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SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2017 |

magicvalley.com

YOU’RE HIRED

Former supervisor suing Chobani Claims age discrimination; yogurt company denies NATHAN BROWN

nbrown@magicvalley.com

TWIN FALLS — A former sleeving supervisor and maintenance supervisor is suing Chobani, claiming age discrimination.

Jerry Ash, who worked at the yogurt company from July 2012 until he was fired in June 2015, filed suit in federal court in Boise on Wednesday. In the complaint, Ash says his supervisors, who were younger, discriminated against him by denying him training they let younger employees take, denied him weekends off even though younger employees got them, “arbitrarily questioned the productivity and breaks of Mr. Ash’s work crews” and turned him down for a managerial position that instead went to “a younger, less experienced employee.”

Ash was placed on a “performance improvement plan” on June 18, 2015, and “counseled on Please see CHOBANI, Page A5

PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS

Associate Rena Kelsey, right, helps Lucy Jensen look through clearance racks June 10 at Torrid in the Magic Valley Mall. A manager at the women’s fashion retailer called Kelsey after she’d been praised in a former co-worker’s interview. Kelsey was hired on the spot.

Unemployment in Magic Valley and Mini-Cassia is extraordinarily low. As job creation surpasses labor force growth, jobless rates have declined steadily. In April, south-central Idaho’s unemployment sank to 2.6 percent. And it might not stop there, as businesses enamored of the area’s agricultural production and low costs keep expanding. In short, employers have stiff competition for workers. See the story on E1.

Are we doing enough to protect farmworkers?

AUDREY DUTTON

Idaho Statesman

HAZELTON — It was still dark the morning Ruperto Vazquez-Carrera began his shift at Sunrise Organic Dairy.

It was mid-February 2016.

A winter heat wave had melted snow and ice overnight, flooding part of the rural Jerome County farm. A foot of standing water made it hard to tell where the feeding area ended and the deep pond that held the farm’s manure began.

Vazquez-Carrera got into a feed truck to deliver the cows their morning meal. About 5:30 a.m., he called his brother, who also worked at the farm, to warn him about the conditions.

By sunrise, Vazquez-Carrera, a 37-year-old husband and father of six, was dead.

Vazquez-Carrera had mistakenly driven the truck into the

yards from the truck.

It was a kind of death no one wants to happen. Yet it happened again, in Idaho, just seven months later.

A dairy worker in Shelley, south of Idaho Falls, suffocated after driving into a manure pond more than 5 feet deep and being pinned for 30 minutes under the tractor he was driving.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent inspectors to investigate each incident. The agency cited each dairy for failing to provide a safe workplace and fined each $5,000.

The ponds are common at COURTESY JEROME COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE dairies as a way to store manure The Jerome County Sheriff’s Office released these photos of rescue to prevent it from polluting waefforts at the Sunrise Organic Dairy Farm, where a worker died after terways. The waste can later be his feed truck sunk in a waste pond Feb. 16, 2016. used as fertilizer on crops. Neither dairy had fences or barmanure pond. He managed to get ented and swam in the wrong di- ricades to keep workers from free and he tried to swim back to rection, according to the county solid ground. But he was disori- sheriff. Divers found his body 70 Please see FARMWORKERS, Page A4

 If you do one thing: The 104th annual Camas Pioneer Picnic will

include a potluck, music and presentations from noon to 4 p.m. at the Fairfield City Park on West Camas Avenue.

$3.00

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Military cyber operations headed for revamp LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — After months of delay, the Trump administration is finalizing plans to revamp the nation’s military command for defensive and offensive cyber operations in hopes of intensifying America’s ability to wage cyberwar against the Islamic State group and other foes, according to U.S. officials.

Under the plans, U.S. Cyber Command would eventually be split off from the intelligence-focused National Security Agency.

Details are still being worked out, but officials say they expect a decision and announcement in the coming weeks. The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter so requested anonymity.

