Local ljobs concentrated in three sectors

by Maria Hoover

Inside Business Editor

mhoover@sbj.net

The three driving forces in the Springfield economy are manufacturing, health care and education, according to Becky Spain, manager of work force and business development with the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Spain cites statistics that show 23,000 jobs in manufacturing and 20,000 in health care in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area. Spain doesn't have a separate number for the number of jobs in education, but educational employers figure prominently on the chamber's list of major employers with more than 400 employees. Among the top 34 employers with 400-plus employees are Springfield Public Schools, Drury University, and Southwest Baptist University.

The Springfield R-XII School District, which also ranks among Missouri's Top 50 employers, reported 2,535 full-time employees in SBJ's 2004 Book of Lists. Other big players in the education sector are Southwest Missouri State University, which reported a total of 3,211 employees and the Nixa School District one of Christian County's largest employers with 461 employees, according to the "Springfield Area's Largest Institutional Employers" listing which appears in this issue.

"We can estimate about a $4 billion economic impact per year in the Springfield economy" from manufacturing and health care, Spain said.

Rita Needham, executive director of Southwest Area Manufacturers Association, said manufacturing has experienced a downturn as the result of the economic slide of the last couple of years, but she said she's beginning to see that change.

"I'm starting to see signs. There's hiring going on, orders are up for our manufacturers for many of them so this seems to be a better year than the previous three," Needham said.

SAMA has 65 member companies, Needham said, representing more than 6,000 jobs. Because the organization is Springfield-based, most of its members hail from Springfield and Nixa. However, she said, there are regional members in Monett, Stockton and Ava.

Needham said as far as the types of goods manufactured locally, there is quite a variety but she said probably the most common thread among local manufacturers is stainless steel fabrication.

Jobs in education

The jobs outlook in education varies by institution. At SMSU, for example, employment depends largely on state funding and tuition, said Mary Routh, director of human resources for the university.

"We look at all new positions, in particular, very closely, depending on the budget situation, " Routh said.

Growth in student volume also is a factor.

"I think the volume of students definitely comes into play on the per-course the part-time faculty," Routh said.

Rob Hornberger, coordinator of Web and data support in SMSU's enrollment management office, said the school is expecting enrollment to be about the same for the fall 2004 semester. He said most returning students enroll for the next year before leaving for the summer, but students can enroll up until the new semester begins. For the listing of largest institutional employers, SMSU reported 3,211 total employees, 779 of which are full-time faculty and 324 are part-time faculty.

The number of staff members university employees who perform administrative functions and provide institutional support outside the classrooms might not necessarily be affected by student volume, but faculty the employees whose primary duties involve teaching might be.

For Springfield Public Schools, according to Personnel Director Danny Fuller, the big challenge is to maintain the current number of teachers employed by the school district and that's not an easy task due to tight budgets because of decreased state funding.

"The key thing is that you have to understand that you place teachers by certification, so there is a possibility that we will add some teachers in areas where we have needs. But at the current time, what we're doing is we're shifting teachers around where student population has dropped in one area and increased in another," Fuller said.

What that basically means, he said, is that new positions won't be created, but the district will work to keep existing positions filled.

Finding qualified applicants for those open positions is particularly challenging in the areas of science, math and special education.

"I think there's an abundance of teachers in the other areas . You just don't have a lot of folks who are going into the math, sciences and special education arenas."

The outcome of the upcoming June 8 vote on a 25-cent operating tax levy increase for Springfield Public Schools probably won't affect hiring, Fuller said, but failure of the tax levy could mean staff cuts.

"We'll have to look at all of that in terms of programs," he said.

Health care

In health care, the number of employment opportunities is likely to increase as the population ages, according to Don Anderson, vice president of human resources with CoxHealth. Systemwide, including all subsidiaries, CoxHealth has about 9,000 employees.

"At any point in time, we typically will be running with 5 percent vacancies at any day of the week, we probably have 400 openings," Anderson said.

The fact that Springfield is a college town, Anderson said, contributes to many of those vacancies.

"For the most part, when we lose people, they're moving out of the area," Anderson said.

CoxHealth's response to that, he said, is to grow its own job candidates.

"We try to train our own professionals in the local market. We try to hang onto them, which is why we have (Cox College of Nursing)," Anderson said.

He added, "The biggest need is in the nursing sector because that is the largest number of professionals that we have." CoxHealth employs about 1,500 nurses at its Cox North and Cox South medical centers, Anderson said.

CoxHealth employs some doctors, but also works with independent physicians who practice at CoxHealth facilities.

CoxHealth's relationship with its employees and physicians is the first pillar of its customer service initiative.

St. John's Health System, which includes its health plans, hospitals and St. John's Clinic, employs 8,000, according to Jim Brookhart, vice president of human resources for St. John's Health System.

St. John's Clinic Chief Operating Officer Donn Sorensen said filling positions in nursing and mid-level management is challenging for St. John's, but perhaps not so much as recruiting physicians for St. John's Clinic, which has 67 locations.

"From the St. John's Clinic perspective, recruiting physicians recruiting and retaining physicians is one of our key priorities," Sorensen said. "We recruit nationally, of course. Our clinic has about 430 physicians and about 100 mid-level providers." Midlevel providers, he said, are physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

To successfully recruit, Sorensen said, "We work very hard in the St. John's Clinic, to make this a rewarding place to practice medicine." That entails an annual, confidential survey of current physicians to find out how they feel about the clinic, resources, access to technology and the ability to provide quality medicine.

"We take that information, and we continue to work very hard on improving this clinic to make it a good place for a physician to practice medicine, so they can focus on what they do best, which is patient care," Sorensen said. "And for us in administration (the focus) is to take the administrative burden off their shoulders."

The Springfield region itself is another good recruiting tool for St. John's.

"When we talk to physicians nationally, they may not have heard of (the Ozarks), and may actually resist a little bit but once we get them here, this is a great community, a lovely community, the right size of population, and it's an attractive place to live."

Sorensen said St. John's recruits about 50 new physicians to St. John's Clinic every year.

"Our turnover rate we have been very successful is about 4 percent, so we have been able to develop a professionally rewarding place for physicians to practice," he said.

Brookhart said St. John's has a systemwide retention rate of 87 percent. For nurses, he said there is typically a 5 percent vacancy rate and an 86 precent retention rate.