The good news is that local employers are hiring.
The bad news? The difficult economy and large number of people looking for work have
enabled companies to be much more selective in who they bring into their staffs.

This was the message Friday as Pam Fahle, branch manager for Adecco Office and
Industrial Employment Services, delivered the monthly Business Climate Report
before the Bowling Green Chamber’s Board of Directors.
"I can tell you that there is hiring going on. The things that we’re finding out
is, it’s very job-specific," she said. Many employers know what they want
in an employee, and are quite picky in who they choose. Employers, she said,
believe that with so many people out of work they can be more choosey and find
exactly who they’re looking for to fill a given position.
Fahle said that many college students today are graduating with exceptional
educational resumes – but they lack job experience. And, on the other side of
the coin, older job-seekers tend to have the requisite experience, but lack the
degree of education employers are looking for.
"And a lot of employers are wanting both," Fahle explained, noting that it
is difficult to help employers Adecco works with to understand that sometimes
they will not be able to find an employee with the perfect combination. They
have to look at the individual.
She said that, to give students a leg up, she is advising them to take on practicum
experience, even if it’s unpaid, to help beef up their own experience skill-set.

"We’re kind of finding ourselves being consultants, honestly, with a lot of
people, trying to explain this to the employer and employees. It’s changing out
there, is that it is."
This also extends to the industrial world. Many employers are now demanding that
applicants have clean background checks – often free even of misdemeanors – and
have drug screenings done.
"But what we’re finding is background is hurting a lot of people." She is
now telling students that what they do at 17 or 18 truly can hurt their chances
of employment for the rest of their lives.
"They (employers) don’t want them, they just don’t want them. And they can be
picky."
In fact, human resources departments in factories are often also looking for people
with good math scores and other such skills.
Prospective employees are also often coming into the agency with high expectations,
Fahle said. Some who have been laid off from lucrative positions are saying they
could make more money simply living on unemployment than by taking on an hourly
job. She said that they have to explain to those who have lost jobs that,
realistically, they will not make the kind of salary they once had again.
Factories, for instance, can no longer support the kinds of high hourly wages
prevalent in the past. Job seekers need to look at other facets of positions,
like job security and benefits.
And students often come in expecting to be hired to jobs and receive high salaries
right off the bat.
"Unfortunately, I think our society, we need to change the way that kids are
thinking today."
Speaking later, City Administrator John Fawcett built on Fahle’s statements, noting
that "in our surveys, nearly all of our businesses here in town are going
to be hiring people. Some are going to be hiring significant numbers," but
they will be selective.
"They’re not just accepting bodies because they’re just warm and there,"
but are looking for quality individuals.
"So we’re happy to report that by the end of 2012 we should be up several
hundred more jobs than what we were last year."
In other business, the board:
• heard that a blood analysis event with Wood County Hospital is scheduled for April
14. Last year’s event saw approximately 200 appointments scheduled.
• heard from Tim Smith of Bowling Green State University that university employees
have collectively donated over $100,000 to the local United Way.
• heard from Fawcett that, due to favorable weather, pipe installation for the North
Main Street project is ahead of schedule. However, it is not expected that this
will speed up the overall process.