(Central Square) – In the Pennsylvania economy today, employers are struggling to find enough workers, rising prices and enough affordable housing for their workers.
Rising prices, shortages of employees and supplies, wage increases and “rising energy prices” are putting “a strain on our survival,” said David Crouse, owner of 3C Family Restaurant in the Pottsville area.
“Small businesses can’t exist without skilled help to grow and thrive,” Cruz said, noting the difficulty of hiring workers after the pandemic.
Although business owners are raising wages, they are struggling to find enough workers.
Pennsylvania jobless claims fall and remain below pre-Covid-19 levels, more jobs are listed as open compared to pre-Covid-19, and labor demand is strong, The Center Square reports reported earlier.
The labor problem, according to business owners, has two main themes: an education system that doesn’t promote STEM enough and isn’t conducive to trades and manufacturing, and a lack of affordable housing for workers to relocate to work.
“There is a need for labor and a huge mismatch, a huge gap,” said John Powers, CEO of Ashland Technologies Inc., a contract manufacturer.
Powers argued that part of this discrepancy is due to the fact that the education system does not push students to be productive. “We need to put education, training and skills in the right area and hit the right people in the right place,” he said.
One of the examples of youth interest, he noted, was attracting students to production facilities.
Instead of business subsidies, requests focused on strengthening ties in the education system.
The Legislature could support manufacturers with “additional investments in STEM in schools,” said Mike Hammer, senior director of operations at Industrial Hydro. “More investment in STEM will definitely help prepare the workforce.”
Hammer noted that programming robots and machines is “the future.” Training within the education system is important because small businesses do not necessarily have a sufficient workforce to offer intensive on-the-job training.
“When you’re talking about training from the inside, a lot of times your best guy has to coach the new guy,” Powers said. This slows down production.
Hamer also noted the lack of affordable housing in rural Pennsylvania. “Decent middle-income housing or market-rate housing makes it difficult to attract/hire people to live near our facility,” he noted in his written testimony.
“This is a relatively new issue for Schuylkill County,” said Sen. David Argall, R-Berks/Schuylkill. “If it’s a problem here, it’s a problem everywhere … when you hear from employers today that their workforce can’t find reasonable housing so they don’t have to drive an hour at $5 or $4 a gallon, that’s a new problem. for us.”
https://www.indianagazette.com/news/state/affordable-housing-job-training-a-growing-problem-for-pennsylvania-business-owners/article_daad663c-c879-5df6-99a1-f4aa1b9a788e.html
