Published: January 21, 2007 12:54 am            

Area market positive for job seekers

ASHLAND — If the region can maintain what it has, and grow where it’s able, 2007 ought to be a favorable year for employment, according to economic development leaders and business owners.

A survey of local businesses compiled by employment agency Manpower Inc. showed 13 percent of business owners are planning to hire more employees from January to March, while 87 percent expect to maintain current staffing levels.

The outlook isn’t as optimistic as last year, when the same survey revealed 30 percent of companies were seeking to add staff. However, this year none of the companies interviewed plan to cut staff in the first quarter, while 3 percent were planning on cutting employees in the early stages of 2006.

According to Manpower, most of the growth is expected to take place in the wholesale/retail trade sector.

Jim Purgerson, president of the area chamber of commerce and lead economic development agency, the Ashland Alliance, said that theory tends to support the trends he is predicting for the coming year.

“The retail here continues to boom, confirming that this is a retail center for the region,” he said.

As far as any new businesses coming, Purgerson said developments, such as EastPark and the Wurtland Riverport, might see some new jobs in terms of warehousing and distribution.

He also said the Addington Corporate Center — the former headquarters of Ashland Inc. and Applied Card Systems — continues to be a spot of interest for businesses looking to expand their call centers.

While those businesses don’t typically bring the large salaries the area needs to see, Purgerson said interest in the property is a good thing.

“The potential for new business there is along the lines of offices and a call center,” he said. “That’s really what the facility is set up for.”

Purgerson said he isn’t expecting any major announcements along the lines of a new manufacturing or industrial operation, but said the Ashland area is doing a good job in keeping what it has, with operations such as AK Steel — which recently underwent a $65 million renovation to keep the plant viable — and Kentucky Electric Steel, which has bounced back from bankruptcy and a closed plant.

“Given the fragile nature of the manufacturing sector in the U.S., we’ve really survived some tough times,” Purgerson said. “These days, if you can maintain what you have and keep it stable, the outlook is very good.

“There are some companies in our area that are looking at capital improvements to upgrade their plants,” he said. “And companies like Kentucky Electric Steel are doing well, because demand for their product is high.”

But Purgerson also said just because things are stable, with a slight trend toward growth, doesn’t mean the area isn’t facing some major challenges.

Perhaps on the top of the list of problems, the economic guru said, is the “brain-drain” phenomenon plaguing the region.

“We have to focus on retaining and recruiting our talented young people,” he said. “We have to kind of stop and reverse the trend where they go off somewhere else to work and live.”

Purgerson said he believes Ashland’s continuing efforts to restore and revitalize the downtown area could be a crucial factor in addressing that problem.

“Things like an attractive downtown and entertainment and good education, those are all quality of life issues that people look at, and they are important to economic development,” he said. “With my generation, it used to be you went wherever you could get a job, but now people are looking at jobs based on where they want to live.

“So we have to look at who we are and where we want to be. This isn’t South Beach, so, if you’re looking for that, you go somewhere else. But we should be concentrating on the fact that this is a good place to raise your children. That is something that young professionals are thinking about.”

        

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