Arslans Turkish Street Food on Walnut Avenue in Santa Cruz was closed on a day in March due to a scarcity of staff. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local)
SANTA CRUZ >> Two financial reviews launched in May describe Santa Cruz County’s shrinking labor drive, in addition to some methods for staff and employers to succeed in a high-cost space with a altering job market.
Wednesday, a State of the Workforce report and presentation was given to the County of Santa Cruz Workforce Development Board. The board advises the Santa Cruz County supervisors and brings enterprise and authorities leaders collectively in half to search out options to native workforce challenges.
Peter Detlefs, enterprise companies supervisor for Workforce Santa Cruz County, mentioned the report echoed some themes he’d heard in the previous few years in Santa Cruz County and different areas of the Central Coast. Workforce Santa Cruz County helps join employers and job seekers.
“In San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara County and Santa Cruz County, we’re all in an analogous state of affairs. We have an growing old inhabitants and less-educated people working in low-wage jobs,” Detlefs mentioned.
Carlsbad-based BW Research Partnership Inc. wrote the 50-page State of the Workforce report, and its President and Principal Researcher Josh Williams led Wednesday’s presentation. “Before March 2020, the Santa Cruz County financial system exhibited a number of constructive financial indicators and tendencies. Unemployment was low, job high quality had been enhancing, and several other trade clusters with excessive common earnings had grown significantly,” in accordance with the State of the Workforce report.
“While now we have not been capable of quantify the complete extent of the financial influence of COVID-19 on Santa Cruz County, it’s secure to say that points like lowered labor participation and a decline in complete jobs from the pandemic has harm the county’s financial panorama and significantly lowered financial alternatives, particularly for lower-income residents,” the workforce report acknowledged.
Separately on May 20, a Monterey Bay Economic Partnership assembly included a presentation on financial tendencies in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Christopher Thornberg, founding associate of Los Angeles-based Beacon Economics, introduced the roughly 60-minute report. It examined the nationwide financial restoration and zoomed in on some tendencies in Santa Cruz County.
The two reviews overlapped in a number of of their findings:
Labor drive participation continues to shrink in Santa Cruz County. Labor drive participation has trended down in the county since at the very least 2015 and has not recovered to its January 2020 stage of about 61%, in accordance with the State of the Workforce report. Labor participation was about 58% in January. There have been 10,600 fewer staff in Santa Cruz County in February 2021 in contrast with February 2020, in accordance with the State of the Workforce report.
Labor drive participation was falling in Santa Cruz County even earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic. (BW Research Partnership)
Labor participation has not totally rebounded in Santa Cruz County for the reason that begin of the pandemic. The county’s inhabitants progress, at proper, has trended down since about 2016. (Beacon Economics)
Santa Cruz County residents are trending older. “Santa Cruz County’s inhabitants and workforce are getting older, significantly in the North,” Josh Williams wrote in the State of the Workforce report. From 2014 to 2019, the share of residents 65 and older in the North County elevated by 37% and elevated by 10% in the South County, Williams wrote. “A inhabitants with a rising share of older residents can dampen a area’s financial system as employers could battle to search out native expertise,” he wrote. Thornberg famous that Santa Cruz County staff usually retire and stay in the county, moderately than transfer to hotter climates as usually occurs with East Coast retirees.
There are fewer jobs in Santa Cruz County than there have been earlier than the pandemic. Also, the unemployment fee in Santa Cruz County is the bottom it has been since 2005. Those elements point out that a lot of the obtainable labor drive is tapped out. “The downside, in fact, is you can’t fill jobs,” Thornberg mentioned.
Many lower-wage staff are leaving Santa Cruz County as a result of they’re priced out of housing. Thornberg mentioned California’s financial system is shifting towards “very high-end sectors that may afford this housing, whereas lower-end sectors that may’t [afford housing] have to maneuver out.” Thornberg added, “We’re turning into nation membership California and I don’t assume that’s honest. So I would really like us to construct extra housing.”
