Lake County >> The California Employment Development Department (EDD) estimates there are 30,550 Lake County residents in the workforce as of May. Of that number, 2,110 are estimated to be unemployed, or 6.9 percent — not quite the 6.2 percent rate that’s California’s state average, but an improvement nonetheless. The last time Lake County enjoyed employment levels so low, it was 2006.
But, according to Pamela Harpster, the more urgent problem is the number of people who commute out of the county every day for work, a figure that represents lost income and opportunity for Lake County.
“A little more than a third of our workforce was estimated working in other counties than lake,” she said, referencing EDD estimates. “Many local employers are finding it more and more difficult to locate skilled workers. Yet the average lower wages make it difficult for a family to become solvent given the cost of living; housing, child care, transportation, etcetera.”
Harpster recently resigned from her position as the program director for Mendocino Private Industry Council (MPIC), the One Stop program manager for Workforce Lake. She worked for MPIC for 10 years, and in employment-related fields for another 10 prior to that, before finally deciding it was time to go her own way.
“I feel like I have the skills and insight at this point to meet job seekers’ and businesses’ needs in ways that I just couldn’t [at One Stop],” she said. “But I’m proud of and believe in everything I helped build there. They’re a great resource … it was just time for a change.”
A big part of Harpster’s long-term goals is to encourage more skilled and unskilled labor to become established within the county to better meet the diversity of the workforce, and to encourage residents to “keep it local”.
“It’s imperative that we begin to look at this and find ways to bring some of these workers back into our county. This in itself would impact our economic development, as these workers typically shop near their jobs on their way home from work,” she stated. “Personally, I would love to see more manufacturing companies look to our area — clean manufacturing, niche manufacturing, etcetera. With one job produced in manufacturing, the multiplier effect is more than tripled when it comes to job creation.”
For now, her goals are more immediate. She’s currently in the middle of a feasibility study about the prospects of developing a temporary staffing agency within the county to better help connect those looking for work with the work that’s readily available.
“I must have gotten one to three calls a month asking, ‘can you handling staffing for us,” she said. “Because of all of the costs of having employees it can be hard for a small business to maintain everything on their own. A staffing agency can help people reinvent themselves for work; to move to the next level. It can be really helpful to move around between different companies, getting experience, until you find something that just fits.”
For those looking for employment now, Harpster couldn’t emphasize enough her respect for her former colleagues at One Stop, and a high esteem for the assistance they are able to provide.
“Workforce Lake offers a partnership approach with a variety of agencies all in one roof providing workforce development services. They are located at 55 First St., Lakeport.”
