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Posted on 06/25/2006 4:56:12 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
For about 40 hours each week, 68,000 people in this area have something in common — a job. They come in many shapes and sizes, and a lot of them aren't much fun. But most people, especially those with bills to pay, agree that having a bad job is a far sight better than not having one at all.
Just ask the roughly 6,300 people in Sumter, Lee and Clarendon counties who are considered officially unemployed.
The reasons vary, but plant closures, downsizing, outsourcing and off-shoring have had very real consequences locally.
The past few years have seen several plants downsize, moving employees elsewhere or closing their doors altogether, which has resulted in roughly 2,000 jobs being lost.
Almost as many people are considered underemployed — meaning they don't have full benefits or job security or they're working below their skill set.
It's not easy to work at a job you're overqualified for, they say, especially when you're still trying to get a better job. Nevertheless, these workers agree with the unemployed that having any job is better than having no job.
WHO'S WORKING, WHO'S NOT? In Sumter County, the unemployment rate was 7.6 percent for May.
Clarendon County had 8.1 percent without work, and Lee County was at 7.9 percent, according to the state Employment Security Commission.
The highest unemployment rate statewide is Marion County with 12 percent, and the lowest is Beaufort County, with 3.5 percent.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national percentage of unemployed was 4.6 percent for May, which equals about seven million people.
In the tri-county area, more than 6,000 people are unemployed, according to a recent study commissioned by Sumter, Lee and Clarendon County's respective economic development boards and the Santee-Lynches Workforce Board. The same study concluded that an additional 4,800 people are underemployed.
Work force evaluations are standard for corporate clients that like to dip their toes into the roiling waters before they dive into a new community. A study was compiled in February by Texas-based economic consultant and development firm The Pathfinders to scrutinize our labor force and show the results to industries that might have our area on a short list of potential sites.
THE KEY FINDINGS: Out of a household population of about 152,900 people, with a labor force of about 68,300, about 6,300 people are actively seeking work.
A new employer will be able to attract employees from an additional pool of about 4,800 workers who are currently employed and have indicated an interest in changing jobs. These people are referred to as "underemployed" because they appear to possess the skills, experience and education to qualify them for the pay rates at which they would take a new job.
The desired pay rates of these underemployed workers are reasonable when compared to their existing pay rates. The median current pay rate for them is $13.83 per hour, and the median desired pay rate is $15.33 per hour.
About 25 percent of the underemployed workers would take a new job for $11.25 per hour or less. At the upper end, the 25 percent most qualified and experienced will command more than $22 per hour.
Roughly 1,600 people, neither employed nor seeking work, might re-enter the work force for the proper job.
In total, there are 12,700 available workers for new or expanding businesses.
To qualify as underemployed in this study, an individual had to be currently employed and willing to take another job at a pay rate commensurate with personal skills, education and experience.
Current pay alone is not the qualifying factor. For example, those people who are making $7.50 per hour without a high school degree or measurable skills and who have been in the work force for less than a year might consider themselves to be underemployed but are not considered so in this report. On the other hand, education, skills, and experience may qualify a person making $22 per hour as truly underemployed.
But statistics don't tell the whole story — especially when the underemployed person might be your neighbor.
A few people agreed to talk about their work, but they didn't want to be identified because of their ongoing search.
SMALL TOWN MEANS A TOUGHER JOB SEARCH "Ava" moved to the area after a death in the family. She grew up here and decided, for myriad reasons, to leave a good job in Washington, D.C., where she worked for the Department of State as a paralegal.
What she found here has been an eye-opening experience, she said.
Since moving "home," she has worked for a telecommunications company, a funeral home, a community organization, has done a lot of volunteering and care giving, and now works in administration at a jail.
Entering the work force in her field here has been "trying," she said, and one of the reasons is that many local law offices have career personnel.
"We have a small community, and a lot of the people who have taken jobs here pretty much stay in those jobs through retirement," she said.
In cities, workers are more transitory and can pack up and move on at the drop of a hat, she said — which also means that people looking for work have more slots to fill.
"Here, you find more veteran-type workers. ... You hear people joking around saying, 'You'll never get to work in there unless someone drops dead!' It sounds funny, but it's true."
Law firms and many other small, independent businesses "may have an office full of family," she said. "Things are more centralized around the family."
She has another obstacle: She has plenty of experience but no college degree.
"I've been working always," she said. "I didn't do college first."