An increase in distant work presents challenges and alternatives in Santa Cruz County. Because many employers have expanded the flexibility to do business from home, each reviews predicted extra Silicon Valley staff shopping for properties in Santa Cruz County and commuting sometimes. Thornberg mentioned inventory market volatility wouldn’t make a big effect for a lot of Silicon Valley residents who wish to purchase properties in Santa Cruz County as a result of they usually have wealth in dwelling fairness. The distant work pattern additionally implies that some Santa Cruz County employers can broaden their hiring with individuals who dwell exterior the county. Santa Cruz County staff additionally may be extra capable of safe distant jobs from employers in Silicon Valley.
High-wage jobs have elevated in Santa Cruz County and low-wage jobs have decreased. The highest-wage jobs elevated in Santa Cruz County by 9.5% from 2015 to 2021, in accordance with the State of the Workforce report. The lowest-wage jobs decreased by 3.2% in that point.
Some companies struggled whereas others thrived through the pandemic. Many tourism and hospitality companies shed jobs in Santa Cruz County and have struggled to rehire staff. Other industries reminiscent of development and manufacturing have grown since 2020. Some retail clothes outlets, as an illustration, proceed to battle with a migration towards on-line buying. Other retail outlets in {hardware}, dwelling enchancment and recreation like bike outlets elevated earnings for the reason that pandemic began, Thornberg mentioned. Agricultural jobs in the county have been declining earlier than the pandemic and proceed to say no.
The reviews additionally provided some solutions:
Show younger Santa Cruz County staff profession paths to in-demand jobs in healthcare, info expertise, development trades and hospitality administration. Williams prompt that enterprise leaders work with faculties and neighborhood teams to point out college students profession tracks that pay sufficient to dwell in Santa Cruz County.
Strengthen training and coaching for younger South County residents. South County has a youthful inhabitants who can play an enormous function in the county’s future workforce, Williams mentioned. Apprenticeships, internships and hybrid tutorial packages might assist, he mentioned.
Government backed baby care would assist many Santa Cruz County ladies return to work, Thornberg and Williams mentioned. Many ladies left the Santa Cruz County workforce through the pandemic and didn’t return in half due to closed faculties and a scarcity of kid care. Detlefs, of Workforce Santa Cruz County, famous that Santa Cruz County leaders directed some cash from the American Rescue Plan Act to baby care packages in the autumn. Capitola and Scotts Valley leaders even have directed cash towards baby care packages.
Additional workforce housing in Santa Cruz County would assist hold staff in Santa Cruz County and make it simpler for employers to fill jobs. Thornberg basically mentioned that new housing development has not saved up with job progress. He referred to as for extra multifamily housing reminiscent of residences. Many South County residents work in North County, so extra properties in North County would assist cut back commute occasions.
Cultivating expertise inside a company might assist fill roles with extra accountability. For occasion, Thornberg mentioned lodge housekeeping workers may very well be educated for administration roles.
The State of the Workforce report listed 25 widespread jobs in Santa Cruz County that earn a residing wage and are projected to develop greater than 5% from 2019 to 2024. These jobs “could present significantly robust alternatives for staff in Santa Cruz County,” Williams wrote. These jobs and their median annual earnings embody:
Registered nurses ($142,938).
General and operations managers ($106,475).
Computer techniques analysts ($92,498).
Police and sheriff’s patrol officers ($108,805).
Detlefts mentioned the Workforce Development Board requested that the State of Workforce report have a bit on well being care tendencies. About 14% of jobs in Santa Cruz County are in well being care, and well being care employment grew greater than 26% from 2010 to 2020, in accordance with the report.
There has been excessive turnover in well being care nationally for the reason that pandemic began, mentioned Nate Hunt, a undertaking supervisor at GW Research Partnership, throughout Wednesday’s presentation.
“National surveys present that about 18% of staff who have been working in well being care earlier than the pandemic ended up quitting sooner or later through the pandemic, and 12% have been laid off,” Hunt mentioned. “Plenty of these people got here again, however nonetheless, the truth that some residual quantity didn’t come again nonetheless results in the gaps that we’re seeing now. And these gaps — these sorts of shortages of staff — are going to be exhausting to exchange.”
Some chief causes that well being care staff left their jobs have been due to the pandemic, a scarcity of cash, alternatives or profession progress, or feeling “burned out or overworked,” in accordance with the State of the Workforce report.
A survey means that well being care staff left their jobs through the pandemic for a lot of causes. (GW Research Partnership)
https://santacruzlocal.org/2022/05/27/reports-explain-labor-shortage-in-santa-cruz-county/
