North Douglas Herald
February 2024
Page 11
Zolezzi Insurance -Two Generations
Business Matters
Continued from Page 4
New Jobs Forecast for Oregon
Replacement and Transfer Jobs outnumber New Jobs 11 to 1
Story by Milo Banks
Salem OR - The Oregon Employment
Department projects total job growth in
Oregon of 10% between 2022 and 2032,
which translates to about 221,600 new jobs.
That’s a lot of jobs added, but in terms of 10-
year growth since the year 2000 it’s moderate
growth.
New jobs are only one element of Oregon’s
workforce needs. Across the board workers are
lost to retirements or career changes, and those
workers will need to be replaced. Replacement
job openings make up 92% of all opportunities
during the next decade. Replacements out
number new openings 11/1 and total nearly 2.5
million openings statewide.
Even industries that aren’t projected to
grow at all will have many job opportunities
available as the current workforce retires or
changes careers. A wide range of industries will
grow more slowly than average, from natural
resources and manufacturing to retail trade and
government. Although utilities and mining are
small and slow growth fields, there will still
be thousands of job opportunities in the next
decade from replacement. Even finance and
insurance, which is projected to decline in total
employment, will have nearly 50,000 projected
replacement openings over the next 10 years.
The workforce is aging in the U.S. and
Oregon, and while workers are staying in
the workforce later in life than in previous
generations, older workers are still very likely
to exit the workforce. Several slow-growth
industries have an older than average workforce,
especially natural resources and mining, real
estate, and utilities, where approximately 30%
of workers are 55 and older.
Another aspect of this is “transfers”,
those workers who leave one field for another.
Projections indicate a higher turnover and
younger industries, such as retail, have many
more transfer openings over the 10-year
period.
An example is, Power Plant Operators,
who are a high-wage occupation that is vital to
the slow-growth utility industry. The median
wage in Oregon is an enticing $50 an hour,
but the field is relatively small and expected to
decline 7% from 2022 to 2032, meaning there
will be roughly two fewer people doing this
job each year across the state. Those declining
number of jobs might discourage people from
considering this lucrative and important career,
but the industry will still need to find new
workers. There are about 17 projected openings
in this field annually due to replacement needs.
There are dozens of examples of occupations
that are slow-growing or declining that will
still need trained workers to enter the field each
year.
New jobs, overall, are projected to
be somewhat soft over the 10 years, 2022
- 2032, but it doesn’t portend decline per
say. Replacement jobs in an older workforce
and job “transfers” will likely translate into
continued stable employment rates even in
slower economic growth times.
Business Oregon Seeks Applications for Grant Program
Story by Milo Banks
Supporting Regional Innovation
Hubs Business Oregon and the
Oregon Innovation Council are
pleased to announce the availability
of approximately $2.5 million
in grant funding to support the
implementation
of
Regional
Innovation Hubs. These grant funds
are expected to support collaboration
and community partnerships, create
and expand existing innovation-based
entrepreneurial services, and assist
regions across Oregon to coalesce
around a larger vision for their
innovation ecosystem. The Request
for Grant Applications is currently
open and will close on February 20,
2024.
A key recommendation in Oregon’s
10-Year Innovation Plan, Regional
Innovation Hubs are partnerships
that deliver programs and services to
support the creation and development
of high-growth, scalable, innovation-
based businesses. To receive grant
funding, Hubs will provide technical
assistance,
access
to
capital,
networking, talent development, and
mentorship to Oregon companies
primarily in the technology and
science sectors.
Key program outcomes will include
innovation-based companies growing,
attracting investment capital, and
creating jobs. In addition to directly
supporting entrepreneurs, the goal
of the program is to fill gaps in the
existing innovation and entrepreneurial
resources across Oregon, encourage
increased
partnerships
and
coordination among partners, and
foster regional collaboration.
Applications are due no later than
8:00 a.m. PST Tuesday, February 20,
2024.
More information about this program
and the full application can be found at
www.oregon.gov/biz.
Drain Chamber of Commerce
Continued from Page 8
industry museum or a pioneer plaza or
history walk in town. There is of course the
covered bridge and the old wagon display
to incorporate into any of these projected
features. Breathing new life into the towns
features and appearance would go a long
way to improvements.
Betterment ideas include, painting or
revamping downtown buildings and put a
new face on the blight and decline. Adding
park and park like facilities to give more
local activities a place to bring folks a
comfortable recreational setting. One of the
ideas is to look towards a Park overseer, a
resident to help keep Ana Drain park secure
and safe. Bonnie has done some inquiry on
the feasibility and has information from
Yoncalla city who has such an attendant
there. Still in the exploratory stage, if the
details are worked out properly, it could
help curb vandalism and other inappropriate
problems that affect the park.
Any efforts at improvement or
beautification requires citizens and
residents to step up and work together.
Bonnie reminds us that the city of Drain has
rich history of citizen involvement in it’s
past and the whittling away of our lifestyle
can only be reversed with volunteerism.
Step up and find a voice and reach out
with your activism and organize. Join the
Chamber of Commerce, find a Committee,
form a coalition with your neighbors and
work together.
“A lot of things in this industry have changed and
the one thing that I try to keep consistant is the level
of service. If we weren’t doing the service piece of
it I suspect we wouldn’t be nearly as successful as
we are.”