Ironically, her degree of expertise as a paralegal and her former salary (in the 60s) can hinder her search as well. Some employers use the dreaded 'O' word: Overqualified.
One potential employer told Ava he couldn't give her a job "equal to my level of experience."
"I wasn't seeking the same level," she said. "I just needed a job."
OVERQUALIFIED MEANS UNDEREMPLOYED "Fred" doesn't mind his job too much, but he doesn't see a long-term future there. He's overqualified, doesn't make nearly as much as he used to and has no benefits package. Plus, it takes him an hour just to get to work — and with current gas prices, driving two hours every day to and from work is straining his budget.
Fred's background is industrial management, and he spent about seven years as a production manager at a local plant. He then moved on to another company, and stayed with them for almost a decade, with the last two as operations manager.
He is now working for a company in Florence in the material division, with a salary about 30 percent less than what he was making before. He is essentially categorized as a "full-time temporary employee," a fact that doesn't entirely surprise him, as he said he thinks his employer wants to have many employees thusly categorized to save on the costs of paying the benefits normally reserved for standard full-time workers.
Other companies do the same thing.
Although he has close to 20 years of hands-on experience — with several years in leadership positions — his current employer won't consider him for a management position because he doesn't have a college degree.
"The only thing that held me back was not having a degree. It could have been a degree in pretty much anything," he said, noting that several of his co-workers — and even some managers — have been able to get ahead by having a degree in such an unrelated area as art history or some other majors that don't apply to the job in any way.
"It's not a company that I see myself with long-term," he said.
Still, he works hard, with a vision of one day being his own boss. He dreams of someday opening a restaurant.
He's not afraid to leave his comfort zone and try something totally different, he says.
But for now, he is sticking with it, because having a steady income equals more money that he can sock away and put toward his vision of being a restaurateur.
"YOU TAKE WHAT YOU CAN GET" So why do people stay in jobs they don't really want? One gets to a point of desperation, Ava said.
"I need to eat and pay my bills ... and you're putting so many resumes out there and having someone come back and say, 'Wellll ...' Well, it's because you have more experience than what they think they need."
She took a job with a telecommunications company several years back because "you're pretty much desperate for a job, so you take what's available really, even with the pay cut."
Driving back and forth to Columbia, however, left a lot to be desired.
"Not only do you have to take a job out of your profession but you have to make a commute. It's difficult to find something close by," she said of employment opportunities in Sumter.
Being out of work "can be so frustrating," she said. She said she tries "to do two organizations per year for volunteer work, and in doing this, I gain so many skills, which equips you for your next job."
Other keys to staying sane during unemployment are "having patience and using resources that are available," she said.
One resource in particular was really helpful for her.
"I had a time period where I had to get the assistance of the state, going through One Stop," she said.
It was "quite useful," and one class on resume writing was "amazing," she said.
A ONE-STOP SHOP FOR EMPLOYMENT Charlean Miller is the executive director of One Stop on Calhoun Street, and her mission is straightforward: "We help people find employment, and we help train or retrain them," she said.
Orientation sessions happen twice a week, usually Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m., and help people find out if they qualify for certain provisions under the Workforce Investment Act, passed by Congress in 1998.
Orientations are "pretty much an overview of what we have and what we offer," she said, adding that the WIA is integral to the discussion. The act helps educate people about what what they need to do to re-enter the work force and what employers are looking for.
Miller stressed that those seeking to train for different fields and who might receive assistance must first find out if they meet certain criteria.
Overseeing the One Stop is the Santee-Lynches Workforce Investment Board, which presides over a regional work force system in Sumter, Lee, Clarendon and Kershaw counties, whereby the federal government "invests" in the Santee-Lynches region via training and retraining workers.
Leaders of industry, managers and executives of various public and private entities steer the board in the direction of work force quality improvement, meeting bi-monthly to address a variety of issues related to improving the work force.
All One Stops are equipped with resource labs that offer phones, faxes, printers, copiers and computers hooked up to the Internet. Job seekers can search through job banks and apply for financial aid that targets continuing education and training programs, and the resource labs have assistive technologies for individuals with disabilities.
Also, the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce recently signed a one-year contract with NationJob, which is one of the oldest online employment services, according to its CEO, Ralph Hejlik. NationJob is linked to the chamber's Web site, and visitors can click their way to job discovery — as well as learning about various employers in our area.
