ENTRY LEVEL LABOR FORCE IN AREA SHRINKING

Southeast Missouri is looking to Southern Illinois for help.

With unemployment in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties consistently under 4 percent, help is needed for existing and new-industry jobs.

"There is a shortage of workers for entry level and unskilled positions," said Jackie Cecil, director of the Missouri Job Service office, which serves Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties.

"Employers from a number of businesses -- manufacturing, retail and fast food -- are telling me that workers are hard to find," said Cecil, who also is a member of a special committee formed to study the shrinking labor situation.

Rich Williams, who recently was appointed executive director of the Regional Commerce and Growth Association (RCGA), is chairman of a new committee that was formed by the Cape Area Personnel Association (CAPA), which has expressed concern about the labor shortage.

The new CAPA committee has held a number of brainstorming sessions, said Cecil. "We're talking about how we can increase the work force here," said Cecil.

"We're concerned about the situation," said Mitch Robinson, director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association.

Robinson and JoAnn Sumner, executive director of the Perry County Industrial Development Authority, agreed that a shrinking labor pool could hamper industrial recruitment. In the long haul, it could effect expansion efforts of existing industries. The more industry grows, the more opportunities there are for entry level workers to advance to mid-level and skilled jobs.

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce also is concerned about the lack of production and assembly-line workers.

"There is one step we can take immediately," said John Mehner, president and chief executive officer of the chamber. "We area offering to include information about any particular firm in our relocation packets to individuals and, or families who have indicated an interest in relocating to the Cape Girardeau area."

The labor shortage has become so serious in Perry County that industries there are conducting worker recruitment in other areas, including Southern Illinois.

A Job Fair, conducted by five Perryville employers at Carbondale, Ill. recently, attracted a few workers. About 300 potential workers attended the fair, sponsored by Solar Press, Gilster-Mary Lee, Perry County Nursing Home, TNT Plastics and Manpower Temporary Services.

The Job Fair survey revealed that three of four potential employees would rather move to Perryville than commute some 50 miles west to Perryville. That could create a housing shortage.

The population base at Perryville, a city of about 7,000, has not grown to keep pace with the job base, said Sumner.

The Perryville group already is looking ahead to another Job Fair, although a date and location have not been announced.

Meanwhile, the CAPA committee at Cape Girardeau has discussed the possibility of Job Fairs.

"We're talking about placing ads in high unemployment communities, then following with job fairs," said Cecil.

Cecil, Robinson and others recently attended a Job Fair in Cape Girardeau presented by a Mitchell, S. D., group.

"The Mitchell area is experiencing labor problems," said Robinson. "A group recently conducted two jobs fairs in Southeast Missouri, at Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau."

"We understand that the group left here with about 150 applications," said Cecil.

Unemployment rates can be deceiving, however, depending on the work-force totals.

Unemployment totals are high in some Southern Illinois areas, but the work-force totals are low.

With an 11.4 percent unemployment rate, Alexander has only 455 unemployed people, based on a work force of 4,140. Pulaski County has only 286 unemployed persons, based on 10 percent unemployment for a work force of 2,862.

The Williamson and Jackson county areas, which include Marion, Carbondale, and Murphysboro, range in unemployment from 5.7 to 8.9 percent. But, with a work force of more than 45,000 in the two counties, as many as 4,200 workers are unemployed.

Meanwhile, only 366 unemployed workers are reported in Perry County, based on a 3.8 percent unemployment rate of a 9,300 workforce total.

Cape Girardeau County, another low unemployment rate county (3.7 percent), reported more than 34,700 workers, with 1,300 people unemployed.