Smart Workforce Solutions
Archive for the 'Economic Development' Category
Get Your Kicks on Route 66 is a vintage song that gave Joplin national recognition years ago as a popular stop along Historic Route 66. Joplin is back in the national spotlight for its business climate. A national business publication profiled Joplin as a top 25 “Choice City” among metro areas in the nation deemed most attractive for business development. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments (0)Gov. Matt Blunt announced today that the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) has approved state tax credits for $1,828,596 over a five-year benefit period for AT&T under the Enhanced Enterprise Zone program. The credits will be utilized for a new facility located at 4001 S. Richard Joseph Blvd. The business operations at the project facility will be a customer care call center for wireless business customers.
The Milken Institute, a renowned independent economic think tank, released its study of the most expensive and least expensive states for businesses. The Show-Me state shows favorable to business with Missouri coming in as one of the states in the top least-expensive for doing business, ranking at 43 of 50 in total cost index overall.
A recent study by the Urban Land Institute found that many companies are finding a shortage of affordable housing close to work is making it more difficult to hire and retain entry-and mid-level workers. It also found that younger workers and workers earning $50,000 or less were significantly more likely to move closer to work if affordable housing were available than those with higher incomes.
Of those larger (100+ employees) companies surveyed, 58% reported having lost employees at least in part to long commute times, 69% believed a long commute time increases employee stress, 63% believed it triggers negative emotion among employees, 48% said it causes more absenteeism, and 46% said it contributes to turnover. Some of the solutions to long commute times offered by employers included flextime (45%) and telecommuting (21%).
Enhanced Enterprise Zone Tax Credit incentives are part of the economic development package that’s resulting in 30 new jobs with an average wage of $46,166 and a $6 million new investment from a Carthage-area manufacturer. Gov. Matt Blunt announced that the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) has approved $246,691 in Enhanced Enterprise Zone Program tax credits for Leggett and Platt, Inc., in Carthage.
Officials with O’Sullivan Industries in Lamar announced their plant closure. More than seven hundred employees would be affected by the closure. The Workforce Investment Board is allocating extensive resources through the Missouri Career Center’s Rapid Response Team to assist the community and affected workers with workforce/economic recovery efforts. Following a meeting with community leaders, the team will develop an array of strategies, which might include securing additional grant resources through the U.S. Department of Labor and the Missouri Division of Workforce Development.
The 2007 Workforce Summit of Southwest Missouri was held in Joplin on April 4th. Surveys of the event indicate that the Summit was well-received. Participants found the content timely and engaging with strategies that are relevant and useful.
A panel on Workforce Competitiveness kicked off the Summit event. The panel featured Rob O’Brian of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, Rod Nunn from the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, and Roger Wagner from Crowder College.
Jasen Jones, Executive Director of the Workforce Investment Board, showcased new innovations for Workforce Competitivess. The presentation included a demo of the interactive Alchemy Training SISTEM, occupational planning and work readiness assessments from WorkKeys, web-based applicant screening through the Virtual Video Interview system, new talent development strategies with industry sector consortiums and cross-state partnerships underway with neighboring workforce regions in Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
Pictured above is Ray Uhalde, the keynote speaker for the Summit. Ray’s keynote provided a thought-provoking blueprint to rethink education’s role to prepare students to thrive in a global economy. Ray is the Director of the Workforce Strategies Group at the National Center on Education and the Economy.
Copies of the presentation slides are available for download as a PDF. Click here to download the presentation by Jasen Jones on New Tools for Workforce Competitiveness. Click here to download Ray Uhalde’s keynote presentation, Tough Chocies or Tough Times on the New Commission for American Skills in the Workplace. Both documents contain slides from the presentations converted to PDF files. Podcasts of audio presentations from the Summit will be posted soon in our Podcast section of WorkforceZone.com.
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 4th
Continental Catering Center
2728 N. Rangeline Road [Map]
Joplin, MO
The future of Southwest Missouri’s economic prosperity is in its workforce. The Workforce Summit of Southwest Missouri, is a half-day conference officially set for April 4th, to debut trends and workforce improvement solutions for business executives and community leaders.
The theme for this year’s event centers on Workforce Innovation as a Competitive Asset. The event is sponsored by the Workforce Investment Board (WIB) of Southwest Missouri and showcases the potential for the region to thrive economically as businesses and communities team up to enhance the skill and productivity of the workforce.
The WIB has tapped Ray Uhalde to provide a thought-provoking keynote address on a blueprint to rethink education’s role to prepare students to thrive in a global economy. As Director of the Workforce Strategies Group at the National Center on Education and the Economy, Mr. Uhalde brings employment and training insights from his 15 years as a senior executive with the U.S. Department of Labor and his role in developing the current framework for the one-stop career center system.
The event is planned for 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4th at the Continental Catering Center (located behind Granny Shaffer’s Restaurant), 2728 N. Rangeline Road, between Joplin and Webb City. More information will be released here at www.workforcezone.com.
The Missouri Career Center sets the bar high for innovative ways to help its business customers succeed and the region’s economy to reach its potential. Southwest Missouri’s Workforce Investment Board (WIB) sets the goals and designs the strategies behind the scenes to make it happen. A key accomplishment for the WIB in late 2006 is its entry into the National Business Learning Partnership (NBLP), a collaboration of protégé and mentor pairings to advance the quality and innovation of workforce programs across the U.S.
The Southwest Missouri WIB was one of only 21 top protégé groups selected nationwide to participate in NBLP. Jasen Jones and Tracy Lemmons represented Southwest Missouri recently at a kickoff training and matching event in Denver, Colorado. As part of the peer-to-peer matching of protégé WIBs with mentoring WIBs, Southwest Missouri was paired with the WIB of South Central Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, PA.
The Pennsylvania group will consult Southwest Missouri on ways to take the WIB to the next level of excellence and impact. The project’s workplan includes consulting and mentoring efforts related to use of Industry Consortium outreach, franchising standards for one-stop career centers, new data intelligence tools, and ways to collaborate across neighboring state lines to improve the Four-State area labor market as a whole.
Officials from the South Central Pennsylvania WIB are tentatively slated to visit Joplin February 5-7. In addition to collaborating with key staff locally, the Pennslyvania group will be meeting with prospective businesses in the Joplin and Monett areas interested in forming industry sector consortium groups along with members of the newly re-organized Four State Health Professions Consortium. Stay in touch with the latest on NBLP by visiting the WIB’s website at ww.workforcezone.net.