ROGERS -- Industrial development has stagnated in Rogers, a hub of retail and professional service activity, according to a community assessment report released recently by Market Street consultants.

Market Street was hired by the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce to study the area and prepare an economic plan.

Although industrial development, mainly manufacturing, has declined locally over the past seven years, so has manufacturing jobs on a national level, said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

"The reason for the decline is efficiency," Deck said. "It doesn't take as many people to make an item as it once did. That manufacturing jobs are in decline is nothing new, it's a process that been ongoing for decades."

The real question is how to create a work force where people can be prosperous, Deck said.

"Manufacturing jobs used to pay a better than average living wage and provided some great benefits, such as health insurance and retirement," Deck said. "Right now, our labor force is mismatched. People don't have the skills necessary for the technical jobs industry is creating."

People looking for work need to have science, technology, engineering and math skills, according to a recent article in Forbes magazine.

"I think our business leaders and educators are aware of the skill sets needed for the more complex jobs being offered now," said Raymond Burns, president and chief executive officer of the Rogers chamber. "We are all working in that direction."

Burns said Northwest Arkansas, like much of the nation, is behind in preparing young people for the skill sets necessary to be successful in the new job market.

"We're not there yet. We have a long way to go, but we are on the right track," Burns said.

Still, the Rogers-Lowell chamber is working with other chambers and the Northwest Arkansas Council to attract industry and jobs.

"As a region, we have a marketing plan to get our name out to site locators," Burns said. "We are meeting with site locators and business managers as often as possible. We were not on some businesses radar so we are trying to change that."

Mark Kruger, an alderman and a member of the Rogers Economic Development Corp., said Rogers is in a good position to provide training for the future.

"We have NorthWest Arkansas Community College, John Brown University, Northwest Technical Institute and the University of Arkansas in the area to provide training," Kruger said.

The Rogers School District has several programs for preparing high school students for the technical work force, he said.

"We have to make sure we have people who want the more technical jobs. We need to strike a balance between preparing students for college and technical careers that don't necessarily need a college degree," Kruger said. "We accomplish this by having the chamber of commerce, city leaders and the educational institutions working together to create a balanced work force."

The change in skill sets is an issue the community college officials are aware of, and a curriculum is in place to address needs.

"The skills have absolutely changed in the past few years," said Teresa Whitmire, a business education staff member at NorthWest Arkansas Community College. "We work with a number of companies and provide students with specialized training for specific job skills needed for employment."

One of the most important skills needed in the work force is the ability to communicate, Whitmire said.

"We also teach the soft skills, such as communication. Workers need to be able to effectively communicate not only with management, but with other employees. We also teach students how to dress for the workplace and the importance of being on time," Whitmire said.

Northwest Arkansas also lost about 3,500 jobs in the transportation and warehousing sector from 2003 to 2013, according to the assessment report.

Mike Harvey, chief operating officer for the Northwest Arkansas Council, said he's a wary of the transportation loss figures.

"I don't think there was that great a loss in the transportation industry. We see no signs of that many jobs cut from J.B. Hunt and other area trucking firms. Some of the loss could come from the food industry like Allen Canning," Harvey said.

Manufacturing jobs may have disappeared, but more than 2,700 new retail jobs were created in Rogers-Lowell during the past 10 years. The Rogers-Lowell area represents more than 25 percent of all retail employment in the Northwest Arkansas metropolitan area, according to the assessment report.

New jobs were also created in the accommodation and food service sector, according to the report. More than 1,900 jobs were added to the accommodation and 260 jobs in food service. The problem with retail, food service and accommodation jobs is pay. The average annual salary of a retail employee in Rogers is $28,437 and $17,618 for food service and accommodation workers, according to the report.

Education and training is required to balance the lower paying jobs with those with better pay.

"(It) is the only way the area is going to build a workforce that can meet the needs of the future," Harvey said, noting there are professional, scientific and technical service jobs available, but employers have trouble finding skilled workers.

Huntsville, Ala., is an area that has done well in attracting high-paying technical jobs, Harvey said.

"I worked in Huntsville for several years and if you are an aerospace company, Huntsville is the place to be. They have more than 30,000 people working in aerospace research and development. When the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the University of Alabama, decided to pursue the aerospace industry, they really made a big push. Needless to say, the push was successful," Harvey said.

The University of Alabama was a key player in the effort to bring technical jobs to the state, said Ray Garner, chief of staff and director of community relations at the university.

"Huntsville actually got into the aerospace industry as a consolation prize. The city was trying to get a government contract for a wind tunnel, but it went to Tennessee. As a way to mend fences, the government gave the city a contract for the Red Stone rocket project," Garner said.

President John F. Kennedy, in his push to put a man on the moon, changed a ballistic missile program into a rocket program to send a man into space, Garner said.

"The rest, as they say, is history. One company attracted another. Over a period of years the aerospace industry continued to grow. We are told companies want to move here because of the low cost of living and the highly educated work force available," Garner said.

Northwest Arkansas is prepared for more growth when it comes to infrastructure. The area has good roads and is improving existing roadways or building new roads, Harvey said.

"We have plenty of water and wastewater capacity for additional growth, but we need to continue to plan for growth. Education and training is just as important as infrastructure," Harvey said. "It's going to become even more important as we reach a population of 500,000 in the metropolitan area. We have to work harder and smarter to stay ahead."

"We aren't competing with Oklahoma or Texas. We are competing with the world," Harvey said.

NW News on 04/20/2014