Bartow to gain 2,476 jobs in five years

Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing in White is undergoing a major expansion that will bring more jobs to Bartow County. SKIP BUTLER/The Daily Tribune News

October 06, 2014

With the past year’s string of business announcements and expansions, Bartow County will see 2,476 manufacturing-oriented jobs come to the community over the next five years.

The total comes from a number of businesses — Toyo Tire, Shaw, Surya, Beaulieu International Group, voestalpine, Aquafil and Trinity Rail — and do not include retail jobs or those expected to come from LakePoint Sporting Community and its associated attractions. According to the Cartersville-Bartow County Economic Development, 2014 will gain 474 jobs; 2015, 684 jobs; 2016, 384 jobs; 2017, 384 jobs; 2018, 340 jobs; and 2019 is expected to gain 210 jobs.

“Now, this is not LakePoint. This is not part of the normal ebb and flow of workforce that our employees typically see,” said Executive Director Melinda Lemmon. “This is just a segmented piece based on recent announcements and approximately when those jobs will be coming online based on certain assumptions.”

Positions expected to be included in the 2,476 jobs are professional and managerial positions, sales, service, clerical, unskilled labor, maintenance workers, welders, painters, production managers, operators, tool and die makers and production workers, among others.

Lemmon believed the job estimate would hold up over the long run, saying companies carefully plan their needs before they begin breaking ground on a site or expansion.

“In my experience, I’ve seen that each of these companies put a lot of thought into what they’re going to need, especially related to workforce. There’s a lot of effort that goes into workforce analysis. Based on the types of questions and the requests for information, I can tell that there’s a lot of thought into it,” she said. “Based on conversations that these companies are having with workforce professionals that I’m aware of, I can see that there’s a lot of thought that’s gone into it.

“They need to be assured, it seems to me, that the community’s workforce meets the needs of the company before they commit to come here. That’s probably one of the most important factors.”

When the time comes to hire the necessary hundreds of workers to fill a new facility, companies often turn to staffing agencies such as North Georgia Staffing. However, President and CEO Debbie Underkoffler said that as manufacturers require more skilled employees for their facilities, the supply of workers shrinks.

“Now more people are working, so what you’re trying to recruit now are people who are currently working, and you have to make it attractive for them to leave their current position to work for the new positions,” she said. “That’s the biggest difference from what it is now and even five years ago is more people are working. You have to fill the position.”

Saying the hiring market is different now than even in 2013, Underkoffler believed the applicant is now in a stronger position than the employer. In this employees’ hiring market skilled workers can find a job in less than a day in some cases.

“Because so often we’ll have somebody ready and they’re ready to go to work and if the customer even hesitates — the shelf life of a good employee now is around 24 hours. Within 24 hours, when somebody comes through our doors, if we don’t have something for them they’ll find a job someplace else. ... It is fast, because so often, I mean, sometimes they’ll be in our office in the morning and we call them in the afternoon for the job and they’ve already accepted another one,” Underkoffler said.

The top three in demand positions, she added, are welders, maintenance workers and machine operators.

However, the 2,476 forecasted jobs will not be entirely filled by Bartow County residents. Lemmon said companies are encouraged and, where possible, required to hire and buy Bartow first; not every position will have a qualified local candidate. Yet with the number of jobs coming in the future, Lemmon hoped the growth would reduce Bartow’s unemployment, which now sits at 7.9 percent, with 3,781 unemployed.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as 248,000 people found jobs in September. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail and health care.

Locally, Lemmon believed the manufacturing jobs would encourage growth in other sectors.

“There’s a multiplier effect with manufacturing jobs. You’re going to find different experts argue that for every manufacturing job there might be at least one other supplemental job out in the community. Some say one and a half, and I’ve even heard as high as two. I think that speaks to construction jobs, as well as other support jobs for these manufacturers. I don’t know exactly what multiplier I would use, but there is a multiplier effect. Again, I hope it goes back and speaks to the needs of these Bartow County individuals,” she said.

As to whether manufacturers would follow through with their job predictions, Lemmon said there are mechanisms in place that ensure communities either get the stated number of jobs or receive some form of compensation if a company reneges on the amount. It has not been a problem in Bartow County, she added.

“No. There’s some very real reasons as to why. But, no, we haven’t had issues with that. I don’t think the state, by and large, has issues with that either. The reason is a company — when a company’s talking to a community and the state about incentives, especially the larger companies that qualify for certain programs, they need to be realistic on the number of jobs,” Lemmon said. “I’m sure on their part they want the job numbers and capital investment high enough to qualify for some statutory and discretionary incentives.

“However, there’s a performance and accountability agreement with each of the incentives. So if they sign up for these programs and they don’t meet certain job levels there are always what’s called clawback. ... So for that reason, I often see a company struggle with, ‘What is that magic number that’s high enough for the incentives, and yet realistic enough that we won’t have to get into an issue with any performance and accountability?’”

Filling any future positions, whether they are the announced jobs or other openings, will rely on a combination of attracting outside professionals, convincing Bartow County residents who work outside the community to work closer to home and using the Bartow County College and Career Academy and other educational programs to increase the number of future workers, Lemmon said. From a staffing point of view, Underkoffler said the BCCCA and technical college system would be valuable resources for future employees, but the gap between available workers and what companies need will exist for some time.

“I think it’s still going to be behind because it’s going to take so many years to catch up,” Underkoffler said. “But those students, the ones that graduate, they’ll have a job. There will be jobs waiting on them when they finish. It’s going to take more time to get caught up. I don’t think it’s just our area. It’s across the country.”

Article by Jason Lowrey, Daily Tribune News