North Dakota: Discussions For Attracting And Keeping Workers
Published by gwen April 12th, 2008 in Business, Uncategorized.According to an article published yesterday in the Bismarck Tribune, North Dakota lawmakers and citizens have been actively discussing ways to attract and keep workers. North Dakota’s skimpy labor pool has employers competing for the best employees, and it seems like there are ‘help wanted’ signs everywhere you look.
To continue the happy economic growth that North Dakota has experienced during the past few years, a strong and smart–and a larger–labor pool will be necessary. The committee has been discussing ways to enlarge and improve that labor pool.
From the article:
With thousands of jobs going begging, North Dakota business people and state lawmakers have been mulling proposals to bring more workers into the state, and coax those who are already here to stay.The Legislature’s interim Workforce Committee on Thursday finished a series of discussion groups and sessions with business people, local economic developers and higher education officials to solicit ideas on worker recruitment and retention.Sen. Tony Grindberg, R-Fargo, the committee’s chairman, said the panel will use results from the talks to draft bills for the 2009 Legislature to consider.
According to the article, two possible solutions are to create a tax credit for students who graduate from college in North Dakota and decide to stay here, and to create a temporary state income tax reprieve for people moving into the state.
The best solutions will come from the private sector as they recruit and find ways to retain their own employees.
Simple solution: Within every business there exists a formula for costs wherein labor gets rated. As a percentage of costs labor has some flexibility. Pay more, get more is the golden rule. When you have heard all the shouting “I can’t afford it!, just ask what the percentage numbers are for labor in that business, etc. Watch as the “shouter” stammers for a reply. Smart business people know all the numbers, all the ratios, all the percentages. They also know how to adjust the business for survival and profit. If the numbers don’t create such freedom for labor offerings, then the market is more than soft, it is weak. Look at the numbers for a reality check. Sales pitches about a great and vibrant economy sound pretty, but the numbers tell the truth!
I’ll just quote a section from a friend’s blog. She’s a professional working in the Twin Cities area, but originally from Bismarck:
“15,000 job openings are listed through north dakota job service. so what do lawmakers want to do? propose a tax break for workers who choose to stay in the state and fill those openings. dean rummell says these jobs require “a higher degree of math skills, critical thinking skills, communication skills and the ability to learn quickly…” was it then, a mistake made by reporter brad feldman to show businesses like mcdonalds, perkins and subway advertising positions available? do those jobs require college degrees?
for the record, i just looked through job openings on the ND job service website. there are fewer than ten openings that offer the same salary i currently make. job openings for positions that pay minimum wage ($7.25/hour)? over 500.
that would have to be one h*ll of a tax incentive to get me to come back and make a fair living in the state. pretty sad.”
There you have it. Until the wages come up, large numbers of people will not return. The whole “low cost of living” argument doesn’t erase the difference, either.
None of this can happen overnight. Hopefully we continue to make progress in the right direction. But until wages come up, tax incentives aren’t going to matter to anyone but the few that qualify for the rare high-paying North Dakota job.
Clint F
BismarckMandanBlog.com
Thank you for highlighting the number of low wage/low skill jobs which North Dakota offers. We have allowed our “readers” to leave. Women in this day and age are able to choose from all jobs.
In the “olden days” women had limited choices including teacher, secretary, a nurse. We no longer have an abundance of teachers in anything other than elementary education, physical education and social sciences. Those who do go into education in science, math and technology find much higher paying education jobs to our south in Wyoming (among other states) whose salaries start at $40,000. A tax credit will not make up the difference of $10,000. If you don’t have an excellent education system (read where are we going to get good teachers when the present ones retire), many people will not move here. In an age where people need to be trained and retrained, reading is important, hence eduation is more important than ever.
Our legislature and communities have not wanted to seriously address this problem. I love North Dakota, but my children are not working here and may not ever return. When they find spouses from other parts of the country as well as a comfortable lifestyle, North Dakota looks like “a place I’d like to visit, but I wouldn’t care to live there.”
The only way youre are going to get people to come to ND and work is to pay them the wages they deserved, I always love these arguments and they are missing the points, its the pay they are getting in MPLS and other places makes the pay they would get here look unattractive. They can talk about all of these things till they are blue in the face. If I didn’t have a government job I wouldn’t be living in ND as well. I am probably giving up 20,000-30,000 a year to live here anyways.