Survey: Tight labor market is biggest headache

Executives at advanced manufacturing and logisitics companies in Reno and Sparks cite recruitment problems as their biggest headache.

But the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada notes that the region isn't alone. In fact, EDAWN staffers noted last week, labor supplies are even tighter in neighboring metropolitan markets.

Executives of the 79 companies surveyed in EDAWN's Business Builders program said that the availability of good workers is the biggest workforce problem they face. They generally give high marks to quality and productivity of the region's workforce.

The unemployment rate in the region stood at 3.9 percent in December, the state reported last week, and that figure means that 8,900 people are jobless out of a total labor force of 227,500 in Washoe and Storey counties.

Tight as that labor market might feel to employers, EDAWN noted that the state's unemployment rate ranks only in the middle of state jobless figures nationwide.

Utah, for instance, reports a 2.5 percent jobless rate. Unemployment in Idaho is 3.2 percent. Arizona stands at 3.6 percent.

And EDAWN noted that workers continue to flock to the region.

The labor force in the region in December, for instance, included nearly 15,000 more workers than it did a year earlier but the state's figures show that new jobs soaked up 13,200 of them.

The advanced manufacturing and logistics executives surveyed by EDAWN's staff and volunteers noted, too, that their recruitment difficulties tend to be centered around some specific skills.

Several companies said they struggle to find good managers. Press-break operators also are much sought-after. Ditto for engineers and truck drivers.

But the recruiting difficulties aren't dampening plans by manufacturers and logistics companies to grow in Washoe County.

The executives that were surveyed said their companies plan to add a total of 1,334 jobs in the next three years. They plan to occupy 1.56 million square feet of industrial space and invest $179.8 million in the region.

"It's fabulous to have that many companies looking at expanding in the area in the next three years," says Donna Crooks, who oversees EDAWN's efforts to work with existing companies.

She noted, too, that more than half of the companies that were surveyed are headquarted locally another positive indicator for the region's economy.

"Companies that are headquartered here will be looking to expand here," Crooks says. "They will not be looking outside the area."

A third positive indicator in the survey, she says, is a finding that three quarters of the companies expect to introduce new products in the next couple of years.

Much of the growth, particularly among logistics firms, is almost certain to be located outside of the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area. There's simply no land available for large-scale distribution operations within the Truckee Meadows.

The growth of advanced manufacturing and logistics companies is important to the region's economy, the EDAWN survey noted, because those are primary industries that bring fresh dollars in the area.

Some 56 of the companies surveyed said they sell into a nationwide market. Thirty-eight percent described their markets as worldwide.

In its Target2010 strategic plan, EDAWN has identified advanced manufacturing and advanced logistics as two industries in which it will focus its efforts to recruit new companies and strengthen existing employers.