Pennsylvania’s unemployment numbers for the month of May had the commonwealth with the lowest numbers since January 1976. Butler County Unemployment for May was even less at 3.2% and in June it has only risen to 3.7%. From May to June there was an added 500 people to the work force which contributed to the 0.05% increase of unemployment in the county. But in Butler County hiring has not been a problem for some.
Tristan Tripodi is the CEO of Butler Technologies located in Downtown Butler; his company employs around 70 people and in the last six months he’s only had problems hiring one manual labor position. Tripodi hasn’t noticed an increase in applicants but has said that the quality of applicants has improved. He believes that’s what draws people into his business is the pay and benefits along with the company culture.
“It’s a commonly used phrase but we’re a family run organization, my mother started the business with her business partner 32 years ago,” said Tripodi. “I know we treat people well I know that matters things that maybe don’t always show up on the physical offer letter. How you feel when you walk in the building, how people interact with each, those are things we work very hard on to make sure it’s a good place to work.”
Tripodi also believes Butler Technologies is attractive to potential hires because of a competitive compensation package and work from home options. Butler Technologies is also a two-time winner of Pittsburgh best places to work, which they have won over the last two years. While the area is still down 30,000 jobs (one-third of jobs still needing to be filled are in healthcare) in Allegheny County employment is growing twice as fast as the labor force in Butler County it’s growing 2.5 times as fast. This is according to Jim Futrell, Allegheny Conference VP of Market Research, who says the lack of labor is becoming a problem for employers.
“The fact that the economy is adding more jobs than they are workers is really putting a squeeze on employers,” said Futrell.
Futrell did say that there is a possibility for retired workers to come back to work but also as immigration numbers return there is another group that could help fill some of the high demands. But those rebuilds would still take time before there would be any long-term impact. What may help the lack of workers available to communities could be work from home options. Those living in more rural areas having work from home options could help fill holes in the work force but it won’t mean that lack of labor will be filled in those rural areas.
“One of the things that is going to help in that regard, is the lives of hybrid work I think people are now boarding what they consider a feasible employment option because you’re not doing that drive 5 days a week,” said Futrell. “So, I think even though you may see more people moving to a more rural area I don’t think it’s necessarily a disincentive for them to be working in more densely populated areas.”
One area where employers are looking to fill is manual labor. But the answer to those challenges in the county may be solved with the Butler Senior High School, and a new initiative helping recent graduates find jobs in the county. Similar to a “common app” application for colleges the Butler High school has asked students attending a job fair late in the school year to fill out a general application for potential employers. The focus would be trying to help students land high paying manufacturing jobs out of high school.
“It’s pretty general but at least kids don’t feel so overwhelmed because the application process can be very time consuming,” said Suzanne Robinson, a Butler Senior High School teacher and one of two teachers who helped run the job fair. “Some of our students may not be interested in taking the time to do that five or six times so this would at least be a starting point for them.”
This new program was started by the Butler Area School District Superintendent Dr. Brian White whose focus is for students who are looking for options outside of college after high school.
“I think parents and students are realizing college and college debt isn’t for everybody,” said Robinson. “And that there are really good paying jobs out there immediately after high school, It’s something we want to focus on at the school district as well. There is a lot of good opportunity in Butler County.”
Four of the top 10 employers in Butler County require large numbers of factory in person laborers.
