Labor shortage a symptom, not a cause, of rural exodus

By Anthony Hennen | The Center Square

HARRISBURG, PA — Attracting businesses and encouraging entrepreneurs already in the area to grow the economy isn’t the only issue holding back rural workforce growth.

Other practical problems that pop up, from the pressures of family or a lack of infrastructure, can keep residents out of a job, state officials told the Senate Majority Policy Committee recently.

“Bringing people into Pennsylvania and keeping them here, particularly in rural communities, is a challenge that we all need to address and think about,” said Nancy Walker, acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

Walker noted childcare and transportation issues that routinely cause problems for rural workers. Without family to offer childcare, or a reliable car, workers young and old can’t take – or keep – a job.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to meeting the needs of Pennsylvania workers and employers,” Dan Kuba, director of the Bureau of Workforce Development Administration in the Department of Labor & Industry, wrote in his testimony. “They are always different from person to person, business to business, community to community.

So, we have to design programs that are targeted, deliberate and flexible.”

Walker and Kuba were optimistic about the potential of apprenticeships for younger and career-transitioning workers. Programs in construction and the trades, along with health care, could drive young workers into good jobs and fill some much-needed vacancies.

Building out better access to broadband internet, too, could have promising results, Kuba argued.

“Remote and flexible employment opportunities are proven mechanisms for overcoming barriers to employment, particularly for people with health challenges and those in rural communities with limited transportation and childcare challenges,” Kuba wrote in his testimony.

Another barrier is a benefits cliff, where residents lose benefits for getting a job or a raise.

“A lot of people trapped in poverty are trapped in poverty because of the policies we’ve enacted, both on the federal and state level,” Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, said. “I think we need to take a really hard look at how to make that ramp smooth so it’s always better to go to work, but we still have your back if you can’t, or lose your job.”

Driving much of the workforce issues is a basic problem: young workers flee for more economic opportunity elsewhere, leaving behind a larger share of older residents.

“Demographic change — especially declining populations in rural communities and an aging population overall — appears to be a significant component of the labor force shortage,” Kyle Kopko, executive director of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, wrote in his testimony.

For economically strong areas of rural Pennsylvania like Williamsport, the problem isn’t a labor force shortage so much as a housing shortage.

“One of the key things that we are lacking though is housing,” said Jason Fink, president and CEO of the Williamsport/Lycoming Chamber of Commerce. “Historically during this time of year, you would expect to see in the neighborhood of 700 to 800 homes available on the market. However, in talking with those in the real estate business, there’s only about 125 to 150 homes up for sale.”

Others were more emphatic.
“We are now at a point in Lycoming County that there is no such thing as affordable housing,” Herman Logue, vice president of the general contractor Glenn O. Hawbaker, wrote in his testimony.

Without more housing, the county could lose its economic momentum.

“You will have limited economic development or growth without housing,” E. Patrick Little of Fish Real Estate said.
One explanation for a lack of housing is how little zoning laws have changed, instead adding to up-front costs and acting as barriers to developers to build more housing.

“Since the housing crisis of 2009, our company has been very timid about future land development because of the immense amount of up-front financial liability it takes to develop a piece of land,” Nathan Yoder, vice president of Yoder Builders, wrote in his testimony.

This isn’t the first time that experts have told lawmakers of their housing concerns. Earlier in May, Senate Republicans heard how zoning restrictions have priced many Pennsylvanians out of homeownership and economically growing areas of the commonwealth, as The Center Square previously reported.

In lowering costs and reforming the housing problems at hand, Laughlin warned of the “hamster wheel of red tape” that can cause headaches in Pennsylvania.

“It seems like every time I turn around, there’s a new regulation that is preventing people from just doing their job and building houses that people can afford,” Laughlin said. “Then we have to have hearings where we go, ‘What are we going to do about housing affordability?’ I don’t know, quit handcuffing the people that are actually doing it.”