Creston and Union County housing, workforce demand remains high

As the local area continues to see historically low unemployment rates, area demand for labor and housing continues to increase.

“Our employers are having trouble finding enough workforce to fulfill available jobs in the area,” said Wayne Pantini, Union County Development Association (UCDA) executive director. “And we’re not alone in that — this is a statewide issue.

“And our manufacturers,” said Pantini, “our hospital, the college, the school district — those are all our major employers and our focus areas. And they need workers. But that workforce need is still prevalent in the other service and retail industries as well. And if that need is not fulfilled, it’s hard for them (the businesses) to grow and expand and make additional investments.”

Pantini stresses both a high demand for housing, and a need for more diverse workforce education as challenges the county faces in continuing to grow.

Housing

Per the recently completed July 2017 Creston Housing Study, 1,579 units of Creston’s 3,671 units of available housing stock were built in or before the year 1939.

What’s more, Creston has the lowest median home value ($83,900) when compared to the similar-sized communities of Atlantic ($88,800) and Carroll ($124,700). The state of Iowa’s median home value is $129,200.

“It (the housing study), definitely validated what we felt was the case,” said Pantini. “There’s clearly a lot of demand for housing. So we’re trying to work with builders and developers to try and meet that demand. And right now we have the builders, but just not the developers that want to come in.

“The demand is such,” said Pantini, “right now, that we already know we’re losing people to come here because we don’t have the housing. We know there’s a lot of folks that aren’t able to find anything (any housing) and move on to another community. And then we also know that there’s some people who commute here for work, and if we have the right housing they might live here, too. So it’s all related.”

Pantini sees this relationship between workforce growth and housing as the biggest impediment to growth.

Readily available land, developed with infrastructure and utilities already in place is limited in the local area. There are few lots ready to be built upon, and existing lots more toward the center of town are often smaller, according to Pantini, and would need expensive demo or rehabilitation projects to be prepared for new development.

“So we’re continuing,” said Pantini, “to reach out to those developers and utilize that housing study as a tool to show the demand, and give some critical information that they need to make that decision.”

Education

Housing or no housing, workforce education is equally important for growth according to Pantini.

The so-called “middle-skills gap,” Pantini explained, is especially a need. These middle-skills include training in information technology, nursing and high-skill manufacturing.

“And we need to understand,” said Pantini, “that you don’t always need to get a four-year education to get a good-paying job. That you can go and get a degree certificate here at Southwestern (Community College) and still have the right type of education and skill to meet the jobs that are out there.”

Jolene Frost, pathway navigator for Southwestern Community College’s (SWCC) GAP and PACE tuition assistance program sees the same need.

“Industry partners,” said Frost, “are saying that information technology is a needed area — obviously the health care field is going to be that way anywhere. Advanced manufacturing, transportation and logistics as well. And that, I would say, businesses around here are always hiring for — you see it in the papers all the time.”

For students interested in pursuing short-term certificates in areas like information technology, health care, manufacturing and transportation, GAP and PACE tuition assistance helps to bridge the funding gap between schooling and working. Frost assists students in their applications.

“And another example is welding,” said Frost. “Even though they say welding is an area of industry need, we struggle getting people in our (SWCC’s) welding classes. Obviously there is those types of companies in the area, and I have heard that they do their own kind of training within, as well, which might explain those struggles. But it’s still a problem.”

But according to Pantini, these aren’t the only skills holding the county’s workforce back. The so-called “soft-skills,” Pantini notes, are becoming more of an apparent need in the workforce.

“Commitment,” said Pantini, “and work ethic — just the ability to go to work five, six days a week and be a dependable employee that’s committed. And probably, just because of our lack of workforce in the area, that’s become more of a prevalent challenge. There’s certainly a lot of great people out there in our community that do make that commitment, but it’s still an issue is what we’re hearing from our local industry.”

But the greatest hurdle may be pure logistics.

“Number one,” said Pantini, “we just don’t have enough available workforce here; a critical mass of people. And then our existing workforce maybe doesn’t have the right skill set. So we need to constantly be promoting the opportunities for education, and work experience, to dig into the careers that are available here.”

Population

According to the housing study’s demographic profile of Creston, current trends note growth since 2000, with a 2015 estimated population of 7,886 residents per the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).

The Census Bureau conducts a nationwide census every 10 years — the current period’s census will be published in 2020. Also compiled every one, three and five years is a projected estimate census (the ACS) based on inexact, sampled data.

“This last census period,” said Pantini, “they (the census) projected we were going to lose population, but in actuality, when the 2010 census came out, we increased in population by 1.8 percent. Now that’s not a whole lot, but that’s a lot for a rural community. And I anticipate that to happen again this next census round.

“The opportunities for career advancement are out there,” said Pantini. “The opportunities to raise a family are out there — we have good schools in the area — and it’s a good retirement community as well. We all want to see that explosion of growth, but I like to see that slow, steady growth that’s better for our community. Right now, our biggest challenge is housing, which has been a challenge for a long time.”

If the community is to continue to grow (and current forecasts indicate a 2.09 percent growth by 2025), then workforce and housing demand will also continue to grow. According to the city’s July housing report, Creston will need a minimum of 14 new homes built each year to accommodate this growth.

And at the same time, education will continue to become a larger part of the equation.

“But we’re fortunate,” said Pantini, “that we’re a small enough community that we work together very well. And we’re fortunate here locally that we pull from a 60-70 mile radius; a lot of people come into Union County to work every day. So we just have to be creative about how we can grow the workforce further, and then upscale our current workforce.”