Friday, December 30, 2011

Florida: Indian River companies slow in reaching job projections

VERO BEACH — A group of companies has created less than a third of the 334 jobs they anticipated when Indian River County awarded them grants in the past two years.

The county has earmarked almost $2 million in grants through its jobs program since September 2009, although it has only paid $26,000 because the money is dispensed in chunks over three years according to the number of jobs the companies create.

Ten companies predicted they would expand the local workforce by a total 334 jobs. So far, they've hired 107 people through the program, county officials said.

The companies' anticipated job growth seems to have caused some confusion.

The Indian River County Chamber of Commerce stated in a recent newsletter that the area gained 334 jobs in the past 18 months, as if the growth already had occurred.

And Vero Beach Mayor Pilar Turner added an item to the agenda for Tuesday's City Council meeting, crediting the chamber for attracting 334 jobs to the community in 18 months.

The county's economic development chief described the projected job gains as "optimistic" and emphasized the numbers were merely estimates.

"We've never represented that the number of jobs in the spreadsheet were the number of jobs created," said Bob Keating, Indian River County's community development director. "As you'd expect, the companies would be optimistic about the number of jobs they expected to create."

Helene Caseltine, the chamber's economic development director, said chamber officials make it clear in their public presentations that the new jobs are anticipated.

When a company announces it will create 300 jobs, you don't expect that many people to be on the payroll in the next week, Caseltine said.

She's not surprised there's a marked difference between the number of jobs the companies hoped to create and the ones that materialized.

"It's hard to estimate," she said.

In citing the potential job gains, the chamber also didn't take into account the 175 employees that Piper Aircraft Inc. is laying off after mothballing its Altaire jet. Piper originally planned to lay off 205 workers.

Caseltine said the chamber tracks the jobs added to the area, and not the jobs lost.

Some area companies not in the jobs program are expanding, she said. For instance, Parker Hannifin, which produces rubber hoses, added a shift this year at its local plant, doubling the staffing to 70 workers from 35, she said.

The employers in the program are a diverse mixture of startup companies, established local businesses and companies moving or expanding into the county. They include Girard Equipment, INEOS New Planet Bioenergy, NetBoss Technologies and Boston Barricade.

Two companies were awarded their grants in the past two months, allowing them little time to generate jobs.
 
Boston Barricade hopes to hire 28 new workers to get the full $126,000 grant awarded to the company in December. Girard Equipment aims to add 20 jobs to earn a $33,000 grant approved in October and so far has created three jobs.

Girard Equipment's top executive said he expects to meet the goal of 20 new local jobs in the next 16 months.
 
"That's a high water mark," said Tim Girard, the company's president. "The jobs grant itself will not create one job. It allows me to go after someone with a higher wage."

Girard has hired a couple dozen employees in the past year but most didn't meet the criteria for the jobs program, such as working at a site in either Indian River or St. Lucie counties, Keating said.

Companies in the program receive grant money in increments over several years based on actual local hiring, Keating said, adding that the county wants to see results before dispensing dollars.

eMindful, a health a wellness company, has fallen well short of the 70 new jobs it anticipated and has yet to receive county funds. It has hired nine people and will bring on two more, said Kelley McCabe Duff, the company's chief executive.

"It's taking longer than we thought," McCabe Duff said.

AlgaGen, which cultivates algae and marine microorganisms to aid in nutrition for fish, has doubled its sales and hired four people since being awarded a $60,000 grant in July 2010, but it has fallen shy of the projected 10 new hires.

The company's former chief executive was "optimistic" when applying for the grant, said Erik Stenn, AlgaGen's owner and founder.

"It took a little more work than we envisioned to grow the company," Stenn said.

SpectorSoft Corp., a software development company, has filled 10 of the 34 jobs it anticipated.

The biggest challenge is recruiting people, especially in the county, who have the technical skills, said Larry Thompson, the company's chief financial officer.

"We're just finding it very difficult at this time," Thompson said.

Companies awarded Indian River County jobs grants

Company................Anticipated jobs...Average wage...*Grant awarded.....Month of grant award
Girard Equipment.........20..................$32,730.............$70,000..............October 2011
Spectorsoft Corp. .......34...................$63,800............$208,000............September 2009
OcuCue.....................25....................$40,400............$131,000............September 2009
eMindful.....................70....................$52,600............$500,000............November 2009
INEOS Bioenergy.......53....................$56,500............$310,000...............March 2010
AlgaGen....................10....................$59,600.............$36,000..................July 2010
NetBoss Technologies.....57................$85,000............$363,000................August 2010
Communications
International..................12.................$55,000............$68,000....................May 2011
SMI Telecom................25...................$75,600...........$169,000....................June 2011
Boston Barricade.........28...................$38,035............$126,000................December 2011
TOTAL: 334

*Grant money paid to companies so far is substantially less than the awards, which are based on actual jobs created. The companies in the program have added 107 jobs to date.

Sources: Indian River County Community Development Department and Indian River County Chamber of Commerce

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