Photo by: JIM REED Michael Kalupa, owner of Kalupa's Bakery, looks over pastery being prepared by Peter Gonzalez. Kalupa says he'd like to add three or four more employees but can't find them.
Posted on 09/12/2005 3:58:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Photo by: JIM REED Michael Kalupa, owner of Kalupa's Bakery, looks over pastery being prepared by Peter Gonzalez. Kalupa says he'd like to add three or four more employees but can't find them.
TAMPA "Help Wanted":
For many businesses in the Tampa Bay area, it's not just a sign. It's a desperate plea.
With the local economy growing and unemployment rates shrinking, local firms are finding it harder to fill positions and locate prospective workers. And while business owners worry about how to sustain their growth in a tight labor market, economists express concern about what low unemployment could mean in the long term.
It's been four weeks since Mark Williams, manager of Dan's Fan City on North Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, taped up a sign in his window and started advertising in the newspaper for an assistant manager.
He can count the number of applicants he's seen on one hand. And none of them was qualified for the job.
"It used to be that you knew when the newspaper ad hit -- you'd get a flood," Williams said. "You become more aware that it's an employee's market right now, not an employer's market."
Gary Bingham, manager of Allen Sports Center in Tampa, taped up a help wanted sign last week. He said he had seen few applicants -- and the folks applying for jobs seem to have unrealistic expectations about pay and hours.
"I don't understand it," he said. "I've worked here 18 years."
A look at the state's labor statistics confirms what business owners such as Williams and Bingham Hurley know first-hand: There aren't many people out there looking for work.
How Low Can It Go?
Agency for Workforce Innovation, says the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in July in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area, compared with 5 percent for the nation.
The previous month, the local rate was 4.2 percent. A year ago, it was 4.7 percent.
It's too early to tell how evacuees from Hurricane Katrina will affect employment in the Tampa Bay area, but economists think the national unemployment rate will spike.
The shrinking unemployment rate comes at a time when more people are working or willing to work in the Tampa Bay area. The labor pool has grown from 1.28 million people a year ago to 1.33 million people in July 2005, the Agency for Workforce Innovation said.
Beyond The Numbers
Many business owners in the Tampa Bay area said they're resigned to the reality that they're facing a labor market that's incredibly competitive -- and will remain so for a while.
Michael Kalupa, owner of Kalupa's Bakery Inc. in Tampa, said it's just harder for small businesses such as his to compete against big firms for skilled workers today.
He also said that prospective hires are much more demanding when it comes to work hours -- many don't want to work evenings and weekends, he said.
"I think that's the biggest challenge, fitting the schedule to people who want to work," he said. "It's a lot more complicated than it used to be."
The bakery employs 23 people, and Kalupa said he'd like to hire more. He said he's had to become much more flexible in his hiring these days, because there are so few prospective employees looking for work.
Landmark Engineering & Surveying Corp., based in Tampa, has started outsourcing some of its work because it can't find workers. The company, which employs 85 people, has eight freelancers, including some out-of-state computer-assisted design operators.
"I'd rather have the people sitting here in my building, doing work, but in reality I have to serve my client," company president David Hurley said.
"It's a very real problem for us."
The Impact
Bob Rohrlack, senior vice president for business development at Enterprise Florida, said a protracted tight labor market could cause problems for the entire state, especially if small businesses have a difficult time finding workers.
Collectively, small businesses are major employers, account for three-fourths of all new jobs and diversify the state's business environment, he said.
"It can hurt the entire economy," Rohrlack said. "It's important that we're focused on what's happening here."
Scott Brown, chief economist for St. Petersburg-based Raymond James & Associates, said he's not worried about the tight labor market -- at least not yet.
Brown said a tight labor market might force employers to raise wages, which can contribute to higher prices and inflation for consumers.
That isn't happening yet, he said.
"I don't think we're seeing labor costs pressure as being too excessive," he said.
"It's not a problem, but it bears watching."
Small business owners and managers with labor pains can find assistance from a handful of resources: the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, Enterprise Florida, local chambers of commerce, and the University of Florida's Small Business Development Center.
Getting Help
Development Center offers some guidance for business leaders seeking workers:
• Ask your employees to help recruit workers.
• Hire temporary workers from a staffing agency to fill some positions.
• Be creative and flexible with job openings: It might be suitable to hire two part-time workers to fill a full-time opening
• Consider college students for part-time positions.
