While job fairs across the Commonwealth might be reporting tepid turnouts and frustrated employers, that’s not the same tune Sheila Clark sang during Monday’s South Western Kentucky EDC meeting in Hopkinsville.
The West Kentucky Workforce Board director has been a part of several such showcases in the last six months, and during the most recent one on November 4 at the Bruce Convention Center in Hopkinsville, Clark remembered a very specific and positive note made by an undisclosed employer — describing, in a nutshell, a not-so-commonly-held belief.
SWK EDC Executive Director Carter Hendricks noted more than 600 people have attended job fairs in recent weeks, and while actual job placement has been difficult to track due to the region-wide stress being felt at HR departments, several businesses have reported a lift in employment rates.
Transcraft, in particular, hired nine employees following its November 4 presentation, and Clark added that with each passing job fair comes a more prepared and engaged potential employee.
Clark noted there were still too many situations in which prospective employers had recently set up site visits, facility tours and second interviews — only to be stiffed by the prospective employee — and that those practices and behaviors needed to change sooner, rather than later.
But truth be told, it seems the people of west Kentucky do want to work, or are at least looking for it. Clark said she’s received phone calls from workforce boards across the state, seeking answers to solve poor attendance rates to job fairs within their own regions.
As things stand now, Christian County reported 4.9% unemployment in September and 55.3% labor force participation in 2020, with Trigg County noting 4.2% unemployment and 50.7% labor force participation, and Todd County sitting at 3.1% unemployment and 57.3% labor force participation.
Hendricks stated labor force participation numbers need to rise north of the national average of 60% in order to remove true concerns about a stagnant inflow and outflow of employees in the tri-county area, but that a true definition of southwest Kentucky’s ability to draw commercial business and industry lies in its 37,000-plus labor population, and its location within a 40-to-45-mile labor shed of more than 460,000 skilled workers.
Clark, meanwhile, added that unemployment numbers can often be misleading.
The EDC next convenes in January, following the holidays.
NOTES:
*Participation rate is the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work. The labor force participation rate is calculated as: (Labor Force ÷ Civilian Noninstitutional Population) x 100.
*The unemployment rate is calculated as: (Unemployed ÷ Labor Force) x 100.
