Employment Rates

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buildomaha
Human Relations
Posts: 661
Joined: Tue May 31, 2016 7:06 pm

Employment Rates

Post by buildomaha »

There has been a lot of news lately about Omaha companies and their trouble to find skilled workers due to the almost nonexistent unemployment rate. As great as the low unemployment is, Omaha can't attract news businesses due to the lack of people to hire, and Omaha companies can't find anyone to hire.
Is there a simple solution to this problem or Omaha merely have too low of a population growth?

Is there any way Omaha could be marketing itself better to attract people to move here?
#gohawks
ricko
Parks & Recreation
Posts: 1345
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 9:54 pm

Re: Employment Rates

Post by ricko »

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Last edited by ricko on Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ricko
Parks & Recreation
Posts: 1345
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 9:54 pm

Re: Employment Rates

Post by ricko »

This is not a new problem for Omaha. A good friend of mine from college was on the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency back in the late 70's early 80's. I remember him telling me that TransAmerica Corp., a San Francisco based financial conglomerate at the time, passed on Omaha for the same reason---they evidently were really interested in Omaha for their regional HQ, and already had renderings for their 30+ story building downtown.

To answer your Q about how Omaha market's itself, I don't know what the solution is. Over the years, I've come across articles that tout Omaha as a low-wage mecca for companies looking to save on labor costs. Omaha has a very high high-school graduation rate (basic literacy); but, except for that 7 year period when the national economy was in the tank and Omaha was doing well (2008-2015), there continues to be a brain-drain of college educated types looking for better opportunities. I think part of the solution starts with higher education. I've posted this before, but I'd like to see one top flight STEM school in the area----that would at least serve as an incubator for the new economy.
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