Housing Costs Hamper Hiring

By Christina Rexrode, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.

Nov. 3–In the heart the of bay area workplace, a game of tug of war is playing out. Benefits and pay are improving, but housing remains oppressively pricey.

In our second annual Working survey, based on 187 interviews last month with area business leaders and human resource managers, a whopping 80 percent told the St. Petersburg Times that it’s common for job candidates to voice concerns about housing costs here.

Just 32 percent of businesses said that last year — even though, back then, the median price of a home here was about $20,000 higher.

Another finding: Employers, perhaps to remain more competitive, are beefing up benefits and paychecks in hopes of luring and keeping workers.

Will it be enough? More results from the annual Working survey will appear next Sunday. Here are some key findings:

–Benefits are increasing

The survey indicates that, much more often than last year, employers are implementing or enhancing benefits like vacation time, insurance, retirement accounts and other perks. And 42 percent of employers (compared with last year’s

25 percent) say they’re offering bigger pay increases — no small feat in a region notorious for lagging wages.

McKenzie Tank Lines, a transportation company in Tampa, has boosted referral bonuses. Fortress Technologies, also in Tampa, recently started offering disability insurance.

Photo Science, a computer mapping company, is offering flex time to more of its employees. About half of the two-dozen St. Petersburg workers take advantage of flex time, compared with 25 percent a few years ago. The company has made vocational training more widely available to its techies to help them keep their skill sets current.

Over at Tampa Tank Inc., a steel fabricator with about 150 local employees, CEO Calvin Reed wishes that more of his workers would take advantage of the benefits he offers, like health insurance and tuition assistance.

“But,” Reed said, “the majority of our workers are more interested in what’s in their paycheck than their benefits.”

So Tampa Tank has obliged, increasing starting pay by a notable 5 to 10 percent for the positions it has the most trouble filling, like skilled welders.

–Homes for sale, still too pricey

Workers have realized that buying a home here is not the bargain it used to be. Though housing prices are slowly decreasing, 80 percent of respondents told the Times that job candidates are concerned about housing costs, up from 32 percent last year.

“The (property) taxes are high, the price of housing is high, rent is high,” said Kathy Angus, describing the comments she hears from job applicants.

Angus, office manager of Patel and Gedia Medical Associates in Thonotosassa, said her employer has increased starting pay for office workers as a result.

Compared with 2006, out-of-town job candidates are more likely this year to worry about the Tampa Bay area’s wages, the quality of its schools and the weather.

Chris Friel, program manager for Photo Science, who’s been recruiting technical staffers to the bay area for 15 years, said it’s only in the past two or three years that candidates have asked him about hurricanes. (Translation: Since Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne rocked the state in 2004.)

“The questions come at us a couple of different ways,” Friel said. “Sometimes they’ll ask, ‘Have you ever been hit by a hurricane?’ Sometimes it’s ‘Does Photo Science have a business continuity plan for maintaining operations in a natural disaster?’”

Photo Science does, but Friel was impressed that the applicant thought to ask.

“I said, ‘You’re hired.’”

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