By Tom Lange and Marilyn Odendahl, Truth Staff
With 68 manufacturing jobs open and a limited pool of available workers, a security components company in South Dakota has been shopping for workers in the Midwest, focusing in particular on northern Indiana and southern Michigan, where laid-off recreational vehicle employees have the necessary skills.
The few workers who have journeyed to the Coyote State for face-to-face interviews have all been offered jobs and many have relocated without a second thought, said Clint Brown, direct hire consultant with Manpower in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Although the exodus to South Dakota is small, the situation helps explain why the dip in the August unemployment numbers for Elkhart County was accompanied by a dip in the total number employed.
The county's jobless rate declined to 8.9 percent in August, down from 9.4 percent in July, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The local rate topped unemployment rates in Indiana of 6.3 percent and the United States of 6.1 percent.
The total number of employed in the county fell in August by 765 residents.
The drop could indicate workers are moving from the area or have given up looking for work, said Grant Black, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at Indiana University South Bend. Also, the decline raises questions, in the long-term, about whether the local workforce will have the labor available to fill the jobs either vacated by retiring baby boomers or created when the economy starts recovering.
South Dakota is an example of what businesses have to do when the hometown does not have enough workers. The state's unemployment rate is hovering around 2.5 percent and jobs are going wanting in agriculture, banking and financial services, Brown said.
Getting through the November elections may ease local unemployment as voters will then see who won and can being moving forward, Black said. However, the August decline will not continue since the 1,400-plus workers downsized from the closures of the Monaco Coach Corp. plants are expected to fill the unemployment roles in September or October.
At Personnel Partners in Elkhart, while the number applying for positions has not increased, the composition has changed with more of those workers being unemployed, said Joan Rhoade, president. Typically the placement agency helps office and clerical staff who are employed but are wanting to move to a different company for higher pay, more responsibilities or greater opportunities for advancement. Now those coming in have no job and many have not had to look for work for a long time.
"It makes me feel a little old because I've seen it before," Rhoade said of the economic downturn and high unemployment. "I know (the economy) will come back."