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Economy on the High Plains
Hays has jobs
Well, you know right here in our area we really are pretty diversified. We have a lot of small employers that are trying to grow their businesses and we really haven't been feeling the economic conditions that have been hitting on the east and west coasts and hopefully they don't hit us.
Hays has a remarkably low unemployment rate, but there are still unfilled jobs. Just why is there a need to recruit people to Hays? Mike Michaelis is the Executive Director Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development. Michaelis cites the familiar story of rural migration people moving from rural regions to settle down and look for work in metropolitan areas. The Hays Has Jobs Initiative is trying to attract qualified individuals to fill positions and there really is no one field that particularly needs employees, except perhaps the medical field as LaShell explains.
There's always a huge need for medical, I mean you can go to our website and see that that area of jobs there's a lot of postings there and it's not just Ellis County, it's our surrounding counties. That's a national problem, there's always a huge need for medical. Again, other areas, we're pretty well diversified and we're seeing a few job openings in all industries except for right now probably the manufacturing, which has slowed down.
The largest non-farm industry in the Hays micro-area is health care and social assistance which makes up 18% of employment. No single industry is dominant and there is not a large enough workforce to attract a major industry. Michaelis says that Hays won't try to attract a Toyota plant or other big business because there aren't enough people to staff it and if a large business moved out that would be a major blow for the community, like what it experienced in the 1980s.
What happened to us back in the 80s when Travenol was here one major industry that we relied on and oil prices fell and farm prices fell and Travenol said they were leaving and we were devastated. We don't have that issue now because we're making furniture for recreational vehicles, bikes, airplanes, batteries, trucks, furniture there's a wide variety of things being made right in the county. That helps soften the blow, so to speak.
Instead, the focus is on the small scale. Smaller businesses needing a staff of ten or twenty are what the area is interested in attracting. That community feel extends to the Hays Has Jobs movement as well, it is aiming to gain employees that are friends or family of those living in Hays. Again, Phyllis LaShell.
We've been doing campaigns for family and friends, trying to recruit family and friends back to the community because those are the people most likely to return to the community, they know what it has to offer, of the great quality of life we have to offer here. To date we've recruited about 40 people back to the area that we know of, I mean we can't keep track of everybody, but we're having some great success from it.
The low unemployment rate and availability of professional jobs is not specific to Hays. Across a majority of western Kansas counties can boast the same, in fact there is also a recruiting website called western ks jobs. com that lets you look at job postings for each county. For High Plains Public Radio, I'm Lindsey Fields.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
(2009-01-01)
Listen Now:
HAYS, KAN.
(hppr) -
Hays Has Jobs. That's what I saw on a billboard just south of Wichita. It's an advertisement for Hays Has Jobs dot com, a website listing job opportunities and general information for Hays, Kansas. There are three other billboards, two on I-70 near Hays and one outside of Kansas City, Kansas. Hays certainly seems to have jobs. Although the national unemployment rate for November hit 6.7, the rate for Ellis County where Hays is located dropped to 2.8 percent. In Ellis County the civilian labor force is about 17, 600 people. Just over 17,000 of them are employed. Hays Has Jobs was set up by the Hays Has Jobs Initiative. Phyllis LaShell is the Regional Workforce Recruiting Specialist for the Initiative. LaShell says diversification is the reason for low unemployment in the area.
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Well, you know right here in our area we really are pretty diversified. We have a lot of small employers that are trying to grow their businesses and we really haven't been feeling the economic conditions that have been hitting on the east and west coasts and hopefully they don't hit us.
Hays has a remarkably low unemployment rate, but there are still unfilled jobs. Just why is there a need to recruit people to Hays? Mike Michaelis is the Executive Director Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development. Michaelis cites the familiar story of rural migration people moving from rural regions to settle down and look for work in metropolitan areas. The Hays Has Jobs Initiative is trying to attract qualified individuals to fill positions and there really is no one field that particularly needs employees, except perhaps the medical field as LaShell explains.
There's always a huge need for medical, I mean you can go to our website and see that that area of jobs there's a lot of postings there and it's not just Ellis County, it's our surrounding counties. That's a national problem, there's always a huge need for medical. Again, other areas, we're pretty well diversified and we're seeing a few job openings in all industries except for right now probably the manufacturing, which has slowed down.
The largest non-farm industry in the Hays micro-area is health care and social assistance which makes up 18% of employment. No single industry is dominant and there is not a large enough workforce to attract a major industry. Michaelis says that Hays won't try to attract a Toyota plant or other big business because there aren't enough people to staff it and if a large business moved out that would be a major blow for the community, like what it experienced in the 1980s.
What happened to us back in the 80s when Travenol was here one major industry that we relied on and oil prices fell and farm prices fell and Travenol said they were leaving and we were devastated. We don't have that issue now because we're making furniture for recreational vehicles, bikes, airplanes, batteries, trucks, furniture there's a wide variety of things being made right in the county. That helps soften the blow, so to speak.
Instead, the focus is on the small scale. Smaller businesses needing a staff of ten or twenty are what the area is interested in attracting. That community feel extends to the Hays Has Jobs movement as well, it is aiming to gain employees that are friends or family of those living in Hays. Again, Phyllis LaShell.
We've been doing campaigns for family and friends, trying to recruit family and friends back to the community because those are the people most likely to return to the community, they know what it has to offer, of the great quality of life we have to offer here. To date we've recruited about 40 people back to the area that we know of, I mean we can't keep track of everybody, but we're having some great success from it.
The low unemployment rate and availability of professional jobs is not specific to Hays. Across a majority of western Kansas counties can boast the same, in fact there is also a recruiting website called western ks jobs. com that lets you look at job postings for each county. For High Plains Public Radio, I'm Lindsey Fields.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
