Thread: CT business worried about where to find workers

In State, Firms Hiring But Workers Scarce

By JANICE PODSADA | Courant Staff Writer
September 7, 2007
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-ctec ... 0447.story

ROCKY HILL - Connecticut companies are hiring. They're taking steps to cut their energy use. Profits are up, and firms are reinvesting the money to ensure their continued growth.

But they are worried about where they'll find workers. And the state is still hampered by transportation woes, especially in Fairfield County; high costs; a shortage of vibrancy and entrepreneurship; and the lack of a major engine for job growth other than financial services, which could turn downward.

That prosperous but sober picture emerged Thursday from experts at the Connecticut Business and Industry Association's annual fall economic conference, and from an annual survey of companies by CBIA and Blum Shapiro LLC.

Nationally, profits and wages are up, David Huether, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, told conference participants.

Corporate profits are booming - last year they grew 8 percent, representing a 40-year high, Huether said. And with a national unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, down from 6 percent two years ago, companies are having to compete for qualified workers.

Wages rose 1.6 percent last year after adjusting for inflation - the first real increase in several years, Huether pointed out.

"The labor market is tight. Workers are scarce. ... As a result we're seeing a real increase in wages. That's positive in terms of consumer spending - since consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's gross domestic product," he said.

With profits high and executive pay soaring, the increase for typical workers should be rising faster, some say. One response: The rising cost of health care coverage continues to limit raises.

While the short-term news is good - the state has finally regained the more than 60,000 jobs it lost in the early part of this decade - the long-term outlook for the state's economy is less upbeat, the survey said.

Prepared by the West Hartford-based accounting and professional services firm of Blum Shapiro and the CBIA, the survey is based on answers from 967 mostly small and mid-size businesses that chose to respond, out of about 7,000 that received it, a 14 percent response rate.

The typical company employs from 50 to 100 employees and has been in business about 30 years, Carl R. Johnson, the firm's managing partner, told the conference at the Marriott hotel.

Although 75 percent of the survey's respondents said they had hired new employees in the last 12 months and expect to hire additional employees in the next year, about two-thirds said they were having difficulties finding and attracting qualified workers.

Connecticut's youth population is leaving the state. And with each succeeding year, more of the state's baby boomers are retiring. While their exodus means that jobs are coming available, employers are worried they won't be able to find enough qualified workers to replace them, the report said.

A $13.2 million grant for advanced placement classes in lower-income cities and towns, funded in part by ExxonMobil, awarded to Connecticut and announced Thursday by CBIA, is part of the solution, said Peter M. Gioia, CBIA vice president and chief economist.

But some experts say that even if the state succeeds in increasing its pool of skilled home-grown workers, it still won't be enough. For example, while some economists predict that the state might gain 20,000 new jobs this year, it must also fill an additional 50,000 replacement jobs.

At a conference seminar on immigration and demographics, economists and state officials pointed out that Connecticut's elderly population is growing faster than its youth population.

Gioia cited a recent study that concluded that Massachusetts's high technology industry is "dead in the water without immigrants."

While a similar study hasn't been conducted in Connecticut, it's fair to say that the same findings would apply here, he said.

States with a large, educated immigrant community are benefiting from an increase in the growth of new businesses, said Orlando Rodriguez, manager of the Connecticut State Data Center at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

An educated immigrant population "is strongly correlated with the establishment of small businesses," Rodriguez said. "That sort of vitality would not hurt Connecticut going forward."

Government has to make it easier for the educated immigrants to stay here, said Susan Coleman, chair of finance at the University of Hartford.

"If companies want these kinds of employees they're going to have to pony up and help these students stay in this country."

Contact Janice Podsada at jpodsada@courant.com.

What a pile of crap.......Connecticut's Corporate Pigs...stop swallowing you own propaganda and try some Prozac...