Hurst said she can commiserate with business owners trying to fill positions. She said the Small Business Development Center has been searching for a clerical worker since May and hasn't been able to fill the vacancy.
Gee what a concept, actually raise wages. Then the other shops won't have labor but I will, then I can charge more. Duh. I can't believe how stupid most small business people really are. Rocks.
"He can count the number of applicants he's seen on one hand. And none of them was qualified for the job."
Well what kind of qualifications do you need to work in a bakery? I can't imagine you would need much more than a person with a pulse.
It sounds like the main point of this article is not just finding help but finding good help. That is nothing new. The steady decline of god help is seen everyday at all kinds of businesses.
It's a fine line that you walk between profitability and loss sometimes. But people have to recognize that you build a business for the future, not for today, and that means you have to put money out now to make money later. Right?
I doubt that he would know since he was looking to fill an assistant manager's slot at his fan company. Management, hopefully, requires more than a mere pulse.
The same bunch of nimrods will be screaming bloody murder about the rapacious criminal small business owners who are "screwing the american worker" when he hires an illegal who actually shows up for work....., sober......, every day.
My daughter is an administrator at a doctor's office, she placed an ad for a checkout person, she received so many faxed resumes that it literally burned up the fax machine.
There were airline pilots that were applying for the position.
Generally the qualifications are to have experience in medical billing and general office.
Here in the Dallas area, after seeing the kinds of people that are applying, one can only conclude that there are very few jobs available. So now you add the evacuees to the mix, and locals will be hurt. Maybe the evacuees should head to Tampa!
We recently had an interesting situation happen in our Church. There were 2 young men ages 19 and 20, they were brothers. Quit high school, unskilled, looking for a job, one found a part time position at Walmart, the other is still looking for a job. They tried to rent an apartment and were told that they needed 6 months on the job. They couldn't receive section 8 assistance but they could receive
assistance with utilities. There was a laundry list of what
an unskilled young person could or could not receive as far as help. They are now homeless living on a street near the walmart. But yet look what Dallas has and is doing for the welfare evacuees. What's up with that?
This is something new? When I had my construction business I always had a hard time finding good workers and when I did I did my best to hold on to them.
At last I reduced my work to a one and two man operation. I made more money with less stress.
Well OK, but I was referring to the photo and caption. It is a bakery.
A few years ago, a very well known KC BBQ chain was forced to close a restaurant in a nice part of town because they simply couldn't get the employees they needed to keep it open, even at wages that were going to make the place unprofitable (it was a chain, so they hoped they could make it up from other branches). Management even tried car-pooling people in from the inner-city, but they just couldn't keep the help. IIRC, they were offering about $10 an hour right before they closed that branch
Any other KC residents remember that? It was the Olathe branch of Gates BBQ.
Mark
My experience is that the pulse does you no good unless it shows up for work.
Wages have to go up. More workers will move to the area to fill the need.
Does anyone take economics anymore?
You have to be able to read and understand measurements. Unfortunately, those are no longer requirements for graduation from the public school systems in the US. Heck, they graduate people who can't make change!
Mark
"You have to be able to read and understand measurements."
True, but any adult should be able to do such simple tasks.
Why didn't they finish high school? Where are their parents?
Talk about getting good help, I had two incidences of lousy customer service this weekend. My husband called Best Buy to ask if they had a particular camera that we wanted. Yes, we were told, they had it. Drove into town to get it and the same person from the phone waited on us. Asked for the camera, seller said they were out of them. My husband said, "I just talked to you, you said you had them." Response? "Oh, I thought you were asking if we carried them." duhhhhh
At another store where my daughters and I were shopping, I bought several shirts and a belt. As we were walking out of the store, one of my daughters started looking for the belt. Not in bag so we went back to the counter and there it sat. Girl forgot to put it in the bag. Got the belt, walked back out, set off store alarm. Back to the counter where they searched the bag and one of the shirts still had the security tag on it. They took the tag off and we finally went on our merry way.
Really? You ever see one of today's teenage cashiers try to make change if the register is down?
Nowadays they could probably staff it completely with former Sprint data processing personnel.
Yeah, free market applies to raising wages as well as cutting them. I know -quick find a Mexican who will work cheap.
Be able to read, be able to follow simple instructions for a start.
My wife worked at a place where you were required to fill out the job application in an area that was under the observation of the front secretary. After the applicant turned it in, if they had help, the secretary wrote "Needed Help". Management put those straight into the trash can.
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