Optimistic hiring outlook for North Dakota, Minnesota

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North Dakota employers have the second-most-optimistic hiring intentions of any state, according to a recent survey.

Twenty-seven percent of the North Dakota employers polled in a Manpower Inc. survey released Tuesday said they planned to hire more workers between July and September.

Only 4 percent of employers in the state said they expected to reduce payroll during the same period, with 69 percent expecting to maintain current staffing levels.

“Hiring is definitely on the rise throughout the state,” said Lora Schiltz, branch manager of Manpower’s Fargo office. “The job market has been very strong. We’ve been a little more insulated from the economic problems of the rest of the nation. Our biggest problem right now is finding enough qualified candidates.”

Minnesota employers also are expecting to hire at a strong clip this summer and fall.

From July to September, 23 percent of Minnesota companies interviewed for the quarterly Manpower survey expect to hire more employees — up from 16 percent in the previous quarter. During the third quarter of 2011, 5 percent of Minnesota employers polled anticipate decreasing staffing, 68 percent expecting to maintain current staff levels and four percent were uncertain of hiring plans.

Much of the hiring uptick in Minnesota is expected in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, where 20 percent of companies interviewed expected to increase staffing, 3 percent planned to cut staff and 73 percent planned to stay at the same level of employment.

But at least some of the increase figures to come from Thief River Falls-based electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corp.

Digi-Key expects to hire 400-500 new employees in 2011, a mix of full- and part-time workers.

“We’re still hiring pretty aggressively,” said Rick Trontvet, Digi-Key’s vice president of human resources. “Last year was a major growth year for Digi-Key. We’re still seeing sales growth and adding new employees, but not at the same level as last year.”

Buoyed by sales growth of 63 percent last year, Digi-Key hired 600 new employees in 2010 and also added 70 seasonal workers and interns. The fast-growing company has 2,520 employees working in Thief River Falls or from home.

The company’s rapid growth and a fairly strong local job market has made it necessary for the company to aggressively market its job openings, hold job fairs in Thief River Falls and around the state and in some cases offer relocation assistance to lure qualified workers.

“We’ve had to be a little more assertive and aggressive to find employees,” Trontvet said. “But so far we have been able to find employees to staff the positions we’ve needed.”

Grand Forks County had a not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 3.6 percent in April, compared with a statewide average of 3.2 percent and a national rate of 8.7 percent. Grand Forks County and Polk County had a combined unemployment rate of 4.3 percent in April.

The Job Service North Dakota office in Grand Forks has listings for more than 1,000 open jobs in the Grand Forks area, about double the number of resumes it has on file for job seekers searching for jobs in the area.

Schiltz of the Manpower office in Fargo has noticed an increase in the number of job seekers from Minnesota and other states looking for work in North Dakota.

John Mohn, president of Ideal Aerosmith, which has about 80 employees in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, said he expects hiring to be flat for the rest of the year.

Ideal Aerosmith, which opened a new location on South Washington Street in Grand Forks more than a year ago, has hired about a dozen new employees in the past two years.

Mohn said the company is slowing down its hiring pace because of the economy and uncertainty over government funding for projects. But more future growth is expected.

“The hiring will be flat this year because the demand from our customers has slowed down somewhat,” he said. “We’re kind of treading water right now and expecting to grow in the future.”

Schuster reports on business. Reach him at (701) 780-1107; (800) 477-6572, ext. 107, or email rschuster@gfherald.com. Follow Schuster on Twitter at @RyanSchuster.

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