Market Management

The Springfield metropolitan statistical area’s 2.9% jobless rate for July, which is lower than the national 3.5% unemployment mark, continues to make the local job market a challenging environment to navigate, local industry leaders say.

However, there are successes to be found. Several industry officials in the Springfield area report hiring is up for their companies beyond the struggles during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is a highly competitive job market. The competing markets vary depending on the position,” says Darla Morrison, director of human resources for the city of Springfield, via email. The city’s employee count is roughly 1,990 people, including interns, as well as seasonal, temporary and contract workers. She says nearly an additional 530 people who work for the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, a division of the city, are employed through an outside agency.

She notes local governments are functionally diverse organizations, with areas such as police, fire, engineering, maintenance, nursing, finance and legal services all on the payroll.

“We are currently at a peak time as we have seasonal employees currently working in parks and other areas with seasonal operations like summer outdoor swimming pools,” she says.

When just including regular positions, Morrison says the workforce total is 1,837, up a little over 2% from last August. Still, the city definitely is in hiring mode, she says, as it has roughly 250 openings.

“We compete with more of a local market when hiring for administration support positions. However, we compete nationally for police officers and other careers,” she says.

Report trends
The city’s recent hiring success is counter to the most recent monthly jobs report from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. According to the July data, local government across the state was down 300 jobs and 2,000 jobs, month over month and year over year, respectively.

In the MERIC report, the largest yearly gain for an industry since July 2022 was in leisure and hospitality, which was up 15,500 jobs. The industry also was up by 700 jobs last month.

Gail Myer, vice president of Myer Hospitality Inc., says employment levels are good at the five hotels his company owns and operates in Branson.

“We’re primarily fully staffed,” he says, noting the company currently employs 170. “Every week, we have one or two positions that we’re working on or trying to fill, but that’s all. That is a reflection of the fact that as a company, our team members feel valued. They understand their purpose and they like our culture.”

The employee count is at a seasonal high for the company, but Myer says he expects the total will have a traditional dip in the winter of about 30% during the offseason for many Branson shows.

Myer says the employee growth in leisure and hospitality statewide over the past year is likely a response to the industry’s workforce struggles during the pandemic. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the industry in 2020 was at roughly 13.1 million, a nearly 21% drop from the 16.5 million jobs pre-pandemic in 2019. BLS data estimated the industry would return to near pre-pandemic job levels by 2031.

Myer Hospitality is basically back to pre-pandemic employment levels now, Myer says.

“It’s easier than it was last year,” he says of finding employees. “There’s still some definite challenges to having right people, right seats. But we’re seeing that ease, and I hope that means that people are finding the right place for them.”

The company has been active on job-seeking websites such as Indeed and ZipRecruiter, as well as social media to reach potential candidates, he says. While declining to disclose starting pay, Myer says that amount also has been boosted to stay competitive and as a response to higher inflation.

Regardless of industry, there’s some optimism that the market for business sectors will improve over the next year, according to respondents of Springfield Business Journal’s 2023 Economic Growth Survey. Over 40% of respondents forecast improvement in their business sector, while 31% expect it will remain the same and 22% believe it will worsen.

Staying steady
The average starting pay also was raised at manufacturer SRC Heavy Duty, says General Manager Dustin Davenport. The hourly average has been boosted to $17.50-$18, he says, noting the amount about two years ago was $12 per hour. SRC Heavy Duty, which remanufactures diesel engines and components, turbochargers and fuel systems, among other products, is one of 12 subsidiaries of SRC Holdings Corp.

“We’ve had a very high percentage of pay increase in the last 24 months,” he says, adding the company also has paid bonuses this year. “It’s a pretty good growth over a short period.”

Davenport says he hasn’t recently noticed “help wanted” signs as often as he did over the previous couple of years, noting SRC has had “decent success” hiring in the last 60 days.

“I don’t know if it’s summer. I don’t know if it’s seasonal people looking for different roles,” he says. “I don’t know what’s triggered it, but I feel like as far as getting people in for interviews and stuff, it’s had a pretty good uptick.”

The employee market remains competitive, and the low unemployment rate indicates fewer people seeking work, he says.

“We’ve had a steady increase. We’re about 95% of where we planned to be at this point,” Davenport says, noting SRC Heavy Duty employs roughly 365 workers. “We’ve got about 20 openings right now.”

SRC Heavy Duty has experienced strong hiring growth since early last year, Davenport says.

“We’ve probably hired 75 people in the last 12-18 months,” he says.

Companywide, the local employee count at SRC Holdings Corp. was up to 1,750 people in May 2023 from 1,650 in May 2022, according to Springfield Business Journal list research.

SRC’s job growth is in line with the latest MERIC jobs report, which noted manufacturing gained 300 jobs in July and its year-over-year increase is 7,800 jobs.

Despite data in the state agency’s report indicating a loss in jobs for local government, Morrison says the city of Springfield has slowly increased its employee count over the past three years.

“The city overall saw about a 9% dip in employment levels in 2020 during the pandemic and then has seen steady growth back to similar levels pre-pandemic,” she says. “In early 2022, we raised entry pay ranges for regular positions to be at $15 per hour or greater.”

While declining to disclose revenue projections for the year, Davenport says the company is seeing “steady growth” with its customers as concerns of a recession seem to be dissipating for 2023.

“We were anticipating a potential slowdown in the second half of the year and we’re not experiencing that right now, and I’m not seeing it coming,” he says.