The goal, they said, is to give U.S. Cyber Command more autonomy, freeing it from any constraints that stem from working alongside the NSA, which is Please see CYBER, Page A5

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Times-News

THE BIG STORY

Sunday, July 16, 2017 | E1

Sunday, July 16, 2017 | magicvalley.com | SECTION E

DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Annie Hoffmann, manager in training, does paperwork June 12 at Gem State Staffing in downtown Twin Falls. Low unemployment has boosted the workload. ‘There’s a lot of desperate companies out there that are beating their heads against the wall,’ says Dustin Cureton, Gem State Staffing’s district manager.

NEED A JOB? Extraordinary demand for workers in Magic Valley, Mini-Cassia

HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com‌

‌T

WIN FALLS — Idaho Home Health and Hospice resorted to a $5,000 sign-on bonus to attract nurses. Job seeker Cammon Wutzke started getting calls from prospective employers within 24 hours of posting his resume online. Unable to recruit fast enough, Hilex Poly ramped up in-house training for skilled maintenance.

It all points to one thing: extraordinarily low unemployment in the Magic Valley and Mini-Cassia this spring.

As job creation surpassed labor force growth from 2006 to 2016, unemployment rates declined steadily over the past four years. In April, south-central Idaho’s unemployment sank to 2.6 percent as employers scrambled to fill jobs before the peak of summer hiring.

And it might not stop there. Businesses enamored of the area’s agricultural production and relatively Tolman low costs are still expanding.

In short, employers have stiff competition for workers.

“It’s gone from not being able to find qualified people … to an overall struggle to get applicants through the door to even consider finding the right people,” said Brent Tolman, a regional business specialist for the Idaho Department of Labor. “There’s concern about how we’re going to get the number of people we need.”

Roeser Over the past 10 years, Magic Valley and Mini-Cassia reported job growth of 9.2 percent but labor force growth of just 7.5 percent.

“We’re growing,” the department’s Regional Economist Jan Roeser said, “but we’re not growing as fast as we need to.”

Please see JOBS, Page E3

Hilex Poly uses apprenticeships to fill maintenance jobs HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com‌

‌When filling higher-skilled positions became more challenging, Hilex Poly put more of its focus on internal talent development.

It took Human Resources Manager Liz McBride nearly all of 2016 to hire for new jobs after the manufacturer announced a Jerome expansion in 2015.

“I needed to fill just over 40 positions,” she said, “but it took me 140 hires to fill those positions, because of turnover.”

And with a tight local labor pool, there’s still more risk in hiring from outside the area, when employees have to adjust to a new place, McBride said. So the Novolex-owned company used its apprenticeship program as a solution.

“We hadn’t really relied on it as we do now,” McBride said in early June.

The program allows employees on the production line to apply to be apprentices. With

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training, an employee eventually moves into a maintenance role — the highest-paid position at the plant, McBride said. An experienced electromechanic can earn $22 per hour and up, while an electronic technician with some experience makes $25 per hour and up. Vacancies left in the production line are much easier for the company to fill. This job requires aptitude and understanding of how machines work, but the company will also consider someone who just has a strong work ethic and is trainable. A production line operator with some experience makes $15 per hour and up, McBride said.

The current job market has also heightened the company’s need to increase its cross-training of employees for when vacancies occur.

But training alone won’t cover all its needs, so Hilex Poly increased its marketing and raised

TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO‌

Hernan Parra, left, and Joel Holt work with a large roll of plastic film as it moves through the Hilex Poly factory Please see HILEX, Page E3 in October 2010.

MORE INSIDE: Woman likes the jobs that came to her, E2 | CSI expands training as demand for welders heats up, E3 | Gem State Staffing in Mini-Cassia: ‘Busier by the day,’ E4

BIG STORY

E2 | Sunday, July 16, 2017

Times-News

PHOTOS BY PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS‌

Above: Associate Rena Kelsey assists Lucy Jensen, center, and Connar Westfall, right, as Jensen browses the sales June 10 at Torrid in Magic Valley Mall. Below: Associate Rena Kelsey organizes the bra drawers June 10 at Torrid in Twin Falls.

