Monthly Archives: May 2015

Posted on May 1, 2015 – Maryville Daily Forum by Tony Brown Among those hardest hit by the Great Recession were the so-called millennials, Americans born in the 1980s through the early 2000s. But the outlook appears to be improving for workers age 18-33 living in Missouri, and, according to one consumer-oriented economics website, the future of young adults is especially bright in Maryville. A story by reporter Kamran Rosen published this week by NerdWallet at nerdwallet.com, ranks Maryville ninth among the top ten cities in the state in terms of offering employment opportunities for job-seeking members of the demographic sometimes referred to as Generation Y. Writes Rosen: “A large millennial population — nearly 40 percent of the city’s 12,000 residents were ages 18 to 33 in 2013 — and employers such as Kawasaki and Northwest Missouri State University, helped push Maryville into the top-10 cities for job seekers. “Nodaway County Economic Development, as well as the (Dean L. Hubbard) Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Small Business and Technology Development Center at Northwest Missouri State, support existing businesses and help new ones get off the ground.” Beyond Maryville, northern Missouri as a whole was well represented on Rosen’s list, which also included Trenton (No. 3), Bowling Green (No. 4) and Macon (No. 5). Trenton, the Grundy County seat and home to North Central Missouri College, is located in north central Missouri about 100 miles southeast of Maryville. Bowling Green and Macon — also county seats — are located in the northeastern part of the state. On the fringe of the region, the east-central Missouri city of Fulton, population 12,700, came in at No. 7. Like Maryville, Fulton is a college town and home to both Westminster College and William Woods University. The top spot in the NerdWallet ranking went to Pevely, a town of 5,400 people located in Jefferson County south of St. Louis. NerdWallet analyzed 95 Missouri communities with populations over 5,000, but only two cities on the top-10 list have more than 20,000 residents: Jefferson City (No. 2), the state capital, which pushed passed the 43,000 population mark in the 2010 census, and the St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights (No. 8), with a population of 27,400. Bonne Terre in southeast Missouri and Neosho in the southwestern part of the state filled out the list at No. 6 and No. 10 respectively. Rosen noted that several of the top-ten cities share key characteristics with Maryville in that they serve as industrial hubs and contain regional medical centers. Nerd Wallet used several criteria in picking the top-10 towns for millennial employment, including job availability, average worker salaries, affordability of rental housing, and the number of millennials actually living in a given community Cities with lower unemployment rates and higher payroll salaries scored higher as did those with lower rents. Using Census Bureau data, Rosen also estimated the percentage of millennials making up a given city’s 2013 population and the growth in the number of millennial residents between 2010 to 2013. The higher those two figures, the higher the score. In several of the cities, such as Pevely and Macon, Rosen stated that low rents and good pay countered higher unemployment rates. He added that affordability is a key consideration for this age group. Median rent, according to the report, was found to be below the state average for nearly every city on this list, the exception being Maryland Heights, which also has the highest average payroll. Rankings were derived using the following methodology: • Millennials as a percentage of the population and growth in millennial numbers between 2010 to 2013 each comprised 15 percent of the score. • The unemployment rate for each city was 20 percent of the score. The lower the unemployment rate, the better the community fared. • Average annual worker salary was 30 percent of the score. Salary figures were calculated by averaging salaries by ZIP code then dividing that result by population. • Median gross rent comprised 20 percent of the score.  

To fill a need for qualified electrical technicians, Nucor, the largest mini-mill steel manufacturer in the US, is sponsoring full-ride scholarships. Jacob Bailey, a Maryville High School senior, has received the scholarship from Nucor LMP to attend Shelton Community College in Tuscaloosa, AL. Nucor has worked with the community college to offer a two year program which allows recipients to graduate with an electrical technician associate’s degree. The scholarship is estimated to be worth in excess of $100,000 and will provide Bailey with housing, full tuition, full-time pay and on-the-job training. Bailey will work at the Nucor plant in Tuscaloosa for half of the day and take classes the other half. He will work in the Maryville plant during breaks and the summer. Nucor will pay travel expenses for Bailey to return to Maryville twice a year. Nucor’s intention is to hire Bailey full time on the completion of the program. “I’m very excited,” said Bailey, the son of Jim and Melanie Bailey, Maryville. “It’ll be an exciting adventure that I will start on August 1.” Art Filips, an electrical engineer with Nucor LMP, Maryville, did presentations at Northwest Technical School, as soon as he knew about the program in spring 2014. After the presentation in the fall, several students followed up with local plant tours. Interviews then narrowed the choice to Bailey.

At a news conference held on May 1, 2015 Northwest Missouri State University announced the results of the economic impact study conducted for Northwest by Idaho-based Economic Modeling Specialists International, and the results are significant. It shows Northwest generated $617.5 million in added regional income during fiscal year 2014, which is equal to creating 9,465 new jobs within the service area that Northwest calls the Green and White Circle. Furthermore, the study looks at the economic impacts Northwest makes through our operations, students who come from outside the Green and White Circle, visitors to the region and alumni who stay find employment and stay within the Green and White Circle. You can read an executive summary of the study here or the full report is available here.