“The other side of that success is the people I
work with. I have a wonderful staff, I always have.
I’ve been fortunate to find such good people and
there are a lot of talented people in these small rural
communities, like the ones which we live, that get
overlooked. We somehow find a way of sifting the
sands and getting the gold nuggets on the other side
of it. So, yea, we provide a good service and I have
a wonderful staff, without those 2 most important
things, we certainly wouldnt be successful.”
I asked about managing challenges in the current
market and economic landscape, Craig had this to
say.
“So, yeah, covid changed the business world a
ton. Folks started working remote. We still do a little
bit of a hybrid with some of the employees that may
work a day or two at home but the majority have
now come back in the office on a full-time basis.
We have a wonderful team, some great people but
it is the biggest challenge, as we grow and need
more talent it’s ever increasingly difficult to find
it. Jessilyn Whiteman is the agency manager, she
deals with 99% of the HR, she is my right arm,
she is wonderful. She’s a good communicator, can
handle many things at once and she continues to
drive that side of the business which is wonderful
for me because it gets me gives me the ability to get
out and about and try to drum up some business. I
need talented people, I’m not a big fan of let’s do
everything remote. Yes we do utilize technology
we’ve done a good job with that but I don’t want it
to be 1-800 hit a button you get somebody in Denver
Colorado that knows absolutely nothing about living
in Western Oregon and they’re going to be the ones
that helps you, that’s not a model for us so I would
say recruiting talent is a massive challenge.”
“Another challenge is markets. Smaller agencies
like mine, I need to make sure that I can continue to
build and foster good relationships with the markets
so that I have good competitive price products to sell
to my customers. With the inflation, everything’s up.
That’s a challenge. In the thirty some years I have
been doing this, it’s the most difficult insurance
marketplace I’ve seen. So what I mean by that
is the insurance companies appetite for risk has
shrunk. Things that they used to write every day, are
no longer acceptable to them or if it is acceptable,
then they increase the price 30%. So we’re seeing
significant rate increases across the board. I don’t
know when or if that end is in sight. It’s a trend that
I don’t like and it is continuing. And then from just
owning a business, the tax structure in which we live
makes it very difficult to continue to be profitable
and fiscally healthy as an organization I’m not sure
that’s ever going to change either. “
When we talked about goals for his company
he said, “So my goal is to provide the best service
in the industry. I want my people to care about what
they’re doing to be passionate about what they’re
doing and to take care of the people that we do
business with. That is number one. Yes we have to
make a profit while we’re doing that, but that isn’t
the main focus. That culture has been established
when this business was established. My dad instilled
that in me. There’s a certain way, there’s a right way
to do things and there’s a right way to treat people.
I think we’ve done a good job of fostering that and
being committed to that and developing a culture
that resembles and reflects that. So that is probably
what I’m most proud of, the bottom line is that I’ve
got good staff. They come to the party each and
every day, they put themselves out there and they
do a wonderful job of service and to continue with
that culture we have. And we did just expand into
Florence, that was a goal I had like three years ago
and worked very diligently to get there. What I want
to do next is to continue the culture and migrate it
to the west. We’ve done that for the last year and
we’re pointed in the right direction. The talent
that I acquired when I purchased the agency, they
are drinking the Kool-Aid and they’re providing
the services this insurance agency is known for. I
want to grow, I want to employ more people as the
growth comes but the biggest thing is the service
to customers and the well-being and the happiness
and health of my staff. I want to maintain that and
continue forward.”
Spending the morning with Craig was a high
energy tour of the Drain office and meeting his
co-workers and a very concise description of his
enterprise and after a few photos I thought we would
wrap it up and he wanted to end with these words.
“My favorite things are the relationships that I’ve
built with customers. Hands down the relationships
that I have built with people across the state make
me get up every single day, right? I’m kind of a
workaholic I do this everyday. I don’t complain
about it because I enjoy it and the reason I enjoy it is
because of all the relationships I have not only with
my staff, they’re awesome, but also with all of the
folks in the communities in which I serve.”
“The other thing about small communities is
that I grew up in Drain it’s fun to just kind of walk
the streets and visit with people that I don’t see that
often anymore and that I remember as a kid. One of
the things I really like to do, this is strange but in the
summer when it gets light really early, I’ll go to the
Drain office and maybe do some work outside and
then there’s a bench in front of our building and I
like to sit there and just kind of look around.”
“I remember when Bob Whipple had his
accounting shop next door and Bill Lockyear had
the pharmacy and the bank was right here and the
postmaster George Egglington was down there and
it was a real downtown community. I’m not saying it
isn’t now but you know I have all of those memories
and those are created because we live in such a small
area that everybody becomes friends oftentimes I’ll
sit on that bench and I will see someone walking by,
and I’ll be like, ‘Hey Rusty how you doing. Good
to see you’, ‘Hey remember when we were kids
and we went and did this or that?’ That’s what’s fun
about being in a small town. I played Little League
baseball here and really, that is the most fun about
growing up in a rural community and working the
business that you have established and, you know,
you have some pride. I have a lot of pride. I tell
people where I’m from and they laugh at me, right?
And they kind of they kind of snicker and I tell
them, I have no problem. I’m proud I came from
there, that’s a hard working town, there’s a lot of
good folks there and that’s where I cut my teeth, so
I own that.”