Job market anemic outside health fields

Need a job? MBS Books is hiring. So are ABC Labs and Shelter Insurance. But don’t bother to call on Dana Corporation, State Farm Insurance or Weaver Manufacturing.

With the unemployment rate in the city passing 7 percent, which leaves nearly 4,000 workers without jobs, CBT surveyed some of the largest local employers about their openings and talked with employment service executives about the job market, which they said was generally anemic outside the medical field.

About half of the 21 surveyed businesses were hiring for vacancies; a little more than a fourth were hiring for new positions and about a third did not have plans to hire any time soon. Because most companies were hiring for vacancies, the positions available tended to be full-time rather than part-time or temporary.

Caroline Gower of Caroline & Company and Allen Jennings of Kelly Services said they’ve also seen a higher number of vacant positions available instead of new positions.

“Employers are continuing to tighten their belts by cutting overhead and workforce, cutting hours and placing further demands on employees that remain,” Gower said.

Jennings said that companies are continuing to take careful measures to keep costs as low as possible.

“Factories have been adding employees piecemeal, only as needed,” Jennings said. There have been “no mass hirings as companies are watching inventories, scrutinizing incoming orders and doing whatever it takes to control payroll.”

Dana Corporation has gone down from 250 employees to 138 in the past year, and the manufacturing company was not hiring for any open positions. Weaver Manufacturing has gone up three employees in the past year, 36 to 39, but also was not hiring for vacancies or new positions.

Jennings said just looking in the employment sections of newspapers shows that companies are working to keep the need for new positions low. There are “two pages as opposed to five pages a year and a half ago,” he said.

“While there are a few companies in certain industries either maintaining or showing spurts of business, current economic conditions are generally not good in Columbia and the outlying areas,” Jennings added.

But several of the companies surveyed by CBT said they planned to increase their workforces over the coming months. MBS Books is hiring for 35 full-time positions. These positions include three managerial positions in IT or customer service, three Web development programming positions, two inventory data analysts and four inventory or product specialists. The available positions also include 20 warehouse operation positions.

VA Mortgage Center also had several positions available. The company grew from 138 employees last year to 220 this year. There were seven open positions, only two of which are vacancies.

The city of Columbia is another place to look for employment. They were hiring for four vacancies and four new positions.

Although Shelter Insurance was hiring for three positions in the Columbia area, two other insurance groups — Cornerstone National Insurance Company and State Farm — didn’t have any job openings. Joe Camoriano of State Farm said they are filling all their open positions internally, and David Spencer of Cornerstone said they didn’t have any open positions and would only be hiring if an open position needed to be filled.

Columbia’s largest bank, Boone County National Bank, is hiring for one position in the area. This past year the bank has gone from 346 employees to 333.

“We hire as needed to replace positions as they open,” said Melody Marcks, senior vice president of human resources.

The medical field is one place where jobs are starting to open back up, said Anne Williams of Job Finders Employment Services.

“Our medical recruiting division is showing a steady incline,” she said. “Allied health professionals and mid-level providers are once again interested in making job changes.”

In the past year ABC Labs in Columbia has increased its workforce from 317 to 330 and was hiring for 15 full-time positions, eight of which are entirely new positions. Another medical business, the Columbia Orthopaedic Group, was seeking employees to replace two full-time positions.

Workers who don’t have a place in a resurging field such as medicine might find employment, at least temporarily, in seasonal or temporary positions. Both Williams and Jennings said their companies expected to find more response for temporary workers from employers.

“Our temporary staffing division is starting to increase,” Williams said. “When talking to clients, we are finding they are ready to get the economy going. They cannot wait any longer for growth” in the economy to take place.

MBS Books was hiring for 58 part-time temporary positions and more than 50 temporary warehouse positions for December and January. Miller’s Professional Imaging planned to fill as many as five seasonal positions.

Williams said the demand for temporary workers is increasing as companies work to keep their costs of doing business low.

“They are utilizing our temporary staff, saving them the costs associated with hiring regular employees: benefit, worker’s compensation insurance, unemployment insurance and the like,” she said.