News

September 4, 2010

A local labor force

By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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In an economy that’s struggling, so are Americans. With a local unemployment rate approaching a 20-year high, the thought of losing a job is ever-present for many people, whether it be to a layoff caused by the downturn or because a job is being sent overseas.

And yet, there are still jobs available and in high demand because there is work that simply can’t be done from afar.

For example, people don’t go to China to have teeth cleaned. Nor would they send carpeting – and house – to Pakistan for a shampoo. There are many jobs that can’t be moved.

Anthony Liuzzo, a professor of business and economics and director of Wilkes University’s MBA program, said those jobs may include the medical field, education, repair, veterinarians, small businesses, police officers, postal workers and morticians.

To keep those jobs, Liuzzo said, the key is keeping yourself trained and flexible.

“It gives you the ability to move from one job to another job,” Liuzzo said. “It isn’t 1960 anymore where people worked for 30 years at the same company.”

Liuzzo said outsourcing exploded in 2005, but now, five years later, it’s slowed down.

“There’s not as much fear in 2010 than there was in 2005,” Liuzzo said.

Even if it doesn’t take their job, Liuzzo said, outsourcing affects every American.

Everyone is affected
“It’s a shame,” William Lockhart, owner of Accu-Brite carpet cleaning, said of outsourcing, “because so many masses of people lose their jobs, and they are the consumers. It affects us all.”

Lockhart, who has been in the cleaning business for nearly 15 years, said as a provider of a service, he is affected when people lose their jobs and aren’t purchasing the same services as they have in the past.

In recent years, Lockhart, of Exeter, whose business is located on Mundy Street in Wilkes-Barre, said he noticed a change in business.

“All the small business people, we all felt the pinch,” Lockhart said.

Normally, spring calls for spring cleaning, and that usually means Lockhart’s business is in full swing.

But this year, even though he remains busy each week, the spring cleaning crowd slumped.

“It could be better, but (business) is going good,” Lockhart said.

Lockhart began in the carpet cleaning business while still in college. A few years later, he and his wife, Jennifer, were expecting a child and one of them had to start working part-time.

Because his wife is a registered nurse, Lockhart said he chose the part-time work at Accu-Brite. He purchased the business from its previous owner in 2000.

What Lockhart enjoys most about his job is setting his own schedule and interacting with customers.

“Freedom is the best part about it,” Lockhart said.

Recently, Lockhart was doing a job at a home in the Poconos where the homeowner said there was a stain a previous carpet cleaning company couldn’t get out.

When Lockhart tackled the stubborn stain, it came out easily for him.

“I wondered (what the other company) did,” Lockhart said. “I had a sense of accomplishment. There’s a satisfaction, and if I didn’t have that, I think I wouldn’t want to go to work every day.

Satisfaction in service
That satisfaction also keeps funeral director Tom McLaughlin coming back each day to provide a service to families that is greatly appreciated in a somber time of need.

“I generally feel very good about what I do at the end of the day,” McLaughlin said. “The way (a family is affected) by a death and the way they ultimately get through the funeral service. If I can see someone improved in some way or another. … I’ve done everything I could’ve done to help them get through this.”

The McLaughlin Company has been a mainstay in Wilkes-Barre since 1898, and their family business attests to the company’s success throughout the years.

“I think it’s a combination of what we offer our client families … (we’re) certainly first and foremost a personal and professional service,” McLaughlin said.

Funeral services are a job that certainly wouldn’t be sent overseas, but, McLaughlin said, he still feels the changing economy influences what customers do when a family member dies.

“We have seen an increase in client families choosing cremation over earth burial,” McLaughlin said, “and changes in thoughts on caskets and burial vaults.”

McLaughlin, who lives in Wilkes-Barre with his wife, Katie, and three children, explained that not only do economic changes affect the funeral business, but changes in society and culture as well.

McLaughlin began working at his family’s business 25 years ago. He planned to attend college for medicine or business, but found himself comfortable at the business his family has run for over 112 years.

Repair business takes off
Local bicycle repairman Lee Frantz said he feels business at Around Town Bicycles in Wilkes-Barre has felt the effects of a slow economy.

“This year, it seems that our new bike sales have sort of stayed the same … the repair business has taken off quite a bit than in years past,” Frantz said.

Frantz, who began repairing bicycles 30 years ago in Michigan, said he feels bicycle repair has increased because people are holding off on buying new bicycles.

“We’re busy from the time we open until the time we close the door,” Frantz said. “And most times, I don’t even each lunch; normally, I eat while at my work bench.”

Frantz began repairing bicycles after graduating from college with an art history degree. He began teaching at a Michigan university, but soon realized his love of bicycles overruled his art history degree.

Frantz, originally from Northeastern Pennsylvania, decided to move back home and currently lives in Plymouth.

“Working on bikes came naturally to me. I know that I’ll never make a lot of money at it, but I come to work every day and I’m happy to be here.”

Frantz says the idea of working with his hands and using his intelligence to make things right appeals to him day after day.

“It’s the knowledge and experience that you can’t download on a computer; that’s a big part of it,” Frantz says of his never-ending agenda of fixing bicycles. “Anyone can buy (a part) online instead of from us, but they don’t have the knowledge to install it and make it work right.”

Frantz said the whole Around Town Bicycles business would have to suffer before he would have to worry about losing his job, and that he feels rather secure in what he does each day.

Elective procedures declining
While local dentist Loren Grossman feels secure in his job, he says his business is affected by a slumping economy and products made overseas.

“The economy affects us all,” Grossman said.

Grossman, a dentist for 27 years, said patients are currently having procedures done that are necessary, like cleanings, while elective procedures are declining.

Grossman said out-of-pocket expenses and people losing their jobs and therefore losing their insurance, also affect his business.
“But, that will pick up as soon as the economy turns around,” he said.

Grossman said he is also more likely to use laboratories in the United States, rather than an overseas lab that may use products that are not FDA approved.

“I use local or domestic labs that I know of ... and everything has to be certified,” Grossman said.

Grossman said dentistry appealed to him while in college because he liked science and the arts, and that dentistry combines the two.

“I always wanted to work independently and wanted to be my own boss,” Grossman added.

 

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