As always known...Lincoln Nebraska is thee greatest city in our country

[huskers1217]

In Lincoln, Neb., a View of Full Employment


@JuiceTheGator (any chance you have a subscription and can copy the article).....

 

[huskers1217]

Good things happen at full employment

 

[JuiceTheGator]

In Lincoln, Neb., a View of Full Employment
@JuiceTheGator (any chance you have a subscription and can copy the article).....

In Lincoln, Neb., a View of Full Employment

In Lincoln, Neb., a View of Full Employment

By Jeffrey Sparshott 19 hours ago


LINCOLN, Neb.—Full employment has arrived in this Midwestern capital, offering a taste of the higher pay and new perks more companies are using to lure workers in a tight labor market.



At 2.3% in the most recent reading, Lincoln had one of the lowest jobless rates in the country. It’s one of 31 U.S. metropolitan areas—from Portsmouth, N.H., to Provo, Utah—with unemployment rates at or below 3%, far better than the 5% average nationwide. A year earlier there were only 18 such spots, highlighting steady improvement in the labor market despite mixed economic signals.

The result, at least in Lincoln, offers hints of what the Federal Reserve hoped to achieve with its easy-money policies of the past seven years: steady job creation and higher wages.

“We all have been struggling to find workers,” said Nick Cusick, president of Bison Inc., a sports-equipment maker. “And largely it’s a numbers game, with the [local] unemployment rate being what it is.”

In such a tight labor market, it’s relatively easy for many workers to find or switch jobs, earn higher wages and land more-generous benefits. During the summer, average hourly earnings in the Lincoln metro area surged nearly 11% from a year earlier and by October were up 8.4% from the same month in 2014. Nationwide, that wage growth was 2.5%.

Matt Davis, a 38-year-old electrician with 14 years of experience on the job, received a company-sponsored trip for two to a swanky Arizona resort when he started a new job in mid-November. “There’s a lot of work in Lincoln right now that needs to be done. It’s a good market to be in if you’re an electrician, a plumber or whatever.”

The hiring bonus is just one of a handful of perks Lincoln-based electrical services and tech firm Kidwell Inc. is using to attract and retain enough staff for a growing pipeline of work. Kidwell also has boosted pay by about 7% over the past year, cut the cost of health insurance and started offering new benefits such as gym-membership reimbursements and food and snack delivery to job sites.

The next step? “I’m going to be researching how I can recruit people from the coast, where the cost of living is so high,“ said Ryan Theil, Kidwell’s president. ”That’s where we’re going to have to pull our labor force as we grow, I think, from outside this market.”

Rising demand for labor has been spurred by steady economic growth in the city of about 273,000. Supply houses and manufacturers like Bison sit just a few blocks south of the city’s revitalized Haymarket District, where restaurants and bars have moved into historic brick warehouses.

A number of tech startups are working to become the next Hudl, a sports-information company in Lincoln now widely used to coach and scout athletes. And the University of Nebraska’s main campus provides employment and a steady stream of students moving through the city.

As local labor demand has picked up, Lincoln offers a window into a labor market moving perhaps beyond full employment. The term refers to the level of unemployment that won’t spur too much inflation. Fed officials’ median projection for the normal long-run unemployment rate was 4.9% as of December, a national average that doesn’t account for local variables like education levels, workforce-participation rates and labor mobility. Some economists believe the level is even lower, though the Fed is wary of overshooting its mark by too much and this week moved to begin raising interest rates, albeit slowly.

The U.S. unemployment rate was a seasonally adjusted 5% in November, and wages appear to be firming, though the national labor market still shows signs of slack. Many Americans have dropped out of the labor force, pushing the participation rate to levels last seen in the 1970s, and many Americans are stuck in part-time work when they would prefer full-time jobs.

That means there is a pool of workers ready to move up or into the labor force when the right opportunity materializes or they develop in-demand skills. As long as there are underemployed or people marginally attached to the labor force who can be lured back, companies probably won’t need to lift overall wages significantly.

