It’s no secret: Louisiana is badly in need of industrial laborers.
As Business Report details in a feature from the current issue, the demand has put pressure on—and brought significant growth to—not only the companies themselves, but to a sector to which they often turn for employment needs: industrial recruiting.
LINK Staffing Services, founded in 1980 in Houston, Texas, has 45 locations across the country, including one in Baton Rouge. LINK began as an industrial staffing-only employment agency and continues to fill jobs in several categories, including administration, health care, renewable energy, and retail, among others.
“Our niche is industrial staffing,” says LINK Branch Manager Marcie Boudreaux. “We started doing the industrial, skilled, semi-skilled, light industrial, and administrative support staffing.”
Even with the high demand for industrial jobs, Boudreaux says the challenge is in finding skilled workers qualified for the companies in need.
“The work is so intense now,” Boudreaux says. “[Companies] don’t have time to train someone. They need the skilled workers, and a lot of your old trades, your press operators, millwrights. Those breeds are dying, yet we still have companies that need them.”
TrueBlue Energy and Industrial, part of True Blue Inc., connects more than 375,000 workers to jobs every year. With a specialty in industrial jobs, TrueBlue, too, has experienced a greater demand for workers in the last five years.
“There’s a lot of work coming up in Louisiana and Texas,” says Howard Aronson, vice president of sales for TrueBlue. “Our largest challenge is finding a productive, skilled workforce, as more people are retiring from this trade than coming into the trade every day.”
No matter how quickly technology advances, companies aren’t without the need of blue-collar employees willing to work with their hands.
“I hate to single people out, but today’s generation wants to sit behind a desk,” Boudreaux says. “They want to go to college for four years, and then get a desk job. We still need those hands-on workers, and that’s where our challenges are.”
Capital Region staffing agencies employ a variety of methods for recruiting workers and connecting them with jobs.
Read the full feature. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