Woman likes the jobs that came to her HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com‌

‌After five years with a call center in Twin Falls, Rena Kelsey suddenly found herself unemployed.

C3/CustomerContactChannels outsourced her position — and dozens of others — in midMarch. Although Kelsey had kind of expected it, that didn’t soften the blow.

“I felt lost because that was my world,” the former workforce analyst said. “I lived and breathed my job.”

Kelsey filed for unemployment on and off over the next 2 1/2 months, while putting in applications and trying to find a job that suited her.

Ironically, the job found her.

“It’s weird that the jobs that I’m really happy with were the ones that reached out to me,” Kelsey said.

In early June, Kelsey accepted

an offer from Elwood Staffing to take a full-time — albeit seasonal — position as a staffing manager.

The company had found her resume at Indeed.com just hours after she posted it.

Previously, a manager at women’s fashion retailer Torrid called Kelsey after she’d been praised in a former co-worker’s interview.

Kelsey was hired for a part-time sales job on the spot in March while still working at C3.

For Kelsey, it’s a relief not to have to file for unemployment every week to pay the mortgage.

“It’s very time-consuming sometimes,” she said. “It’s very sad to do it. … I don’t like living off that money. I like my hard-earned money.”

Kelsey will look for work to start in September, after her Elwood Staffing job ends, but will also pursue a home-based business photographing bands at concerts.

She got back to work, now she’s helping others do the same HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com‌

‌The year after Becky Ludlow moved to Twin Falls, she began teaching swimming lessons at the YMCA-operated city pool.

Having had similar jobs in Washington and Boise, she enjoyed the work. But in 2015 and 2016, Ludlow had to quit working due to worsening muscular disease and lupus.

It was necessary, but a hard choice to live with.

“I felt multiple times I was starting to lose my identity,” she said.

With the help of Deseret Industries, Vocational Rehabilitation Service and a job coach at Magic Valley Rehabilitation Services, Ludlow began to prepare last September to find another job.

“I like to be able to feel like I am serving and helping to make a difference,” she said.

In June, Ludlow began working as an employment services specialist and therapy technician for MVRS. Her position includes teaching life skills and being a job coach for people with disabilities — providing on-site workplace supervision.

“The goal behind that is to help keep them at their jobs,” she said.

“It’s helping to empower them and helping to keep them employed.”

Ludlow uses a wheelchair, and she has cochlear implants after losing her hearing in 2008. She receives federal disability benefits so the number of hours she works a week is limited.

She applied for three jobs but chose MVRS because it most closely fit her own goals.

“I really felt strongly about mo-

TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO‌

Mike Hayes, general manager of Maxie’s Pizza and Pasta in Twin Falls, finishes the baking of a vegetarian gluten-free pizza in January 2010.

PHOTOS BY DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS‌

Therapy tech Becky Ludlow helps others with their social skills June 19 at Magic Valley Rehabilitation Services in Twin Falls.

Therapy tech Becky Ludlow, right, has a client grab a game piece as they play a social skills game June 19 at Magic Valley Rehabilitation Services. tivational speaking, but this kind of work is right up my alley,” she said.

“I want to help them not be afraid.”

People who have disabilities often bring a hugely desirable trait

to employers: They want to work.

“The joy that these people have is just amazing,” Ludlow said.

“And they really do want to work hard.”

Maxie’s Pizza struggles to find skilled applicants HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com‌

‌estaurant manager Mike R Hayes is competing for workers against much bigger businesses.

And for a couple of years, that competition has been stronger than ever.

When Chobani opened its Twin Falls factory in 2012, the Maxie’s Pizza and Pasta general manager lost three of his employees. And since Clif Bar opened last year, Hayes has seen fewer skilled applicants apply for jobs.

