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“Our competitive advantage is highest in a downturn” in the economy, said Kathryn Birkeland, assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Department of Economics. The 7 Rivers Region’s low cost of living is an especially important consideration to people who are looking for a job during a recession, she said. As layoffs occur, workers will be looking for jobs.
The region is in a better situation than larger metropolitan areas, Birkeland said. “Our community banks have money; they are still lending,” she said. Community banks tend to be in a better position than national banks during the current financial turmoil, because they haven’t had as much exposure to problems, Birkeland said.
T.J. Brooks, associate professor in UW-L’s Department of Economics, said he hopes the federal financial bailout legislation recently signed into law will work. “It’s not going to work right away,” he said. “It’s a matter of assuaging confidence of the banks. That could take a long time.”
Recruiting and retaining talent was the main focus of the conference, but the agenda was expanded to include recent U.S. financial woes.
Dan Conroy, operations manager for Nexen Group, a manufacturer in Webster, Wis.; and Bob Meyer, president of Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College in Shell Lake, Wis., spoke about the need for manufacturers to recruit workers and to educate students as early as middle school about the availability of high-skilled jobs in the field. That’s especially important as baby boomers begin to retire.
They spoke about the Manufacturing Works organization and its Gold Collar Career campaign to promote jobs in manufacturing. Manufacturing Works is a partnership of manufacturers, WITC, Chippewa Valley Technical College and University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Construction of new single-family homes has slowed this year, said panelist Vicki Markussen, executive officer of the La Crosse Area Builders Association. “It’s a great time to find a builder,” and material costs have declined, she said.
Banks are still lending but want better terms and credit quality than before, said panelist Lise Graham, a UW-L finance professor. “Our region so far looks pretty good,” she said, adding it has lenders who tend to be a little more conservative, and it hasn’t had the large numbers of layoffs that some parts of the nation have had.
“We have started to scrutinize loans more than we did” two years ago, said panelist Karen Dunn, a vice president of Coulee Bank. And terms on loans have become more conservative, she said.
There still are good opportunities for development, said panelist Marvin Wanders of Three Sixty Real Estate Solutions, a La Crosse firm that invests in residential and commercial properties.