WHERE ARE THE SKILLED WORKERS? If there are thousands of unemployed — and underemployed folks — then how come some local companies say they can't find workers with the skills they need?
The answers vary. Some don't have the experience, company reps say. Others get their education here but then move away as soon as they're employable. And sometimes, as with Fred's employer, companies have rules about what kind of education an employee has to have, no matter how skilled he may be.
But mostly, it's because local industries need their employees to have a very specific set of technical skills.
"We're looking for 'P.L.C.' experience," said Shawn Brennan, human resources representative for BD — Programming, Logic and Controlling. That represents a high level of skill — and pay.
When someone can use a computer to tell a machine what to do, they get paid well.
"You have a difficult time finding those types of folks," he said.
Brennan isn't sure why there is a shortage of higher skill level job candidates.
"I don't know why that is. ... I know the high school has done some things to set the kids up for success coming out of high school."
A lot of kids, he said, "they don't understand the importance of it" and are unable to grasp the training needed for many modern jobs.
More often than not, they look internally, he said. An on-site technical training program was developed to "grow our own," he said. With 13 different shifts, the extra training is done at various hours to accommodate the employees.
"We also have our eye out for associates on the floor who we think are key performers," he said. "We target them, mentor them and coach them."
Although it might not help the community, when someone sees his co-worker climb the ladder of success, it's often inspiring, he said.
"I would much rather develop our own for future growth potential than to bring someone in from the outside right into one of those positions — it sparks morale throughout the organization like you wouldn't believe."
A lack of viable candidates isn't the fault of Central Carolina Technical College, he said. A big problem is that many employees leave Sumter to find work.
"Tech does a really great job," Brennan said. "You'd think once they graduate ... they would be seeking employment over here, (but) it's like, 'Yeah, I don't want to be here, I'm getting my training here, but I'm going to go work in Columbia where definitely the pay is higher,' or (they) go outside the area altogether."
With many industries, a major drawback for newcomers is the odd shift work. You might be a recent CCTC graduate and getting paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $16 an hour, but you will have to pay your dues by working a tough schedule for at least a year, Brennan said.
"New people — no seniority — they're going to go to the night shift and earn their keep," he said. "That's what I did; I had to go to third shift for two years before a first-shift opportunity presented itself."
Shaw Air Force Base provides a great talent pool of technically skilled people, he said.
GoldKist division manager Dennis Gordon agreed that the skilled labor jobs are "the most difficult to fill, particularly in electrical and electronics area. There seems to be a shortage of candidates in those areas," he said, and they "seem to take the longest to fill."
Job fairs are helpful, and local industry reps participate in those, but they also look internally for candidates suited for higher skill levels.
"We use Work Keys to check and see those that may have the propensity to learn," he said.
In GoldKist's work force of 2,200 (excluding management personnel), skilled positions account for about 20 percent, he said.
"In our operation it's actually a lower percentage of skilled workers than you may find in some others, but it's still the most difficult to find," he said.
Contact Staff Writer Joe Perry at jperry@theitem.com or 803-774-1272.
ping.
The reasons vary, but plant closures, downsizing, outsourcing and off-shoring have had very real consequences locally.
Actually, 25% of unemployment claim filings result from quits and being fired.
"Here, you find more veteran-type workers. ... You hear people joking around saying, 'You'll never get to work in there unless someone drops dead!' It sounds funny, but it's true."
Law firms and many other small, independent businesses "may have an office full of family," she said. "Things are more centralized around the family."
FWIW, small town businesses keep it local. If you are an outsider, (military) your resume gets immediately filed in the recycle bin.
Really sad if it's true there.
I employ 600 people as a local family business. If you're reachable, and teachable, you're mine. period - regardless of your background.
Too True. I have the opposite happening to me, a good degree but not a lot of experience. You would think with that and my military experience would make me an excellent candidate for a company in sc. However for the past 10 months I have been banging my head against this job market trying to find a job and its really been pissing me off.
"WHERE ARE THE SKILLED WORKERS? If there are thousands of unemployed — and underemployed folks — then how come some local companies say they can't find workers with the skills they need?"
Just as employers in Arizona, my thoughts are that most employers are lazy liars, cheats & thieves. They don't want to worry their preety little heads, so they pull the lame classification of, not skilled, etc., then rush right out and hire an illegal at 3cents an hour to boost their profits...
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