[June 24, 2008]

Job market still good in Amarillo, Texas

(Amarillo Globe-News (Texas) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 23--Many signs point to Amarillo's low unemployment rate.

"To be honest, if you drove down any street in Amarillo, if you did not see a 'Now Hiring' sign at a restaurant, I'd be surprised," said Denson French, area director for the city's six Burger Kings.

Amarillo had the second-lowest unemployment rate in the state in May at 3.1 percent, a slight uptick from 2.8 percent in April, according to statistics released Friday by the Texas Workforce Commission.

"This is a huge factor in why there is such a high demand for skilled employees," said Mollie Barney, business-services coordinator for Workforce Solutions Panhandle, a private contractor that offers employment services and is funded through a Texas Workforce Commission grant. "Most of the people that want to work are already working."

A tight labor market generally means competition for workers, which means wages go up, Amarillo economist Karr Ingham said.

"There aren't a whole lot of minimum-wage jobs here now," Ingham said.

"Jobs that you would typically think of as paying minimum wage are paying more than that."

Industries hurting for employees, Barney said, include:

Transportation fields, because of the double-whammy of a lack of skilled drivers and high fuel prices;

Medical fields, needing skilled nurses, home-health aides and medical and dental assistants;

Construction fields, because of growth activity in the area;

Food service with high demand for cooks, food preparation workers, bartenders and first-line supervisors.

"It is tough to find the top-tier people," said Brandon Clavel, marketing director for 12 Amarillo and Canyon McDonald's franchises. "That (low unemployment rate) adds even more difficulty."

United Supermarkets' Amarillo locations aren't "in a crunch for team members" right now because summertime gives teens more time to work, Greg Ammons, divisional vice president, said. "Over 50 percent of our work force is 18 or younger, so when school lets out, that lets out a floodgate of hours for people to be available."

Keeping staff can be a challenge when unemployment is so low, French said.

"It's not really a hiring problem," French said. "It's more of a retention problem. Amarillo is basically at full employment, so people can walk across the street and get a (another) job."

Competitive wages are key, French and Clavel said.

Companies are doing a variety of other things to recruit and hang on to workers.

United rewards team members who refer applicants with monetary incentives. The incentives grow as employees refer more candidates during the course of a year, said Shannon Elrod, division talent manager.

The Lubbock-based chain also offers a college-savings plan, in which employee contributions are matched by the company and increase in each of an employee's first four years, Elrod said.

Employees are vested in the plan after a year and can withdraw funds from their accounts for college expenses, Elrod said.

Businesses also have expanded the ways in which they're trying to reach potential employees.

"You really do have to hit them from as many forms as you can," Clavel said.

An image campaign plastered on billboards across the city has been especially successful in driving traffic to the company's hiring Web site, he said.

Even the McDonald's receipts carry a "Come join our team" message and link to their Web site.

Signs of a slowing economy, however, could loosen up the Amarillo job market a bit in the future, as costs rise, consumer activity declines and employers become less inclined to hire, Ingham said.

"The fact that the unemployment rate is presently low doesn't necessarily mean we're not in the middle of a little bit of a job slowdown," he said.

To see more of the Amarillo Globe-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.amarillonet.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Amarillo Globe-News, Texas
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