose to 6.2 percent.

Total unemployed: 9.7 million.

Total underemployed (unemployed, underemployed, or stopped looking): 12.2 percent.

Total underemployed: 17.9 million.

Total stopped looking (discouraged workers): 741,000.

Increase in the civilian labor force: 329,000.

Civilian labor force participation rate: 62.9 percent.

Long-term unemployed: 3.2 million.

The adult women unemployment rate increased to 5.7 percent in July.

Teens continued to experience the highest unemployment at 20.2 percent.

In his statement this afternoon, President Obama said this about the report: “The good news is the economy clearly is getting stronger things are getting better.”

Which economy is he talking about? Millions of Americans are out of work and the unemployment rate is on the rise. As the Affordable Care Act puts more and more pressure on employers and a barrage of new regulatory constraints continues to stifle job creation, this trend is not likely to improve anytime soon.


With government at the helm, Americans will have to accept an anemic economy as the new normal.
- See more at: http://www.bankruptingamerica.org/release/another-winner-july-jobs-report-shows-17-9-million-americans-still-looking-for-work/#.U-AXIfldUrc
 

backhoeboogie

Well-known member
Traveler said:
In his statement this afternoon, President Obama said this about the report: “The good news is the economy clearly is getting stronger things are getting better.”

Scary thing for me is things are usually the opposite of his and Pelosi's view.

I'd take comfort if he said things were about to get really bad.
 
Top