Businesses hiring once again

Jana Waughn, who owns an Omaha cabinet company, has increased her staff by five over the last few months, bringing it to 17.

“It doesn't sound like a lot,” but demand has picked up and she needs more employees at her business, the Kitchen Place, Waughn said.

Financial institutions are offering better loan terms to people who want to remodel their homes, and people are generally more upbeat about the economy and job stability, so they feel better about spending money, she said.

“We're definitely making an investment in the future, because the market is coming back and we're starting to see signs of that,” she said. “We've had more traffic in our showrooms than our salespeople have been able to keep up with. ... I don't want to be understaffed when the market does come back.”

The decision to add jobs after successive quarters of cost-cutting and recession-induced layoffs requires long-term optimism and a willingness to invest in a business's future based on what might be short-term statistics, projections and hunches.

It's a leap of faith, but there are indications some Midlands companies are making the jump and hiring.

One of the businesses closing its eyes and crossing its fingers after months of staff and expense reductions is ACI Worldwide, located at 6060 Coventry Drive in west Omaha.

Seventy-two information technology professionals attended a three-hour job fair last month at the headquarters of the company, which makes financial payments software.

The job candidates dropped off resumes, scanned job descriptions and spoke with hiring managers about 15 to 20 new positions with salaries ranging from $45,000 to more than $100,000.

One of the visitors was Bonnie Urbanek, who learned last September that she would lose her position this month as a computer operator at the Douglas-Omaha Technology Commission, or “DOT Comm” as it's commonly called.

Urbanek has been saving money to tide her over between jobs, and she has looked for work but hasn't had much luck.

“I can't be without a job,” Urbanek said. “It's still pretty tight out there, although some places are starting to hire.”

Urbanek said she has broadened her search from only information technology to administrative positions, where there are more jobs available.

Sue Loerts, director of human resources and global services at ACI, said the company was able to add jobs because of increased demand for its new products. ACI cut costs and jobs during the recession and now employs 500 people in Omaha.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who conducts monthly surveys on the Midwest economy, said he doesn't expect dramatic improvement this year in the Nebraska and Iowa unemployment rates.

For April, the latest figures available, the jobless rate in Nebraska held at 5 percent. In Iowa, it was 6.9 percent, up from 6.7 percent the previous month.

Goss doesn't expect a significant reduction in the jobless rate until early 2011, because new entrants into the job market will exceed the number of new positions.

After slashing 50 administrative jobs last spring, C&A Industries hired an undisclosed number of new account managers at its Omaha office to help meet increasing demand, said Scot Thompson, the company's CEO.

C&A, a staffing and recruiting firm, employs about 400 people at its offices at 13609 California St. The company recruits and places nurses and other medical professionals, engineers and people in the management, administrative, legal, finance and technical fields.

The company has seen a major uptick in business and needs additional staff to work with clients, Thompson said.

“Hiring is an investment in the future,” he said. “We would be remiss waiting until we were absolutely certain that the economy was running before investing in people to help us expand our business.”

It takes account managers at least a year to become trained and experienced at their jobs, Thompson said.

“Today, volumes and order flow are much better than they were six months ago,” he said. “... If people have demands for our services, if our business is picking up, that's a pretty good indication the economy is picking up as well.”

Another indication that the regional jobs outlook is improving is an increase in employment postings and advertisements.

Job postings on the Nebraska Department of Labor's JobLink website have increased over the last couple of months, said Michael Eastman, manager of one of the department's career centers. Last week, there were 4,651 postings in Nebraska, many of which included multiple positions. That compared with about 1,700 postings for a similar week last May.

“There's a pretty good variety and number of jobs listed on our site. There are opportunities out there,” Eastman said.

Among the employers actively recruiting workers are Kellogg's, steamfitters and other manufacturers, he said. West Corp. also recently announced it will add 500 full-time positions to its Omaha call centers, he added.

In Iowa, more than 19,000 openings were listed last week on the state's job website, iowajobs.org. That compared with about 14,000 last May.

The more active job scene is prompting people who are unemployed but were not actively looking for work to restart their searches.

That trend is encouraging, said Cathy Lang, Nebraska Labor commissioner. At the same time, having more people re-enter the hunt can boost the state's jobless rate.

For now, Nebraska's unemployment rate is not seen as a negative, even though it has risen from a recent low of 4.6 percent in December.

“In this case, even though the rate went up, the data shows good news or a more positive picture because what it says is folks are coming back to the work force and they're less discouraged,” Lang said. “It's sort of a swell, and what we're hoping is that the swell goes to the employed side of the equation, not the unemployed side.”

Nationwide in March, the latest statistics available, hiring rose to its highest level in more than a year. The Labor Department said employers hired 4.24 million people that month, up from 4 million in February. Job openings edged up by 47,000 to 2.69 million.

The Sunday World-Herald's employment ads in March exceeded March 2009 numbers by a little more than 2 percent and have continued to trend up, according to Joel Long, director of public affairs.

Nationwide, the construction and retail industries reported the largest jumps in hiring, with the manufacturing and government sectors also reporting gains.

The increase in construction hiring likely was a natural rebound from February, when severe weather shut down many projects, the Labor Department said.

Still, new hires and job openings remain well below pre-recession levels. During the worst of the recession Nebraska shed more than 25,000 jobs and Iowa lost 34,585.

Contact the writer:

444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com

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