Manufacturing, service and high-tech jobs are plentiful in the stretch from O’Hare International Airport into McHenry County, but there is a shortage of skilled workers for middle-level positions in those sectors.
Career-oriented jobs that pay $40,000 to $80,000 a year are going unfilled at a higher rate than jobs that pay substantially more or less, northwest suburban economy watchers say.
Those skilled in health care or precision machining are in demand. Also, there are job openings for administrative assistants, electrical engineers, truck drivers and computer-aided design operators, said James Ballee, manager of the Northwest Employment and Training Center in Arlington Heights, an agency of the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
“Even in the deepest, darkest, worst recessions, we’ve still had jobs in this area,” said Ballee, who has been with the agency for 40 years. Earlier this year he was tracking about 2,000 unfilled jobs on the agency’s Skills Match online service.
“I always tell clients that if they don’t like their job, now’s the time to get a better one,” he said. “People should quit talking about a downturn, come here and get to work.”
Among the reasons cited for the gap are the high visibility and perks of jobs at the top of the scale, and the fact that unskilled and semiskilled jobs appeal to a wide range of job seekers, such as college students and recent immigrants. Unskilled jobs also can be used to fill a gap between career-oriented jobs or to provide a second income for a household, and are perceived as offering more flexible schedules than full-time jobs.
Manufacturing hard hit
Manufacturing has been especially hard hit by the dearth of skilled middle-income workers. The mantra that the U.S. economy is now based on services rather than manufacturing is only partially true. American manufacturers turn out more material today than they ever have, but they require fewer people to do it.
“The `old economy/new economy’ vocabulary never made sense,” said Bruce Braker, president of the Tooling and Manufacturing Association in Park Ridge.
“A lot of the growth of the ’90s has been in manufacturing, with fewer people cranking out more things,” he said. “Demand for precision machinists is so high that it could be a real bottleneck to recovering from the slow economy we’re entering. A $300,000 investment in a machine tool doesn’t do much good if there isn’t anybody with the skills to run it.”
The Tooling and Manufacturing Association sponsors one of the few remaining precision-machining apprenticeship programs in the Chicago area. The year-round program combines job and classroom training in machine shops at high schools and community colleges.
James Greve of McHenry is a student in the apprenticeship program. “Everything starts with manufacturing,” said Greve, 22, who works for M-1 Toolworks Inc. in McHenry as part of his training. “Whether it’s food service or aerospace, somebody has to figure out how to make it,” Greve said.
“We have more computerized machines here than manual machines,” said Martin Ryba, co-owner of M-1. The company specializes in making prototypes for manufacturers. The process requires well-honed skills with machine tools and the computers and mathematical principles that make them work.
“There isn’t anybody in this shop who’s making less than $50,000 per year,” Ryba said. Some machinists at M-1 are paid more than $80,000 a year; many of them work overtime because there never seem to be enough machinists, Ryba said.
Clayton Noyes of McHenry also is a student in the apprenticeship program. Noyes, 22, has been working for G&M Corp. of Crystal Lake and is looking forward to moving into his new house, which was completed this summer.
“I have two cars that are paid for too,” Noyes said. “I love my job. I have absolutely nothing to complain about.”
Openings in health care
Health care is another profession that has been overlooked by career hunters in recent years. Mid-level health-care professionals, nurses and technicians are in great demand by hospitals, doctor offices, clinics and insurance companies.
Until recently, there were more nurses than nursing jobs because the profession, like teaching, was seen as one of the few open to women.
Today women have more career options, but nursing hasn’t lost its image as an overwhelmingly female profession, so the pool of candidates is smaller than ever, said Angela McAuley, chief nurse executive for Centegra Health System, which runs Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry and Memorial Medical Center in Woodstock.
About 6 percent of nurses today are male, up from fewer than 2 percent in the 1980s, McAuley said.
More nurses are needed
There are more than 600 nursing positions in the two hospitals, about 60 of which were unfilled as of this summer. The vacancy rate of slightly less than 10 percent is in keeping with the Chicago-area average for nursing positions at hospitals, McAuley said.
“You can make a very good living in nursing, and it’s stimulating work with many specialties to pursue,” McAuley said. “But everybody needs nurses right now. Other countries are trying to recruit our nurses. Of course, we’re trying to recruit theirs too.”
Centegra has recruited several foreign nurses in recent years, mostly from the Philippines, and has shepherded them through the process of becoming certified in Illinois. The company also has started an internship program with Elgin Community College and Harper College in Palatine to nurture a new generation of native-born nurses.
Retaining nurses is equally important to the equation, McAuley said.
Centegra offers incentive programs, including significant pay increases to work weekends, a summers-off program for parents who want to work on their children’s school schedule, a sign-on bonus and a self-scheduling program in which nurses pick their preferred hours and get them as long as all shifts are covered.
“With self-scheduling you can plan your days, raise a family and still be a proud professional,” said Wanda Johnson, a Woodstock Memorial nurse who works two 12-hour shifts per week so she can raise her three children.
Centegra also has a scholarship program to help promising nurses gain specialized skills.
“In talking with my peers at other hospitals, I’ve found that we’re all struggling to fill positions and we’re doing whatever we can to develop our own people,” said Anne Haslinger, Centegra’s director of human resources.
The nursing shortage could get worse before it gets better. Health-care needs will rise as Baby Boomers reach old age.
But the core group of experienced nurses also hails from the Boom generation, and they will retire.
“We are going to hit a serious crunch when we Baby Boomers need somebody to take care of us,” said Sandy Bowe, a nurse at Northern Illinois Medical Center for 34 years. “It won’t be easy to replace us.
“People aren’t allowed to stay in the hospital as long as they were allowed to in the past. That makes the whole continuum of care more acute and more complex.”
