The Aug. 8, 2011, cover of the Northern Nevada Business Weekly.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week in 2021, we will feature snippets of stories that published a decade ago to provide readers a 10-year perspective of business news in the region. This week’s stories first published in the Aug. 8, 2011, edition of the NNBW.
Jobs pipeline begins to refill, EDAWN saysThe good news in EDAWN’s annual report last week was that the pace of job creation in the Reno-Tahoe area picked up steam in the past year.The even-better news, however, is that pipeline of prospects is growing at the economic development agency, and the next 12 months holds strong promise of further improvement in job growth in the region.“It’s trending up,” says Stan Thomas, vice president of business development for the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada. “A year ago, we didn’t have much of anything in the pipeline. Now companies are visiting, and they are making decisions.”At the June 30 end of its fiscal year, EDAWN was working with 24 companies it considers to be good prospects that are likely to make decisions about relocations or expansions within the next 12 months.— Page 1, by John Seelmeyer
Booksellers: Demise of big competitor a sad chapter
Small independent bookstores in the region aren’t celebrating the demise of Borders — including the closure of its stores in Reno and Carson City.
Instead, those businesses fear consumers will stock up on volumes at liquidation prices as Borders closes and won’t come through their doors in search of reading material for months.
And the growth in sales of e-readers such as the Nook or Kindle and internet sales continue to chip away at paperback and hardcover sales in small retail shops as well as big-box booksellers.
Christine Kelly, owner of Sundance Books and Music, one of the few independent bookstores in the Truckee Meadows that focuses on new books, says the bookselling market is in a state of flux — technology has changed the way people buy and read books, and Borders fell behind the curve.
— Page 1, by Rob Sabo
Skilled machining jobs go unfilled despite high jobless rate
Cory Baltazar, operations manager for Owens Precision of Carson City, says finding a qualified computer-numeric controlled machine operator can take months.
He’s not alone in his frustrations. Filling skilled positions is a growing problem at machine and fabrication shops throughout the region. Machine shops in both regions are hard-pressed to fill openings for welders, fabricators and CNC operators, as well as engineers and programmers, despite July unemployment rates of 12.5 percent in Carson City and 13 percent in Reno-Sparks.
“There is a lot of general labor, but they usually are coming out of construction,” Baltazar says. “Those positions I can fill without a problem, but any kind of skilled machinist position or supervisory position takes a long time to fill. It usually will be an accident if I get somebody.”
— Page 1, by Rob Sabo
