While common belief might be that many businesses are closed and many individuals are out of work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the numbers tell a different story — at least in Surry County.
The latest unemployment figures for the county, for March, show a jobless rate of 4.2%, still higher than the 3.3% recorded in February 2020, before the pandemic began affecting life across the United States, but nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.
That has put some local employers in a bind trying to fill positions.
Andrew Wright, vice president for existing industries at the Surry County Economic Development Partnership, said he’s not seen anything quite like the current conditions in the local job market.
“I could almost name half a dozen companies with close to 100 positions open,” he said.
A year ago, Surry County’s jobless rate soared to 14.2% in April — after being as low as 3.3% in February and 3.9% in March. With businesses shutting down, and others limiting public interaction, jobs dried up quickly. The rate remained at 14.2% in May, but dropped to 8.8% in June and has been steadily declining since.
The story was much the same around North Carolina and the rest of the nation, prompting federal COVID relief programs that have put thousands of dollars of direct payments into the hands of most of the nation’s residents and offered enhanced jobless benefits that paid out some people more than they could make in their jobs.
Wright said he’s heard some employers say there are individuals not wanting to enter the job market while federal jobless benefits and stimulus payments are still flowing, but the tightening job market is also about new jobs being created.
“Some of the industries are creating more production…it’s existing companies growing, producing more,” he said, adding that many local firms pivoted toward making medical personal protective equipment and other products that have been in high use during the pandemic.
But the job growth is not just in areas of production that might fade once the pandemic is over.
“It’s new jobs in production, ranging from wielders to machine operators to assembly, just a whole range of light manufacturing jobs.” He added that demand for construction workers has also jumped.
Beverly Frey, NC Works center manager in Mount Airy, said her agency has seen a few more job openings than normal for April. While many of the jobs NC Works posts are part-time positions, some with relatively low pay and without benefits, she said employers posting with her agency now are offering more full time jobs with benefits.
Frey said she has heard some employers say it’s more difficult to find folks willing to work with those federal stimulus payments and jobless benefits still active, but there’s another factor to consider — the country is still in the midst of a pandemic, and COVID-19 continues to be a threat.
“Every once in a while I’ll hear someone say they’re still afraid to go back out and work, they’re afraid of catching the virus,” she said.
According to the NC Works website, Surry County has seen a steady decline in the number of unemployed over the past few months. In February, 1,686 county residents were jobless and looking for work, while the March figures showed 1,364, with a total of 1,733 job openings.
While the numbers would seem to indicate there’s more than enough jobs for the people listed as unemployed, Todd Tucker, president of the Surry Economic Development Partnership, said it’s not necessarily that simple.
He said some of those jobs — nursing, teaching, high-skilled industrial and technology jobs — often require specialized levels of education or training. Others need people with experience in a certain field, so not everyone in the job market will qualify for some of those positions.
And, he said some in the field of labor and employment consider a market at essentially full employment once the jobless rate falls lower than 5%. That can be particularly challenging for a rural market such as Surry County, where Tucker said a jobless rate that low can me fewer than 1,000 folks who are unemployed.
“I think there’s a lot of things at play,” he said of the suddenly tight labor market. “We hear from employers quite often, even pre-COVID, they have jobs open and they need people to fill them with skilled people or people with experience….some are even willing to train people.”
But, he said oftentimes those seeking jobs want a higher wage, or a better shift.
“There’s a lot of factors that come into play. It is challenging right now for companies to find people to come to work.”
He said in some cases, prospective employees need to be willing to accept lower pay or undesirable hours, at least short-term, to get their foot in the door. In other cases he said employers need to be willing to look at pay rates and working conditions, see what they can do to become more competitive.
Wright added that some firms are taking steps, developing what he called “second chance” programs for prospective employees who may have had issues with minor criminal charges or long-past drug use that would have otherwise disqualified them for employment.
Tucker said the issue is not unique to Surry County, that many parts of the state, and even the nation, are starting to see the same issues.
Steve Burgess, vice president of human resources at Insteel Industries Inc., said his firm has seen that scenario play out company wide.
The firm, with corporate headquarters and a manufacturing plant in Mount Airy, along with nine plants spread across the country, is having some difficulty filling open positions.
“We currently have 47 open positions across our ten plants, we have positions here both at our Mount Airy plant and at our home office. As the economy ramps up, demand ramps up, it continues to be a challenge to find candidates for our positions,” he said.
Part of that is growing demand as the economy recovers, but hearkening to some of Wright’s comments, he said the stimulus payments and enhanced jobless benefits may be partially at play.
“Even though the unemployment rate nationally appears to be at a higher level, the people actively looking for employment has actually decreased,” he said. “I think one of the common threads, between stimulus checks and unemployment supplements…there’s likely less motivation for people to get out there and fill the jobs that are available. We hear that both in terms of other businesses here in the area and some of the companies we’re affiliated with both as suppliers and customers.”
Several other firms in the area did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com