It's time to build skills

We need skills.
Jay County Development Corporation executive director Bill Bradley frequently talks about the need for people and dirt — employees to work at businesses and places to locate them. During his state of the local economy address Tuesday, he emphasized the need for those people to build skills that are in demand.
“We need to keep increasing our skill base, which I think is going to be the critical issue for any rural community here in Indiana or anywhere else in the nation,” he said. “We’ve got to increase our skills sets in order to meet the needs of our local economy.”
Bradley, who has been with JCDC for nine years, highlighted that need during his speech at Jay County Chamber of Commerce’s monthly networking luncheon at Jay County Hospital with information he gleaned from his annual retention surveys.
In talking with local companies, he said he estimates about 250 jobs are unfilled. He noted that companies report going through 10 possibilities to retain two employees, and that often showing up ready and able to work is a key problem.
“They can’t find people. They can’t find qualified people. And in some cases, frankly, they can’t find people who can pass a drug test,” said Bradley. “We have an issue there folks.”
The task of filling open positions has become even more difficult as the economy has improved.

Unemployment in Jay County last month was 4.1 percent. It had been as high as 12.5 percent in July 2009, the height of the most recent recession.
Given the relatively low unemployment rate — it ranks tied for 29th highest among Indiana’s 92 counties, better than Delaware (4.6 percent) and Blackford (4.5) but trailing Randolph (3.7), Adams (3.0) and Wells (3.0) — Bradley noted the need for skills training. That is something JCDC has been pursuing in partnership with John Jay Center for Learning, Jay School Corporation and others. Jay County High School has developed a manufacturing academy and internship programs with local industries, and John Jay is teaming with Jay-Blackford Manufacturing Council to offer industrial maintenance classes beginning in fall 2017.
Bradley noted the need for specialized skills, such as the ability to fix complex machines, as industries go through changes.
“Companies are making more investment in machinery and equipment and hiring less people,” he said. “Automation has taken over in manufacturing.
“John Jay has been instrumental in helping plug that (skills) gap. I would say it has been a very positive and a very good force in this community. But they’re going to be incremental improvements. They’re not going to be improvements you see overnight.”
Bradley pointed out an increase over the last 15 years in the number of Jay County residents with at least some post-secondary education. In 2000, 2,040 residents had an associate’s degree or higher. By this year, that number had increased to more than 2,400.
The need for manufacturing skills is key, he said, because that area accounts for nearly twice as many jobs (3,190) as any other sector in Jay County.
And, while it can be concerning to have so many jobs tied to one sector, Bradley noted that manufacturing in the county is fairly diversified. It does not entirely depend on a single industry.
That’s important, he added, because economists are projecting that an economic downturn could be coming. The country has gone through about seven years of consistent growth, which is longer than typically expected.
He referred to an Indiana University forecast for 2017 that projects a significant slow-down in job creation statewide and only modest growth in gross domestic product.