| NEWS ARTICLES
May 22, 2007
Working for Progress: Five-year plan could help diversify county’s economy
By MARIANNE KOBAK - EDFP Business Editor
ELKO — Diversifying Elko County’s economy will take more than a business-friendly community.
The task will require a bigger work force, better schools and more child care, according to Bill Fredrick of the Wadley-Donovan Group, a consulting company hired last winter by the Elko County Economic Diversification Authority to complete a full analysis of Elko County’s work force.
The group’s findings “held some surprises,” said Elaine Barkdull Spencer, executive director of the Authority.
The county’s assets include good transportation infrastructure, a young population, Great Basin College and a “hidden” labor supply of about 6,400 people, which consists mostly of women with clerical skills who would like to work but are unable because of a lack of child care, Fredrick said.
Elko’s challenges include a small work force, limited housing availability and high-wage industry sectors, such as the mines.
“You’re between a rock and a hard place,” Fredrick said. “You need to grow but diversification and growth are limited by your labor shortage.”
Fredrick said one way around those challenges is to recruit smaller companies, which need no more than 30 employees. Those types of businesses include call centers that can benefit from the hidden labor force or mobile entrepreneurs, which need only one or two employees.
He also said Elko County industries and groups such as the Authority need to recruit people. Elko County needs to host job fairs in economically depressed cities or states to entice workers to move to Elko.
The best way to attract more workers is by highlighting Elko’s “quality of life” and improving it by enhancing the local schools, said Fredrick.
Elko also needs to focus on retaining the younger population.
“I think what the Wadley-Donovan Group opened our eyes to is we have opportunities now, but we still have to work on three very important things,” Barkdull Spencer said. “We need to attract people with our quality of life and to do this we need to have the best schools possible. We need the kind of schools people brag about. We have to look at the housing situation and encourage apartment building.”
Barkdull Spencer said another hindrance is the lack of day-care centers, which keeps many employable people out of the work force.
She said the Authority will use the Wadley-Donovan analysis to set up a five-year plan to increase the county’s economic diversity.
“We’re not going to just let this sit on a shelf,” she said. “This will become an important part of ECEDA’s plan.
“We’ll change our focus to smaller industry,” she continued. “We’ll look at call centers and mobile entrepreneurs. We’ll market to those types.”
She also will help establish a task force to work on the five-year plan and to recruit labor from other areas.
“We’ll start it off June 22 during the (Authority’s) regular board meeting,” she said. “We’ll get as many of our board members on the team as possible.”
The task force also will include people from employment groups, temp agencies, Great Basin College and Elko County School District and real estate brokers.
“We’ll target people first and industry second,” she said.
To see Wadley-Donovan Group’s full analysis, contact the Authority at 738-2100.
20070522
Return to the News Articles Archives Page
|
