County's growth leads to dearth in employee pool

WorkSource, Herald partner to spread word to job seekers

GRANT COUNTY — As the number of jobs rise due to the influx of data centers and expansion, WorkSource seeks to attract employees to fill them.

Dustan Knauss, business services manager for WorkSource, said the organization has more than 400 job openings listed, double the amount of jobs at the same time last year.

"Our unemployment rate is so low that the majority of people are working," Knauss said. "They're missing opportunities to see better jobs or room for advancement."

The county currently has a 4.6 percent unemployment rate.

"Which doesn't leave a lot of people in an employee pool for employers to draw from," Knauss said. "So we needed to become more creative in getting these positions out to the public."

Knauss met with Columbia Basin Herald Publisher Harlan Beagley to discuss his concerns and see if the newspaper would be interested in assisting what Knauss called "the employer community" in filling those positions, with a combination of the WorkSource Web site.

WorkSource's work with the newspaper includes covering employer events, functions and promotions, Knauss said, providing exposure of the business community's need regarding employment. The organization is encouraging employers to list with the Herald as well as on the WorkSource Web site.

"We know two sources of information are going to do twice as much to get the word out," Knauss said.

"I have heard from many individuals out there who are in the employment sect that there's more jobs than we have qualified workers for," Beagley said. "Organizations like WorkSource are ramping up to meet that need. I am proud to be a partner of theirs in that strategy."

Beagley said the newspaper's classified section in the Herald and classified sections throughout the Hagadone network, which includes 19 other community newspapers with over 100,000 daily readers, can combine resources to meet the needs of area employers.

Having a low unemployment rate is something WorkSource always shoots for, Knauss said.

"Because of the tremendous growth that we've experienced over the last year and anticipate over the next year, we've got to find more people to fill these jobs," he said.

The state's projected employment growth rate is at 2.9 percent, while Grant County is projected to have a growth rate of 2.5 percent. Previous years have been less than 2 percent, Knauss said, making it easy to fill jobs. He said it's one of the fastest growing job rate counties in the state, and the largest job growth rate in the seven years he's been with WorkSource.

It makes the 4.6 unemployment rate a detriment to filling business needs, Knauss said. Typically, the county could be at 5 to 8 percent unemployment for winter periods, he added, with a lot of employees to draw from.

"When you're at 4.6 and you have the largest growing growth rate in the state, your pool of potential employees is diminished," he said.

It makes it difficult for employers to fill positions, due to lack of skilled or trained labor, Knauss said.

"When they have a position that they want to fill in a couple weeks and a month later they haven't been able to fill it because they just haven't had the applicants, that's where the difficulty comes," Knauss said.

Every facet of employment in Grant County is having difficulty filling positions across the board, Knauss said, whether they be truck drivers, forklift operators or nursing assistants.

"I can't think of an industry that is not having a difficult time filling their employment needs here in Grant County," he said.

Similar growth occurred on the west side of the state in the last seven to eight years, Knauss said. The result is an employee market, where employers compete from the employee pool, raising wages and increasing benefits to draw talent. For the first time, Knauss said, employers all raised wages this summer and are continuing to do so, which is good for the employee. They are also more amiable to on-the-job training, he continued, pointing to training available.

Knauss said employees ultimately chosen to fill the open positions come from local talent and are drawn from outlying areas. The organization is seeing more applicants from the west side of Washington through its Web site, he said.

The ideal employee does not have a criminal background, can pass a drug screen and is willing to learn, Knauss said.

"You may not have to have the work history, but you should have the references," he advised. "Whether it be from a teacher or counselor, or center of influence in the community. All employers right now are in a mode where they are willing to train like they never have before … If you've got those three things, you are in the driver's seat."