WASHINGTON: The latest Workforce Development report puts Daviess County’s unemployment rate at 2 percent. The rate is down 1.1 percent from the previous month and 1.5 percent lower than one year ago. The official Daviess County labor force was 15,817. The total number of people unemployed was listed at 310. “Two percent is really unheard of,” said President of the Daviess County Economic Development Corporation Ron Arnold. “I am not aware of any time it has been that low.” “It’s certainly a great position to be in,” added President of the Daviess County Commissioners Nathan Gabhart. “We are fortunate to have so many local businesses who have built their companies in Daviess County. We are also fortunate to be in close proximity to Crane, Dubois County and Toyota.”
The Daviess County rate trails only Dubois, Elkhart and Lagrange Counties (all at 1.9 percent). Surrounding county rates were Pike at 2.6 percent, Knox at 2.5 percent, Martin at 2.5 percent and Greene at 3.7 percent. Only Greene County was above the state average of 3.6 percent. “We are going to need a renewed focus on getting people to live in Daviess County,” said Gabhart. “Good schools, low crime, good roads and low taxes will all be our key.” “We have a lot of businesses looking for workers,” said Arnold. “These numbers show that we need to become a community that people want to move to. We need to take on more of those quality of life issues to show how we can separate Daviess County from other communities that are trying to attract workers.” Arnold says the need for more workers points to the need of the addition of the proposed cultural-education-event center. “That’s the biggest thing we could do,” he said. “That facility could become home for additional training for our adults and high school students. It could help provide a home for regional events to build our tourism. We are working on this and hope we can find funding both locally and from outside the community for this.”
One impact of the low unemployment rate is that wages are on the increase as employers compete for workers. “Between 2000 and 2014 Daviess County had the fastest growing median income rate in the state,” said Arnold. “It’s not where we want it to be, but it is headed in the right direction.” “We are hopeful the low unemployment rate will cause wages to rise,” added Gabhart. “We continue to lag in that area and need higher wage jobs in our county.” Officials say they do not expect the low unemployment rate to have a big impact on the community’s ability to attract new industry. “Manufacturing and industry won’t shy away from us,” said Arnold. “They pay higher wage rates and that means they can get all of the workers they need. Where this has an impact is on the smaller businesses. They are going to have to compete for people. It’s really a growing pain for them. They have to adjust how they operate and how they deal with employees.”
Daviess County falls in the state’s Economic Growth Region 8 along with Brown, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Monroe, Orange and Owen Counties. The state listed the top 10 job openings during the past month as production workers, followed by maintenance and repair, registered nurses, social and human service assistants, executive secretary and executive assistants, engineers, computer user support specialists, food preparation and serving workers, computer occupations, and educators, guidance and school and vocational counselors. Officials say that they are seeking ways to bring more training and secondary education opportunities into the community to try and fill some of the needed jobs. “We are looking at higher education programs through Vincennes University and Purdue,” said Arnold. “It has been hard to get them to locate here, but the climate is changing very fast and there may be some opportunities out there to get them more involved.”
