— While cities across the country struggle with unemployment rates of 12 percent and higher, Joplin now stands at half that level, according to the latest federal numbers.

The city also is being recognized for the improvement it has made in reducing unemployment during the past year.

Jobs tied to recovery and rebuilding following last year’s tornado explain part, but not all, of the improvement in job conditions in Joplin, according to several local experts.

In June, Joplin’s unemployment rate hit 6.1 percent, down from 8.9 percent when compared with June of last year, in the immediate aftermath of the tornado that damaged or destroyed more than 500 businesses. Among the casualties were major employers, including a Wal-Mart Supercenter and St. John’s Regional Medical Center. Those two, along many other employers, vowed to keep employees on the payroll while they rebuilt, but not every business could do that and many people lost jobs as well as their homes.

While most metropolitan areas reported a drop in unemployment from June 2011 to June 2012, no city among the nation’s 372 defined metropolitan areas fared better than Joplin, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“The largest over-the-year unemployment rate decrease in June was registered in Joplin, Mo. (-2.8 percentage points),” the federal agency reported earlier this month.

Gary Steinberg, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said the same thing happened in metropolitan areas along the Gulf Coast that were helped by rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Joplin’s unemployment rate in June at 6.1 percent is better than the 6.6 percent reported in May 2011, before the tornado, and indicates the city is making progress in the one area of economic recovery that has proven elusive for much of the rest of the country during the recession.

“It is very good news for us,” said Rob O’Brian, president of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce. He also noted that while unemployment has come down, the size of the labor force in the area has grown by about 4,000 people.

Mike Wiggins, owner of two Granny Shaffer’s restaurants in Joplin, isn’t surprised by the news.

“When we put the ‘Help Wanted’ sign up we don’t see the line we used to see,” he said.

Where he used to get 100 applications for openings, he said he now gets 20 to 25.

“It’s a little tight trying to find the skill-level people,” he said.

In the aftermath of the storm that wiped out IHOP and about two dozen other restaurants, Wiggins said he was able to hire some of those workers who were unemployed. But as those restaurants reopened — he specifically cited IHOP and Jim Bob’s — some of those employees are planning on returning to their old jobs.

But other restaurants also are coming to Joplin, such as Longhorn Steakhouse, further tightening up the labor pool, and that has nothing to do with the tornado, he noted.



BEMIS JOBS

Other local employers are adding jobs that have nothing to do with the tornado.

Bemis, a flexible packaging manufacturer located at 3200 N. Progress Ave. in the Joplin-Webb City Industrial Park, is hiring 66 workers, according to spokeswoman Kristine Pavletich.

The consolidation of several Bemis plants elsewhere in North America means growth for Joplin.

“They’re good technical jobs and they pay well,” O’Brian added.

Bemis, based in Wisconsin, is a global supplier of flexible packaging used in the food and consumer industries. It has 78 plants in 12 countries. Pavletich said that in 2011 the company started a consolidation program and began moving business to its plants with larger capacity.

The Joplin plant employs about 153 people, Pavletich said.

“Joplin had great capacity,” Pavletich said. “In considering consolidation, we had a number of smaller plants in the U.S. that provided the same type of products, but it worked out very well to consolidate operations here. The Webb City City Council and the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce have been fabulous. It has been a good experience.”

Coca-Cola will be adding 45 jobs for its new distribution center in Joplin, which is a consolidation of company operations in Aurora and Fort Scott, Kan.

There have been some setbacks in the past year, however.

About 200 temporary and permanent jobs at the Orval Kent Food Co. salad processing plant in Baxter Springs, Kan., were lost earlier this year when it shut down. It is one of that town’s biggest employers.

Just last week, Hydro Aluminum announced plans to close part of its Monett operations, cutting about 140 jobs.

Prepping for 2013

Among the employers that added jobs last year is Able Manufacturing, and it is anticipating more hiring next year.

“We have added 25 full-time positions since the first of the year,” said Sue Adams, human resource manager. The company grew its work force from 350 to 375.

“I feel like all the employers who are hiring are all competing in what appears to be a shrinking pool,” she said Tuesday.

Able is forecasting a slower fourth quarter with employment leveling off as work for wind turbines slows down because of the loss of tax credits, said president Jim Schwarz. But he added: “We see good business on the horizon in 2013.”

Some of that growth will be in the parts for agricultural, construction and passenger trains that are made at the Joplin plant.

Adams said the company is preparing for that growth and is already looking for a director of engineering, a strategic sourcing manager and another process engineer.

Jasen Jones, executive director of the Workforce Investment Board for Southwest Missouri, also said the job situation is improving.

“It really is tightening up in terms of labor supply. We are seeing more job openings on the street.”



Staff writer Andra Bryan Stefanoni contributed to this report.