Telecom careers garner lion's share of wages

Unemployment remains low in southwest Missouri, and the situation isn't expected to change anytime soon, prompting many businesses to offer extra incentives to attract workers.

One way businesses are trying to lure qualified employees is to offer higher wages. Still, average hourly earnings in the Springfield area remain lower than the state average.

A recent study by the Bureau for Economic Research in the department of economics at Southwest Missouri State University shows that Springfield earnings, looking at years 1990 and 1999, are 6 percent to 55 percent lower than the state average.

The lower wages have been observed for decades, according to the department. That may be because of the absence of heavy manufacturing, lower living costs, less unionization and the rural influences in southwest Missouri, the report states.

The three areas that pay the most, according to the study, are transportation, communications and utilities, with an average hourly wage in December 1999 of $17.96. Next is construction, with an average hourly wage of $15.89, followed by wholesale trade at $13.45.

"Telecommunications is big now," said Lory Hobbs, area manager for Manpower Inc. "Long-distance, local, Internet it's a very lucrative market to get into now, and Springfield has a lot of that."

Hobbs has noticed that jobs in the telecommunications field tend to pay more. She also pointed out that newer companies in the Springfield area are offering higher wages, but established companies in southwest Missouri also are increasing pay.

"More of the high-end professional positions have stepped up and are paying more," she said.

More people are going back to school to fill the more lucrative positions, especially those in the computer field, Hobbs said. And those skilled workers are needed, she said, since her company sees those types of potential employees come in, "but not on a regular basis." Manpower often relies on advertising and the Internet to locate skilled workers.

Nikki Sells, owner and regional developer for Express Personnel, said computer jobs tend to pay more than other positions. For example, she said, computer technicians are in such high demand that "there's a real top price going for those types of positions."

Of course, anything with a specialty attached to it is going to pay higher, Sells said. "The more training you have and the more specialized you are, the more money you're going to make."

Springfield's Partnership Industrial Center is helping to boost wages throughout the city, according to the SMSU department of economics study. The report states, "to the degree the PIC attracts new companies to Springfield, the demand for local labor services is increased and wages are pushed higher throughout the community."

But the PIC, according to the study, most likely has a greater impact on the wages of more highly skilled workers.

With more companies moving in and unemployment remaining low, the demand for qualified workers will continue to be great and Sells doesn't expect the unemployment picture in the United States and in southwest Missouri to change for a long time.

"It is my educated opinion that in the United States of America we will never again have as many people as we need as long as we have a healthy economy," she said. That's because baby boomers didn't have as many children as their parents did, Sells said.

While many companies are offering higher wages to attract qualified employees, they are also learning that money isn't everything, according to Sells. "Benefits mean a lot as well as the atmosphere in a company people are wanting more of a quality of life."

Sells said she sees more people wanting flex-time so they can spend more time with their families.

"We're past this workaholic attitude of the '80s. Money is very rarely any more the No. 1 issue of why people will or will not accept a position," Sells said.