Additionally, there are still many cities with high jobless rates or trending in the wrong direction. For instance, Midland and Odessa, Texas, both saw unemployment shoot well above 3% amid depressed prices in the oil patch.

Yet for those who want a job, cities like Lincoln appear to offer ample opportunity. Scott Shields, 45, moved to Lincoln from Seattle this year, applied for two jobs and was offered both. He decided to take a position as an environmental-services technician at Bryan Health.

The strong labor market and relatively low cost of living make Lincoln particularly appealing, Mr. Shields said. “It’s like two different countries, Seattle and Lincoln,” he said. “In Lincoln you feel like you can make it.”

Bryan Health, one of the city’s biggest private employers, just before Thanksgiving boosted its starting minimum wage by 30% to $11 an hour. That takes its lowest salary well above a state minimum wage that rises to $9 on Jan. 1, reflecting the scramble to attract and retain entry-level cafeteria, medical-records and custodial workers.

And while businesses extol the work ethic of the local population, sometimes there just aren’t enough people. Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. has raised wages at its Lincoln plant by about 8% over the past year and pushed recruitment efforts farther out into Nebraska’s rural areas. But the manufacturer still finds itself short about 80 workers during what is its busiest production season from October to March, said plant manager Mike Boyle. That has forced the company to offer more overtime to current employees.

Trouble finding workers appears especially acute at the entry level and among skilled tradesmen. In other fields, the market appears tight everywhere.

“Honestly, we don’t see much difference as we compete for talent between locations,” said David Graff, chief executive of Hudl, which also has offices in Omaha, Boston, London and Sydney. “There is definitely wage pressure, but I think that is less due to overall low unemployment and more due to the extreme demand for incredibly talented people in highly technical roles.”

Spenser Heaps/Associated Press Provo, Utah, is one of 31 U.S. metropolitan areas with unemployment rates at or below 3%. Here, a harvester tends to a field in Provo during the summer.
Of course, broad economic forces keep the local economies churning. Companies still lay off workers or go out of business altogether. There are signs the farm economy is getting squeezed by low commodity prices, a potential headwind for Nebraska’s economy.

But for now, local officials appear more concerned with a shortage, not a surplus, of workers. Without a growing labor force, outside companies may hesitate to move to the city and local firms may struggle to expand.

“Full employment is great,” said Trent Fellers, a city councilman, who is helping study measures—such as temporary, lower income-tax rates for new graduates—to spur faster growth for the population and the economy. “But businesses can’t move people up and continue to grow if they don’t have the talent. Having full employment can be some hindrance to growth.”

Write to Jeffrey Sparshott at [email protected]

 

[Skerpokes]

This thread title is completely misleading. While Lincoln might have good employment, let's not kid ourselves here. Lincoln is a shithole and has the most stop lights per capita in the country. Not to mention the worst restaurant service in the world.

 

[antone112]

If Pavelka still has a job, you know there are plenty to go around.

 

[antone112]

As for people being hesitant to move there, I can only assume they do not want to be raped by a football player.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

If Pavelka still has a job, you know there are plenty to go around.

He should be doing the football games too.

Best play-by-play radio dude of all time. Still.

 

[popeyecv64]

I like Lincoln Neb
great place to werk in
the red fox is a great place to dine at

 

[antone112]

He should be doing the football games too.

Best play-by-play radio dude of all time. Still.

He's pretty bad at basketball. Listening to the Tennessee game he was calling out the opponents numbers instead of names. But he and Matt are paid to be homers which they do pretty well. He was 10x better at football.

 

[Jack_John_Mark]

He's pretty bad at basketball. Listening to the Tennessee game he was calling out the opponents numbers instead of names. But he and Matt are paid to be homers which they do pretty well. He was 10x better at football.

I love him.

I don't want some flat-liner in there. I like when Pavelka goes nuts.

 

[Red_Alert]

Lyell Bremser >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Kent Pavelka

It's not even close.