Bismarck, North Dakota News

There's a sense of desperation in the comments section of a recent survey taken at a Michigan job fair: When asked what workers there need to have to consider moving to North Dakota, the answers varied from "money"to "moving expenses"to "a job."

"Honestly, my wife and Iare starting to file bankruptcy,"one unemployed Michigan worker wrote. "I'm looking for a change. I'm not sure yet if it's what God wants. With his blessing, I'd leave here in a heartbeat!"

The survey was conducted by the Workforce Development Committee by the Bismarck-Mandan Development Association at a job fair in Grand Rapids, Mich., where fellow Midwesterners have watched their jobs get shipped overseas, their manufacturing plants and the supplemental supply industries shut down even before the national economy began to dry up.

It's a problem that has only grazed North Dakota and the Bismarck-Mandan area, most notably with the upcoming shutdown of the Bobcat Co. plants in Bismarck and Gwinner for six weeks in the winter.

But the main problem many are concentrating on is the lack of a workforce in the state and in Bismarck-Mandan, an area apparently rich with jobs.

North Dakota's unemployment numbers continue to hold steady or, in some areas, decline. After the nation posted its highest unemployment rate in 14 years at 6.5 percent, North Dakota's labor statistics boasted a 2.8 percent unemployment rate, with 4,000 more jobs added in September than in the previous year.

In Burleigh and Morton counties, that's 2.4 percent and 2.7 percent unemployment, respectively. Statewide, there are about 16,000 open jobs.

"It's a phenomenon,"said Steve Herman, chair of the Workforce Development Committee. Herman said they've been working with Monster.com to market the area; executives at Monster have said the area is one of only a couple of regions experiencing such low unemployment.

Experts point to the state's agriculture and energy industries; the latter of the two continues to advertise for more workers to work rigs and other labor jobs.

The industries within the area that continue to suffer from lack of workers appear to be in service and hospitality, health care and technical jobs. Janelle Frederick at St. Alexius Medical Center said they are in a constant state of need for food and housekeeping workers. Signs across town continue to advertise jobs in retail and other areas. And technical and some professional jobs still go unfilled.

"It's been a struggle with the workforce out there right now,"Frederick said.

There have been several efforts in the state to bring more workers in. Most visible, perhaps, has been the Department of Commerce's efforts to recruit former North Dakotans; in fact, the Experience ND Career Expo was held on Saturday in Denver to help match former North Dakotans with jobs in the state.

But that effort might be too slow for some.

"When we look for former North Dakotans, these are employed people,"Herman said, adding that he was not speaking for the committee. "It's literally going to take dynamite to blow them out of where they're at."

It's an effort that has worked for several families. Experience ND is all about North Dakota, a fair where participants come to talk with several of the companies represented. Saturday's career expo hosted 80 companies from North Dakota, representing jobs all over the state.

"We've seen good signs that we are moving people back into the state. We want to stimulate that, we want to increase the flow,"said Shane Goettle, head of the North Dakota Department of Commerce. "We want people to think of North Dakota as a place to look at jobs."

Goettle said the Michigan job fair, however, was encouraging and will be used as another way to bring people into the state.

"We've got the situation where our economy, despite what's going on nationally, is still holding out with literally thousands of job opportunities,"he said. "It's a great, great time to try to turn the tide and move people into the state."

Herman would like to see at least 20 to 25 new workers placed in the community, which is why they're scouring areas of high unemployment. Like Grand Rapids, where more than 8 percent of the eligible workforce is out of a job.

Maureen Downer, program manager for Michigan Works, said she's seen first-hand the tight situations workers are getting into. And although the state may have an issue with other states picking at its workforce, she said that, personally, she recognizes workers need jobs and they need them fast.

"My thought is wherever you can find a job that can meet your needs, go,"Downer said. "Folks don't just likely pick up and move. They have to be in a difficult spot to do that. It has to make sense."

Herman said none of the people surveyed had a problem with the idea of North Dakota. They just wanted to be secure in a job.

"In all of the people (surveyed)in Grand Rapids,"Herman said, "not one of them said they would not relocate to North Dakota. Weather was not an issue."

The issue is money. Herman and his committee recently told the mayor's Economic Development Committee that funds of $250,000 to $500,000 could eventually help them help workers get to the state.

"It takes a lot of marketing on the Internet and it takes a fair amount of money to go after these folks no matter where they're from,"Herman said.

For workers in Grand Rapids, they cited relocation needs, mortgage buy-downs, travel expenses; many said they'd be willing to move for the right job. Some cited salaries needs of $400 a week, others needed salaries in higher ranges to move.

Andy Levin, deputy director of Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth, said the state works hard to help employers find talented workers in state, and to help the workforce get the skills they need to get jobs in Michigan.

"We do not work on finding workers jobs in other states,"he added. "If employers want to come here and recruit, it's a free country."

Herman and the development committee are working with area employers to head to Grand Rapids again in January, this time with the hope they'll match workers with jobs.

"We're putting data together,"Herman said. "And then we want to develop incentives as to what would entice these people. Preliminarily, it doesn't look like it's going to be what any of us would consider a great deal of money per family."

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)

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