WORKERS NEEDED: NEW JOBS CREATE DEMAND FOR EMPLOYEES

Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream will hold a grand opening for its new, 200,000-square-foot plant in the new Sikeston Business and Technology Park next week.

On hand will be Gov. Mel Carnahan; Good Humor-Breyers president Eric Walsh; and Richard A. Goldstein, president and chief executive officer of Unilever United States Inc., which owns Good Humor-Breyers.

The plant, built in just over a year at a cost of $34 million, is one of a number of new or expanded industries and businesses in Southeast Missouri that will provide new jobs.

But there could be a downside: As expansion continues, employers will find it more difficult to get workers. Some companies face a very tight labor market.

Unemployment rates dropped in 96 of 114 Missouri counties from March to April, when the state's jobless rate hit 4.2 percent, down from 4.5 percent the previous month.

"There is a multitude of jobs out there," said David Hay of the Cape Girardeau Job Service Office, which keeps tabs on employment rates in Perry, Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties.

"A number of employers are looking for workers," said Hay. "There are openings in a number of fields: construction, retail, services."

A 51,000-member work force is counted in the three counties under the Cape Girardeau Job Service Office. More than 48,800 are working, leaving only a 4.3 percent unemployment rate in the three counties.

Perry County joins an elite list of seven or eight counties with an unemployment rate of 3 percent or less, with 9,883 of its 10,190-member work force holding jobs. Cape Girardeau County, with a work force of more than 35,700, is at 4.2 unemployment, with 34,202 of its workforce with jobs. Bollinger County's jobless rate is 7.1 percent.

Peggy Gates of Manpower Inc., a temporary staffing service, said today's market is good for workers.

"Every day is a challenge, especially now," said Gates. "The agriculture season is here, construction is going on, and industry and businesses are expanding. There is a very obvious shortage of workers."

When business activity increases, there is greater demand for employees, both full time and temporary, said Bruce Steinberg of the National Association of Temporary Staffing Services. "This eventually leads to worker and skills shortages."

The labor shortage could worsen. Procter & Gamble is hiring steadily, filling some retirements at its 30-year-old Cape Girardeau plant. A year ago P&G announced a $350 million expansion, which will create 350 to 400 more jobs.

Biokyowa Inc. recently announced a $40 million expansion to its plant and construction of a $50 million food-processing center. Those expansion will create 90 jobs.

New retail outlets continue to move into the Cape Girardeau area, most needing 20 to 30 employees. That is in addition to smaller expansions taking place that require five to six new workers each.

A recent program, Welfare-to-Work, has provided a few new job applicants across the area.

"This is a new program, and we haven't received a big response yet," said Ron Swift, executive director of the Private Industry Council, which conducts the program in Southeast Missouri.

As people become more familiar with the program, it is expected to benefit both workers and businesses.

Total employment for April increased 41,000 in Missouri, the largest increase of any month this year. Increases statewide were noted in construction, which was up 7.900 jobs; retail, up 7,000; and services, up 11,600. A total of 2,785,900 people had jobs in the state.

Unemployment in deep Southern Illinois followed the state trend by declining in all but one of 22 counties covered in the Illinois Department of Employment Security's southern sector.

"Farmers are getting into the fields, construction is under way, and most counties had April unemployment rates under those of a year ago," said Charles M. Vessell, labor market economist for the department in Marion.

Massac County recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the southern portion, 3.8 percent. Alexander County 's April unemployment rate in April was 8.5 percent.

More than 65,000 jobs have been created in Missouri during the past year. More than 1,000 of those emerged in Cape Girardeau County, and another 200 to 300 jobs were added in Bollinger, Perry and Mississippi counties.

Preliminary figures indicate that new jobs were counted in manufacturing, financial services, health care, warehouses, telecommunications and retail sales.