“We occasionally get shortstaffed,” he said. “And we hire, and unfortunately the skill level is lacking.”

Today’s new employees often aren’t able to multitask as efficiently as past generations.

And larger businesses with human resource departments have a recruitment advantage, Hayes said. “They grab up the

skilled workers in a hurry.”

While some employees at Maxie’s have worked there 10 to 15 years, the typical new hire lasts only six to seven months at best. Hayes believes they get disgusted with what’s required of them — multitasking in food preparation, restaurant maintenance and dishes. They leave to take what they perceive as higher-paying jobs that require less work.

To try to get new employees up to the task, Hayes is taking a more active role in training — instead of leaving it to the old hands. Training that once took a few days now lasts a couple of weeks.

Hayes has thought about outsourcing his delivery service. Or even using automation — but he doesn’t think that will happen.

“We’re just not there yet in this valley to embrace that.”

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BIG STORY

TIMES-NEWS

SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2017 |

E3

$5K bonus: Idaho Home Health ups nurse-recruiting tactics HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com

When Idaho Home Health and Hospice saw other employers offering sign-on bonuses for nurses this year, it got in on the action.

In May, it began advertising a $5,000 bonus for registered nurses.

“Everyone in the area is using that sign-on bonus,” Office Manager Cheryl Hansen said.

Idaho Home Health also hosted an open house that month.

By June, the Twin Falls office was fully staffed with four new hires — two nurses, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist. These jobs have been the hardest to fill, Hansen said.

The demand for nurses, in particular, is the strongest she’s seen in 10 years.

Hansen attributes that to a combination of population growth and the addition of new TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO health-related businesses such as Idaho Home Health and Hospice licensed practical nurse Jennifer Phelps takes Donna Peterson’s blood pressure Canyons Retirement Community and Serenity Healthcare. during the 2009 Magic Valley Health Fair in Twin Falls.

Home health is more complicated than some nursing occupations, Hansen said, so Idaho Home Health prefers experienced nurses. The sign-on bonus is paid after the employee has been with the company for a few months.

Nursing jobs have been among the hardest to fill across the state, with employers receiving fewer applications for each position.

St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center has offered sign-on bonuses, based on the position and the applicant’s experience, for about 2 1/2 years, nurse recruiter Lori Ramsey said. Also, St. Luke’s increased salaries in August 2016 to be more competitive.

St. Luke’s has renewed its recruiting focus outside the Magic Valley, but even the extra pay incentive isn’t necessarily enough to draw people in.

“A nurse can get a job anywhere,” Ramsey said, “so we have to put our best foot forward to show them why they want to be here.”

To be job seeker in demand is ‘extremely great feeling’ HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com

Cammon Wutzke was thankful for plentiful jobs in Cassia County, which allowed him to stay in the place he calls home but also be more choosy as a job seeker.

In January, Wutzke wanted to leave his job as Wutzke sales manager for the Best Western Plus in Burley. So he did his research and discovered the popular online resume site Indeed.com.

Within 24 hours of posting his resume, he started getting phone calls.

“I knew that it was gonna be pretty easy to find a job,” Wutzke said. “Look at the unemployment rate. … Employers are desperate right now.”

He used that to his advantage.

During phone conversations, several companies named higher salaries to meet his expectations.

Wutzke got three to four phone calls a week from financial services companies trying to expand or branch out to the Magic Valley.

“It’s an extremely great feeling,” he said.

Because there was no shortage

Hilex From E1

the amount of its employee referral bonus. The bonus totals several hundred dollars, with disbursements at the initial hire, six months and one-year anniversary.

“Because it’s an employee market and because employers are desperate to fill positions,

Jobs From E1

An era of growth

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The Magic Valley felt some of the effects of the Great Recession in the late 2000s. Car dealerships, furniture stores, small manufacturers and retailers closed. Construction activity declined.

