This past Sunday, after enjoying a magical morning walk with visiting family, we stopped by a local small grocery store and restaurant in Woodstock to grab a cup of coffee and muffin. Normally the enjoyable little store is well-operated. But that day was different. You could tell they were extremely tight on staff — no coffee was available for purchase, creating a minor panic on my part. Their restaurant section was closed on what should have been a busy Sunday morning breakfast scene. The two employees holding down the fort were clearly stressed. They were holding it together, but their eyes conveyed a “please understand” message. When entering the store, I noticed fliers with a “Now Hiring for All Positions” message, giving patrons a heads-up — from what I saw, most remained understanding and patient. This little scene is playing out all over Ulster today as businesses struggle to find adequate staff of all kinds to meet demand.

According to Normann Staffing president Tony Marmo, not all counties in the area are experiencing the same kind of economic energy currently as Ulster County. Over the last six months, hiring has picked up, and it’s at or above levels not seen since before COVID. Where local businesses had cut staffing due to inflationary pressures, they have recently begun hiring again to meet growing demand.

The Ulster County Workforce Development Board says that currently, local in-demand jobs are in manufacturing, customer service, clean technology, healthcare, tourism, human services, office and information technology and commercial driving and transportation. A phenomenon long in the making — the retirement of Boomers — is starting to finally happen, which also opens new top-level positions that were once locked up by an entire generation. With the tightness in the local labor pool, it’s had an impact upon wages. Although the current minimum wage is $15/hour, the real baseline, according to sources, for the vast majority for entry-level employment in Ulster is trending toward $18/hour. That’s almost $40,000/year.

Ulster County is currently at a 3.0 percent unemployment rate (down from 3.9 in August) — a number traditionally considered “full employment,” i.e., those who wish to work can find it. And statistically, the local labor pool is shrinking as young adults continue to leave the area for career opportunities and the local population continues to grey out.

But that doesn’t adequately capture what’s happening, nor does it mean that there isn’t work to be done by local officials and community leaders to nurture our local economy.

Sharon Williams, director of Ulster County Office of Employment and Training and Workforce Development, says workers today have more control over their destiny than they've had in years. This is due to the competitiveness in hiring and low unemployment rates. Following decades of power mostly in the hands of business, employees are enjoying a stronger position in job negotiations. And it is not just more money that employees are seeking, but also flexibility in work-from-home opportunities. However, not every business can accommodate these requests. And sadly, some local businesses have had to close because they can’t find staffing. Williams cautioned that too many businesses still try to recruit using dated techniques to find prospective employees. By not changing their recruitment practices, businesses put themselves at a disadvantage. Williams said her office can advise companies in using contemporary recruitment best practices.

The tight labor pool has also resulted in more job-hopping, a practice that used to be a red flag to employers. Now employers are having to roll with staffing conditions as best they can. But a transient workforce has put new stresses on businesses. The “ghosting” of employers — when people stop showing up to work — has become all too common with employees. Additionally, too many new recruits start jobs for which they are not prepared. But imagine if much of this job hopping could be reduced if employees received the proper training and realistic expectations before they even submit their resumes? Imagine if we could be more efficient in job placement and retention overall?

Thankfully, there are existing local resources to help both job seekers and employers on a number of levels. One of the biggest local resources is the Ulster County Office of Employment and Training (UCOET). They provide a wide range of services and coordinate with Ulster BOCES, SUNY Ulster and New Paltz, the Ulster County Department of Economic Development and even some agencies outside of the county. UCOET offers job training for eligible and suitable dislocated workers, low-income and otherwise-disadvantaged adults and youth. It also provides business services, including job postings, employee screenings, tax credit information, customized training and on-the-job training.

In addition to government resources, there are some private training businesses that exist to help meet employer demands. One such example is Commercial Driver Training, Inc., a private company that teaches and helps students get a CDL (commercial driver’s license) to drive trucks, a very much in-demand position locally. But it has a very long waiting list to enter its program.

In my investigations for this column, one idea occurred to me. In order to create a resilient local economy in a rapidly changing world, why not encourage more local privately-owned training programs and schools? Especially for in-demand jobs and industries deemed a good fit for Ulster? Could we offer tax and other incentives for training and educational institutions to open up in Ulster, or scale existing ones?

Local government agencies such as the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency could target private training and educational service businesses with tax credits if they build or expand in Ulster. By growing and diversifying our local training and workforce development capacity, we can maximize our local labor pool and help continuously reinvent our local skillsets over the decades to match demands. And how about incentivizing private training services in targeted industries, such as in tourism, agriculture and clean tech? No one can entirely be sure what tomorrow’s in-demand jobs will be, but some industries like hospitality and agriculture are obvious places to start.

If we give more tools to our local workforce to be able to adapt, train, and thrive within our local economy, we will have established a long-term resiliency that can help us weather almost any future economic storm, as well as prepare us for inevitable change.

Raleigh Green is a local business owner specializing in marketing communications consulting and services. If you enjoy this column, please “like” it on social media and share online. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer; they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Kingston Wire Editorial Team.