Post by Jaga on Jun 21, 2017 18:23:41 GMT -7
Names like Warsaw or Kosciusko County reflect Polish origin. I wonder why Polish population disappeared there, so they need newcomers to operate precise machinery. Please scan through this info:
www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-this-part-of-the-midwest-the-problem-isnt-china-its-too-many-jobs/2017/06/20/a6646572-5205-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_warsaw706pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0d551f2519cd
In this part of the Midwest, the problem isn’t China. It’s too many jobs.
By Danielle Paquette
June 20
WARSAW, Ind. — Each day at Zimmer Biomet headquarters, machinists on one robot-assisted factory floor churn out about 3,000 metallic knee parts. They are facing pressure to crank up the pace as the population ages and demand soars.
But the artificial-bone giant is grappling with a steep downside of the nation’s low unemployment rate: It is struggling to find enough workers, despite offering some of the region’s best pay and benefits. Forty positions sit open.
Other manufacturers in Kosciusko County, home to roughly one-third of global orthopedic device production, are running into the same problem.
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The lack of laborers not only threatens to stunt the growth of these companies, experts warn, but it could also force them to decamp their home town in search of workers.
With the U.S. unemployment rate at a 16-year low of 4.3 percent, employers across the country are dealing with a dearth of potential hires. Economists say that talent shortages are growing constraints on the country’s economic expansion, especially as millions of baby boomers enter retirement.
The company is struggling to find enough workers, despite offering some of the region’s best pay and benefits. Forty positions sit open. (AJ Mast/For The Washington Post)
But the shortage is particularly problematic in places such as Kosciusko County, where the unemployment rate rests at 2 percent. Of the county’s 41,136 adults who can work, 40,311 are employed, according to government statistics.
This region — a land of clear lakes, duck farms and medical device makers — escaped the industrial decline that rocked other communities throughout the Rust Belt.
It prospered, thanks to a local industry that proved largely immune to competition from China and Mexico.
But without more people to grow Warsaw’s business, the chances of companies relocating is “extraordinarily high,” said Michael Hicks, a labor economist at Indiana’s Ball State University.
“That would devastate the area,” he said. “We need to figure out how to bridge this rural place to the future.”
Kosciusko is only one of 73 counties in the United States with unemployment rates of 2 percent or lower, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many are in energy-rich counties in the Midwest and Colorado, where the fracking and natural gas booms have vacuumed up the workforce.
They also include communities that defy the heartland stereotype of industrial decay — like Warsaw, in northern Indiana, and Columbus, about three hours south.
...
www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-this-part-of-the-midwest-the-problem-isnt-china-its-too-many-jobs/2017/06/20/a6646572-5205-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_warsaw706pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0d551f2519cd
In this part of the Midwest, the problem isn’t China. It’s too many jobs.
By Danielle Paquette
June 20
WARSAW, Ind. — Each day at Zimmer Biomet headquarters, machinists on one robot-assisted factory floor churn out about 3,000 metallic knee parts. They are facing pressure to crank up the pace as the population ages and demand soars.
But the artificial-bone giant is grappling with a steep downside of the nation’s low unemployment rate: It is struggling to find enough workers, despite offering some of the region’s best pay and benefits. Forty positions sit open.
Other manufacturers in Kosciusko County, home to roughly one-third of global orthopedic device production, are running into the same problem.
Tech News Alerts
Breaking news about technology and tech companies.
Sign up
The lack of laborers not only threatens to stunt the growth of these companies, experts warn, but it could also force them to decamp their home town in search of workers.
With the U.S. unemployment rate at a 16-year low of 4.3 percent, employers across the country are dealing with a dearth of potential hires. Economists say that talent shortages are growing constraints on the country’s economic expansion, especially as millions of baby boomers enter retirement.
The company is struggling to find enough workers, despite offering some of the region’s best pay and benefits. Forty positions sit open. (AJ Mast/For The Washington Post)
But the shortage is particularly problematic in places such as Kosciusko County, where the unemployment rate rests at 2 percent. Of the county’s 41,136 adults who can work, 40,311 are employed, according to government statistics.
This region — a land of clear lakes, duck farms and medical device makers — escaped the industrial decline that rocked other communities throughout the Rust Belt.
It prospered, thanks to a local industry that proved largely immune to competition from China and Mexico.
But without more people to grow Warsaw’s business, the chances of companies relocating is “extraordinarily high,” said Michael Hicks, a labor economist at Indiana’s Ball State University.
“That would devastate the area,” he said. “We need to figure out how to bridge this rural place to the future.”
Kosciusko is only one of 73 counties in the United States with unemployment rates of 2 percent or lower, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many are in energy-rich counties in the Midwest and Colorado, where the fracking and natural gas booms have vacuumed up the workforce.
They also include communities that defy the heartland stereotype of industrial decay — like Warsaw, in northern Indiana, and Columbus, about three hours south.
...