Unemployment in Twin Falls, Jerome, Lincoln and Gooding counties rose above 8 percent in 2010. Since, not only have Magic Valley businesses been able to absorb those unemployed workers, Roeser said, but they’ve brought more people into the workforce.

Yogurt maker Chobani opened its Twin Falls plant in 2012 and immediately planned to double its workforce the following year.

More recently, Hilex Poly added jobs at its Jerome plastics factory, and Clif Bar expanded production shortly after opening its Twin Falls bakery last year.

Mini-Cassia unemployment, however, never reached as high during the recession.

“They’ve had explosive job growth,” Roeser said.

Over the past 10 years, Cassia County had the six-county region’s highest job growth, at 19.5 percent, while Minidoka had the highest average wage increase, at 39.8 percent.

In the past couple of years,

“I knew that it was gonna be pretty easy to find a job. Look at the unemployment rate. … Employers are desperate right now.”

Cammon Wutzke of job opportunities, Wutzke took his time and made his decision based not only on salary, but on flexible hours, an unlimited pay structure and benefits.

“If the unemployment was 8 percent, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity,” he said.

He did formal job interviews with two prospective employers and in April began working from home in financial services for New York Life Insurance Co., which has satellite offices in Boise and Twin Falls.

Wutzke chose the job because of the leadership role he’d take, the training and the experience.

And at 34 years old with a family, he was thankful he wouldn’t have to relocate.

His problem in late June?

Wutzke was still getting phone inquiries because he hadn’t figured out how to take his resume off the website.

they must learn to change what they’ve done in the past to meet the needs of the present and the future,” McBride said. “Sadly, we are all kind of robbing each other.”

Plentiful jobs in the valley make workers feel comfortable looking for greener pastures, she said. Hilex Poly is in direct competition with any manufacturer, including the food industry.

Average wages in 2016, and the percentage change from 2006.

Minidoka County had not only the region's highest average in 2016 but also the biggest increase.

Gooding County

CSI expands training as demand for welders heats up HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com

College of Southern Idaho’s welding program reaches full capacity every year, and students wait on a list to get in.

Local employers, meanwhile, are also crying for more trained workers, welding instructor Clay Wilkie said. There simply aren’t enough here.

“Usually we have more demand for our students than we have students,” he said.

Much of that has come with new construction around the state, especially in Mini-Cassia, he said. Wilkie expects demand to rise even more as McCain Foods begins construction on a $200 million plant expansion in Burley.

To help meet the need, CSI

plans to start a welding program in Burley this fall.

“We’re going to try to offer it through the Cassia Regional Technical Center,” said Terry Patterson, instructional dean of career and technical education.

A dual-credit course would be available for 16 high school students in a cohort program this fall.

“Theoretically, they could earn an intermediate technical certificate as a high school student,” Patterson said.

Besides training a future workforce, CSI aims to train existing Mini-Cassia employees through a nighttime program.

He expects that companies such as McCain Foods, High Desert Milk and Fabri-Kal will need the additional training, which could

be customized.

Southern Field Welding is one employer that supports CSI bringing in the Burley program.

“We would provide CSI here in Burley a lot of stainless steel,” general manager Blake Hollingsworth said. The scrap metal has been offered to other programs in the state already.

Mini-Cassia’s large demand for welders, he said, has to do with the extensive variety of businesses that use them — to build snow blowers, potato harvesters or industrial food-grade equipment, for example.

CSI accepts 25 new welding students per year at its Twin Falls campus. Patterson said the college may expand that by adding evening and Saturday classes.

Job growth

Wages

Cassia County

PAT SUTPHIN, TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO

Steve Shirey grinds a 30-degree bevel for his welding test Oct. 7, 2016, at the College of Southern Idaho.

The average number of jobs in each county. This includes part-time jobs and does not exclude jobs held by people who commute from other counties. Cassia County led the pack in job growth, with a 19.5 percent increase from 2006 to 2016.

