By Jessica La Plante
News-Chronicle
Having trouble carving a career niche in a tight labor market with limited space for newcomers? Never fear, for college economists and career counselors say the Green Bay job market is on track to experience slow but steady growth.
But with that good news comes a word of warning: When the labor market does regain its strength, workers shouldn't expect to be greeted by the same jobs that were abundant as recently as a few years ago.
Thanks to a competitive global economy and advances in technology, the job market in Green Bay is becoming more service-based than manufacturing-oriented, said economist Kevin Quinn, an associate professor at St. Norbert College.
According to Quinn, a lot more than a recession has swept through the United States during the past few years. The winds of economic change include increasing international competition from foreign companies.
For the past decade, manufacturing jobs across the nation have been in decline as companies find it cost-prohibitive to operate their production facilities on American soil.
"Countries that 10 to 15 years ago didn't have the capital to create plants that were efficient have been able to build those factories in the last decade," Quinn said. "Countries like China, Latin America and other parts of Asia are drawing from a labor pool that's huge and less expensive than (in) the U.S."
As a result, many of the low- to medium-skilled jobs that have traditionally fueled Green Bay's economy are being eliminated by technology, or transferred elsewhere, as U.S. firms endeavor to cut costs.
But a loss of manufacturing jobs doesn't mean an automatic drop in employment levels. On average, Green Bay and the Fox Valley area is witnessing more job growth than decline, experts say. The catch is, many of the new positions being created aren't natural matches for the skills possessed by a manufacturing-based workforce.
For that reason, the enrollment rates at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College have skyrocketed, giving the school the distinction of becoming the fastest-growing two-year college in the nation.
Christopher East, managing supervisor of NWTC's Career Center, said the enrollment levels have peaked as a result of Green Bay's changing business climate. As East looks to the future, he sees health care as being the predominant force in Green Bay's labor market.
"NWTC is the fastest growing college in the country right now, and part of the reason is because we have a significant workforce that needs the skill to maintain the lifestyle they want, but their skills are not needed in this region," East said. "We have a significant number of workers in (manufacturing) who are getting laid off or their career life has ended, and they're coming back to school by the thousands."
East said it's not a matter of Green Bay lacking the job growth to support the growing numbers of displaced workers; it's simply a matter of mismatched jobs skills. Many laid-off workers simply don't have experience in service-oriented positions.
"The majority of the growth is in the health care industry, and the positions vary anywhere from housekeeping all the way up to certain doctors who are in demand," East said.
"We're seeing more people leaving the manufacturing industry who want to go into health care," East added. "That's a significant shift, and we want to make certain they can do that."
Green Bay remains a good place to live and work, East said, explaining that unemployment rates in Green Bay are higher than Madison's, but much lower than in Milwaukee.
Despite that fact, East said migration trends show more young people are leaving the state to seek jobs elsewhere; meanwhile, middle-aged people with established careers are flocking to Northeast Wisconsin to enjoy the lower cost of living.
On that note, East said one of the goals of the college is resident retention: to not only educate Green Bay workers, but find them secure and promising futures within the community.
To accomplish that, NWTC has paired up with the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce to introduce another solution to the problem of a changing economy: entrepreneurship.
As more large industries are bought by international firms, Green Bay is increasingly looking to small- to mid-sized companies to support the area's economic growth.
"We want to encourage entrepreneurialism," said Paul Jadin, director of the Chamber of Commerce. "That's one of the reasons (Green Bay) has been so highly regarded; we're a good place to start a business."
The chamber is pairing up with NWTC to launch a business outreach center that will increase the array of services offered to aspiring entrepreneurs.
The goal is to expand not only employment prospects in professional and business environments, but to replace some of the lost manufacturing jobs.
The center, which is pending grant funding, will be located by the NWTC campus, allowing the technical college and chamber to increase the current program's educational offerings.
"We will have a designated mix of office and light manufacturing, with hopefully an emphasis on businesses that fit some of our existing industry clusters and yet also represent higher technology," Jadin said.
Colleges like NWTC aren't the only schools offering practical training to help area job-seekers establish local careers. Four-year institutions, such as St. Norbert College and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, are stepping up their training and placement programs.
For the second consecutive year, St. Norbert is coordinating a campus-based job fair to help students network with area employers. Maureen Huffer, director of the college's Careers Services department, said the turnout of employers this year is greater than last year.
"Last year we had 25 organizations, (whereas) this year we have 36," Huffer said, adding that "we've expanded the number of people we've invited."
To give students better insight into the job market, the college has invited Dr. Philip Gardner, director of Michigan State University's Collegiate Employment Research Institute, to host a job-seeking seminar on March 2.
According to the Institute's 2004 employment forecast for the Great Lakes region, the retail, finance, administrative services, health and hospitality industries are expected to grow, while hiring activities by utility, manufacturing and transportation companies are expected to decline.
Huffer said she advises her students to think along nontraditional lines when scouting for job vacancies in a tight market.
Likewise, Quinn has a few tips to help students and career-changers land coveted positions within growing firms.
For starters, companies want candidates with well-rounded skills; people who can handle the technical and interpersonal aspects of the job.
Secondly, employers don't hire workers simply for what they know, but more so for what they can learn. On that note, Quinn said it's important that graduates and seasoned workers alike engage in continuing education to keep abreast of industry change.
"It used to be that intellectual jobs were fairly protected from outsourcing, but as we found out, that's not the case anymore," Quinn said. "There's lots of educated people who can do these jobs. Education is everything today, and those (communities) that continue to invest in education are the ones that are going to see the quickest increases in their quality of life."
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