Pat Ferrier

patferrier@coloradoan.com

Larimer County faces a widening labor shortage over the next decade.

That is unless steps are taken to shrink the gap between the number of jobs created and workers available to fill them, according to a new report.

Over the past five years, the Fort Collins-Loveland area has added almost 20,000 jobs but only 11,000 workers. The result is a chasm that threatens the county's economic health as employers that can't find the workers and skills they need go elsewhere.

The shortage will be exacerbated over the next decade as 22 percent of our local workforce gets ready to retire.

The report, written by TIP Strategies of Austin, Texas, also tackles the county's chronic underemployment. Forty-five percent of the workforce has a college degree, but only 20 percent of jobs call for that level of education.

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The fastest growing jobs in Larimer County, where the unemployment rate was 2.3 percent in December, are food service, retail staff, waiters and waitresses, office clerks and high school teachers, according to the report. Of the five, only high school teachers need a bachelor's degree.

Getting back into the workforce

Kent Richard lost his job as president of a small high-tech firm 14 months ago when the company was bought out.

"For the first time ever, at the age of 53, I was unemployed and not sure what I wanted to do with my life," he said.

Equipped with an MBA, extensive management experience and high-tech skills, he thought getting a job would be a snap. He applied for 108 jobs and had 10 interviews, including four call backs.

"Everyone looked at me like I had leprosy," he said. "I felt I could do anything, but I hit a wall. I don't know what the disconnect was." Employers "needed help and I felt I was such a valuable employee, but I couldn't get anyone to listen to me."

Through Larimer County Workforce Center and his own initiative, he updated some technology certifications, including information technology security, and finally, an offer came through.

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He starts a new job Monday as vice president of technology for a Cheyenne-based credit union with local offices.

Richard thinks his age and experience may have played a role in the length of time it took to get a new job. "Maybe employers were thinking I wouldn't enjoy or stay at" a lower-level job. "I just couldn't get the time of day."

Where the jobs are

Talent 2.0, a regional workforce strategy created by Larimer County civic, business and economic groups, calls for joint community efforts to connect employers with workers.

If the group can "crack the challenge" of helping underemployed folks re-employ at a higher level, "exciting things can happen in the community," said Ann Hutchison, executive vice president of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, which initiated the working group.

"Working with our partners (the cities of Loveland and Fort Collins, Larimer County and Northern Colorado Economic Alliance) to make sure it is as easy as possible for people to get in to and stay in the workforce is incredibly important," she said.

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While new workers are moving to Larimer County, some come with jobs and others come without, said Linae Warden, president of NoCoNet, a networking group that formed during the recession and has seen membership start to grow again.

"In the last two to three months, we've had six to 10 new members every week," Warden said. Between 25 and 33 percent are coming from out of state. "Sometimes they are saying, 'we heard there are jobs here.' "

Connecting its members with available resources is part of NoCoNet's mission. Yet Warden said there is a mixed message in Larimer County.

"Professional people are losing professional jobs while we still hear (employers) can't find people who have the skills and talent," she said.

Addressing the issue means searching out the underemployed inside and outside of an organization and identifying and removing barriers to re-employment, Hutchison said.

Turnover related to underemployment can be expensive, leading employers to shy away from taking a chance on a worker who they fear may go elsewhere when a better offer comes along, according to the report.

It's a conundrum for longtime residents like Dennis Floyd, 53, who was laid off from his job as an engineering manager a year ago. Recruited away from HP after 20 years, Floyd's new employer in Longmont laid him off 18 months later, when the company merged with one from the San Francisco area.

Over the past few months, he's had eight phone and two in-person interviews, but no offers.

He wishes employers would look beyond his former job title and to his skills and how they can translate into different fields.

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"The biggest success factors, based on my years in management, are the soft skills," Floyd said. "Can you drive a team; get along with other people? Can you communicate? Those things are true regardless of which industry you're in."

Floyd continues to look, knowing his age and experience might be working against him."Some people make assumptions about your salary expectations ... and think you'll stay a little while and move" when something better comes along.

Both Richard and Floyd point to online applications that search for keywords to narrow the applicant pool as an impediment to getting their resumes in front of hiring managers.

What's next?

Talent 2.0 includes two dozen specific goals and programs, including the underemployment project to identify underutilized talent; a network to help spouses and partners find jobs; an outreach program that tells Northern Colorado's story to would-be employees; and enhancements to programs that connect residents and employers.

Now that the report is out, Hutchison said collaboration will continue to drive the conversation.

Who takes the lead, and who pays for different initiatives is still up in the air. The cities of Fort Collins and Loveland have dedicated some money, and the Fort Collins chamber is working on a program to fund Talent 2.0, Hutchison said.

Some agencies are already spending money to address the issues "in very positive ways," said Joni Friedman, director of the Larimer County Workforce Center. "The question is figuring out our priorities and aligning" the resources.

The Workforce Center "is continually trying to help people identify their skills and identify appropriate jobs for them to be looking for," she said. "If there's not a good match, we help them see what training they could incorporate to get the skills for jobs that would pay a living wage, offer benefits and put them on a career path."

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In some respects, Larimer County suffers from its own success, Friedman said.

"People enjoy the city and want to stay here," she said.

That can mean if people lose their job, they'll take a job for which they're overqualified just to stay in the area.

Geography is an important factor for the Floyd family, which includes three kids in high school and a mother-in-law in town. He is open to commuting from as far as north Denver and up to Cheyenne. As a last resort, he said he may have to find work elsewhere and come home when he can.

Keeping talent and recruiting new talent into Larimer County to narrow the labor shortage are too important to let the Talent 2.0 report sit on the shelf, Hutchison said.

"This is a means to start the conversation, and we are inviting a lot of people to come join us to tackle the challenge in front of us," she said.

By the numbers

Larimer County's unemployment rate in December was 2.3 percent.

Of the 184,365 labor force, 4,327 were unemployed.

Over the next five years, employers will have at least 28,000 openings to fill, but the labor force adds only about 2,000 to 3,000 workers per year, resulting in a potential shortage of workers

Currently, 6 percent of the county's workforce is age 65 or older and 16 percent is between the ages of 55 and 64. That means 22 percent of the workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years.

45 percent of the labor force has a bachelor's degree while only 20 percent of jobs in Larimer County require that level of education.

Just more than 60 percent of workers in Larimer County lived and worked here in 2014.

51,235 residents worked outside Larimer County in 2014; nearly 44,000 commuted into the county to work.

The top five occupational groups in the county are office and administrative support; sales and related jobs; food prep and serving; education, training and library and construction and extraction.

The fastest growing jobs, based on number of workers, are combined food prep and servers including fast food; retail staff; waiters and waitresses; office clerks; and high school teachers.

The fastest declining jobs: farmers, ranchers and other agriculture managers; computer hardware engineers; bank tellers; interviewers (except eligibility and loan); and electrical and electronic equipment assemblers.

Source: Talent 2.0 Regional Workforce Strategy and Coloradoan research