40,000 33,759

$34,345 (33.4%) $33,951 (32.8%)

37,439

30,000

Jerome County $35,416 (32.8%)

Lincoln County Minidoka County Twin Falls County Source: Idaho Department of Labor

$33,358 (22.7%)

Gooding County

Jerome County

Lincoln County

Minidoka County

Twin Falls County

$35,773 (39.8%) $33,368 (25.9%)

10,997

10,000

Lee Enterprises graphic

Mini-Cassia has been an economic developer’s dream: It attracted plastic packaging maker Fabri-Kal, which later announced an expansion. Dow Chemical announced its intention to open an insulation plant.

McCain Foods plans a $200 million expansion.

And they all need workers.

Now hiring

20,000

Cassia County

As employers have fewer local applicants to choose from, Tolman said, those offering competitive wages and benefits fill

6,136

1,370

0

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Idaho Department of Labor

positions more easily. That’s not rocket science.

But perhaps more revealing is how much average wages have grown across six of south-central Idaho’s counties. The highest average wage in 2016 was in Minidoka County, at $35,773; in 2006 its average of $25,589 was among the region’s lowest.

Other counties’ average wages grew by 22 percent or more, with

a six-county rise of 29.9 percent.

Lower-paying, entry-level jobs in retail and services are struggling most with recruitment and retention, Burley City Administrator Mark Mitton said. After King’s Variety Stores closed, most displaced employees found other jobs quickly, and Mitton expected the same to happen with JCPenney employees.

2013

2014

2015

2016

Lee Enterprises graphic

Though retail and service jobs aren’t highly technical, some employers say applicants with skills in communicating and multitasking aren’t as common as they used to be.

Compounding the issue of a limited workforce across all industries: retirees.

“We’ve been enjoying the Please see JOBS, Page E4

E4

BIG STORY

| SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2017

TIMES-NEWS

PHOTOS BY DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS

Gem State Staffing has application hours posted on its door in downtown Twin Falls.

Gem State Staffing in Mini-Cassia: ‘Busier by the day’ HEATHER KENNISON

hkennison@magicvalley.com

Staffing agencies are sometimes viewed as a last resort for businesses trying to fill positions, said Dustin Cureton, Gem State Staffing district manager.

As the unemployment rate stayed low this spring in Mini-Cassia, it brought a boost to his staff ’s workload.

“We’re busier by the day,” Cureton said.

That’s why a plan to extend the Burley location into a full-fledged office has finally come to fruition.

Gem State Staffing planned to move into a new space on North Overland by July 1. In June, the company was looking to hire an additional person for recruiting.

“It definitely helps that there’s a need for our services and that need has increased over the past couple of years,” he said.

The Burley office of Gem State Staffing has traditionally been a satellite to the Twin Falls office, Cureton said. Mini-Cassia’s unemployment was particularly low in the spring, a time when employers typically see a decrease in available workforce as agriculture processing ramps up.

“There’s a lot of desperate companies out there that are beating their heads against the wall,” he said.

As McCain Foods prepares for an expansion that will bring another 180 jobs to the area, he expects that will create a vacuum

effect as employees leave other companies.

“Usually the larger companies can offer better benefits,” he said.

Predictably, Gem State Staffing is having a harder time getting enough applicants to fill the jobs.

So the company has ramped up its advertising online.

“As the unemployment rate decreases, we find we have to spend a proportionate increase in advertising,” he said.

He’s talking thousands of dollars. In 2006, Gem State Staffing spent $60,000 in newspaper ads alone in Boise — the last time his company had a similar situation.

If unemployment continues to drop, “we may reach that point again.”

Marcus Lutz, branch manager, handles a telemarketing caller June 12 at Gem State Staffing in downtown Twin Falls.

