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September 27, 2009
Some companies in East Central Illinois say they're being conservative in hiring, but a few expect to hire more people this year than they did last year.
Kraft Foods in Champaign, for example, has hired 193 employees so far this year, and there are plans to hire 40 more, said company spokeswoman Adrienne Dimopoulos.
That would add up to 233 hires for the year, compared with the 221 hired in 2008. Altogether, Kraft employs 1,336 in Champaign.
"The major factors influencing whether we hire or not are retirements, new projects and volume of business," Dimopoulos said.
Frasca International, which makes flight simulators in Urbana, has increased its head count by about 7 percent since January, said Karen Crewell, the company's manager of human resources. Employment stands at about 190.
"Definitely, we've been fortunate," she said. "We've had two or three large things that have kept us kind of busy. We're fortunate not to have the mass layoffs that other companies have had to deal with."
Solo Cup's Urbana plant, which makes plastic cups, lids and containers, has more people working there than it did a year ago, said Angie Chaplin Gorman, the company's director of communications.
"At the end of August, we had approximately 420 employees in our Urbana manufacturing facility and office," she said. "In August 2008, we had approximately 350."
Two years ago, the number employed at Solo in Urbana was very close to what it was this year, she added.
Solo's business was affected by the economy, with consumers spending less on discretionary goods, such as single-use cups and plates, Gorman said.
Consumers also cut back on restaurant meals, and that affected Solo as a supplier to fast-food chains.
"We shifted certain marketing strategies in response to the recession, which helped us drive demand for some of the products produced in Urbana," Gorman said.
Employment has been relatively stable at both Carle Clinic and the Carle Foundation, according to spokeswomen for those organizations.
"Carle Clinic is currently filling vacancies, but hasn't had a need to expand and hire for new positions," said clinic spokeswoman Jennifer Hendricks. "People are staying in their jobs, and therefore we are experiencing about 10 percent less turnover."
As of Aug. 31, the clinic employed 2,790 people, or about 2,534 full-time equivalents.
So far in 2009, 228 employees have been hired, about 34 percent fewer than in 2008, she said.
That's partly the result of a need for fewer new positions this year, unlike previous years when the clinic was opening new facilities in Champaign-Urbana and Danville, Hendricks said.
At the Carle Foundation, employment stood at 3,009 this month, barely unchanged from the 3,003 employed last November.
"There's been some turnover during that period of time, but the positions have been relatively stable," said foundation spokeswoman Gretchen Robbins.
In September 2007, Carle Foundation employment stood at 2,878, but shortly afterward, Carle launched a recruitment campaign to hire about 100 registered nurses. In October 2008, the foundation reduced its workforce by about 70 positions in order to meet projected budgets.
Even though some companies are hiring, figures released last week indicated that unemployment continued to climb in East Central Illinois in August.
Area unemployment rates for counties ranged from a low of 7.4 percent in McLean County to a high of 12.1 percent in Vermilion County. Ford, Edgar and Vermilion counties all had rates topping 10 percent.
Champaign County's rate was 8.5 percent, up from 6.7 percent in August 2008. The state estimated 8,733 of the county's residents were out of work and looking for a job in August, while 94,101 held down jobs.
In Vermilion County, an estimated 4,534 people were unemployed and looking for work last month, while 33,005 were employed.
Still, there are signs things may be turning around.
Spherion, which provides staffing services to companies in the Champaign-Urbana and Decatur areas, saw increased hiring by employers this summer.
"We're definitely doing better than this time last year," said Spherion franchise owner Cindy Somers. "Back in August, things started to really pick up. One client had been on extensive layoffs, and they did ramp back up."
Hiring is back to the level before the slowdown, she said, and several businesses with strong seasonal demand hired more this summer than they did a year ago.
"We continue to see a slow and steady increase in utilization of staff," Somers said. "I don't think the floodgates are going to open and we'll have exponentially more jobs to fill. Slow and steady is the way it will come back."
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