Unemployment rates

Labor force The number of people 16 and older able to work who reside in each county. These six south-central Idaho counties, combined, reported labor force growth of 7.5 percent from 2007 to 2016, compared with the statewide rate of 8 percent.

45,000

Annual average unemployment rates in south-central Idaho, plus monthly average rates for the past year.

Over the past year, the region has seen unemployment steadily decline.

Mini-Cassia, which had the highest rate for the region in April 2016, had the lowest rate a year later.

4%

40,465

35,000

37,747

25,000

Cassia County

Gooding County

Jerome County

Lincoln County

Minidoka County

Twin Falls County

2% Mini-Cassia Jerome, Lincoln and Gooding counties Twin Falls County

15,000

11,601

10,795

5,000

8,004

2,566

0%

April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar April 2016 2017

Unemployment in Mini-Cassia reached its lowest average in 10 years in 2016, but other regions had lower unemployment rates in 2007.

10%

2007

2008

2009

2010

Source: Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Idaho Department of Labor

Jobs

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Lee Enterprises graphic

in partnership with College of Southern Idaho, addresses one of those needs.

From E3 But finally, Roeser said, the Magic Valley has to stop the labors of the baby boomers,” Ro“brain drain” — high school eser said. “And the baby boomgraduates leaving the state for ers are transitioning out of the college and not returning. That workforce in greater and greater Smyer Mitton will mean working with edunumbers.” cational institutions to bring cruitment.

Employers such as Southern needed programs, including “As we do add jobs, the workField Welding’s Blake Hollingforce has come,” he said. “That’s four-year degrees. sworth are preparing for retire“Sometimes Idaho is a little ments by developing succession still gonna happen to an extent. adverse to investing in eduWe still have to be proactive plans. cation,” Roeser said. “Quite about the process.”

“Our biggest challenge right frankly, there are pockets that There are opportunities to atnow is we lack the ability to house need it.” Medical fields, for extract people from outside Idaho them,” Hollingsworth said. ample. by targeting areas with similar Of six people his Burley comIt also means educating high demographics but higher unempany hired in May, only two school seniors about the jobs and ployment, he said. It may mean came; the others said they were training available locally. the Labor Department helping unable to get housing.

“The reality is, we have reemployers recruit from other Home construction in Burley, ally good opportunities here,” manufacturing communities. as in many south-central Idaho While new technology can de- Tolman said. “There is a lack of communities, has accelerated in career awareness among the high the past year. But the underlying crease the number of manufacturing positions needed, the jobs school students that are graduchallenge remains: how to train ating.” that remain become more techand attract the workforce busiOf course, some will always nical. That’s where education and nesses require. choose to leave the state. Roeser workforce development play in. said cities and organizations need “There’s specific needs in Becoming engaged to keep their finger on attractDespite McCain Foods’ inten- the communities we’re not yet ing those back and recruiting meeting,” Cassia County School tion to bring 180 new jobs to its other millennials — with vibrant District Superintendent Gaylen Burley plant in less than a year, downtowns, rising wages and Tolman has a positive outlook on Smyer said. The district’s work community pride. to host a new welding program, south-central Idaho’s talent re-

8% 6%

4% 2%

Mini-Cassia

Twin Falls County

Jerome, Lincoln and Gooding counties

0%

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Source: Idaho Department of Labor

As a decade of steady job creation continues, businesses will need to approach attraction and retention in ways they haven’t before.

That may mean offering “extra goodies” in benefits packages, said Liz McBride, human resources manager for Hilex Poly.

For millennials, workplace culture is an important factor.

Roeser has seen financial institutions become less structured, offering employees branded gear or gadgets to increase company pride. Wellness programs have been ramped up, and work shifts at health care businesses have changed.

“I think every industry,” she said, “is affected by this.”

2012

2013

2014 2015 2016 Lee Enterprises graphic

Heather Kennison joined the Times-News staff in 2016. She reports on businesses and economic development around south-central Idaho.

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