Opinion: Aging Boomers driving employment/population issues
Dubois County and our surrounding area have a population problem.
Ever since the original Dubois County “brain drain” meeting I went to in 2011, I have been following and researching population trends. The big thing I learned is that we don’t have a brain drain issue. What I have been learning is within the last couple of years, the largest yearly populations in our county’s history are heading off into retirement, and there are not enough people being born, growing up, or moving here to currently offset that. The census data shows how Dubois County is heading into a 15-year-long reduction in working-age adults with a flat line of total population growth.
When discussing population trends within the county, there are multiple census data resources online to review, and if you take the time to sort through most of them as I have, you learn a couple of things. The Baby Boomer yearly birth population for Dubois County was larger than any population size before or after it.
The “after it” is key for the issues of local communities that are having trouble finding people to fill jobs. Within the last few years, the retirements/move-outs are beginning the trend of outnumbering the graduating/move-ins to the county. This is directly a factor in lower yearly birth rates going back to the beginning of the Gen X generation of 1964.
Now, we see the lower than Boomer population rates from 20 years ago now moving into the workforce, but they are outnumbered by a population that is retiring. Before you say our kids are leaving, realize we have the same percentage of kids moving back to Dubois County after school as we have had historically, so this isn’t about losing our kids. The worst thing is that over the next 15 years, this trend does not stop. When comparing 2020 census numbers to my prediction for 2035, we will lose roughly 2,000 total working-age citizens in the county.
There is one other thing the census data presents clearly for the United States since the 70s, and it is a clearer picture of people moving out of and moving across the country. The big cities and communities along interstates are the winners, and rural America east of the Rocky Mountains is shrinking. Dubois County finds itself wedged between a growing and shrinking area. Most of Illinois is suffering through a widespread population reduction. This multi-decade trend has jumped the state line within the last 10+ years and is currently bleeding further into western Indiana and throughout the 8th district.
The positive for our county is that Dubois County rests on the very outside edge of the Midwest-Southern growth. The growth is centered around an Indy-Louisville-Cincinnati-Lexington-Bowling Green-Nashville growth center. This means larger scale population and business growth is not happening to our west, but mainly to our east and south.
Just viewing the population trends, you can see how we must switch our mindset and realize our population and business growth future is now tied to what happens between Indy-Louisville-Bowling Green and us.
So, what does all this mean to us? We must stay alert and be aware of actions to “grow” our county most likely won’t help. You cannot buy growth, but you can maximize the quality of our area for the future. To maximize the best aspects of our area we must remember that population growth outside of having more kids is that we need to appeal to have more people move here.
In addition to being paid more money, people choose areas to live in based on the quality of schools.
The best choice to grow our area is to focus on is quality of education at our schools. Our community should ask that our schools look to the future, and benchmark us against the best schools in the nation. This keeps our kids coming back at the rate they do now but also attracts other families to move here.
Then we must not forget that long term business growth is tied directly to our east and south.
This topic is huge and worthy of thousands of words and multiple group educational sessions. The scary thing is we cannot wait and trust that the solutions to these issues will come from our local governments acting outside of their main purpose for existing.
Get involved, don’t freak out, question all government development, and realize the difficulty everyone has for hiring is a population issue that has been sitting there for decades to come.
We don’t need government debt for projects. We just need to be the best version of who we are and keep that infrastructure strong.
Adrian Engelberth, Jasper
We also need our school guidance counselors to quit telling kids that college is the ONLY way to earn a decent living.
Many kids go to school for a general business degree, come back, and realize that either A.) There’s really no jobs that require or need that general business degree or B.) The pay for those few jobs really isn’t much better than other technical jobs. The only way for them to justify getting that ridiculously expensive college degree is moving away.
Our high schools need to be pushing the benefits of trade schools for plumbing, construction, brick laying, electrical, programming, Truck driving/CDL school, etc. The opportunities and pay in those trades are endless, and always will be. Making $20-30/hr and not being strapped with debt sounds pretty damn good.
Many issues causing worker shortages. Opioid issues, CV 19, starting families at an older age ,less being born etc. Good news is that the workforce of the future will be significantly different. Jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of today. Indiana knows this and has been trying to prepare
I agree with Concerned Citizen about encouraging high-paying careers in the trades. I wish someone had done that for me when I was young. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough jobs in the trades for everyone. And the Dubois County workforce is highly unskilled, making high-paying jobs rare and only attainable through a “Good Ole Boy” system. And high-paying companies looking to expand continually cite our unskilled workforce as the main reason they are uninterested in coming here. It is a viscious cycle.
I agree with the 2 prior comments but in reality Dubios county I’d to expensive to live in. The greed of most landlords is crazy. They want anywhere from 700 to 1400 a month to rent a place that doesn’t even have a dishwasher and still looks like the 1980’s. Most people only make around 500 dollars a week,buy the time you pay rent ,utilities, car payment, insurance there’s not much left. People need to wake up.
Guidance counselors don’t tell kids their only choice is a 4 year college to earn a decent living. Not sure where you heard that?
There are jobs that require a business degree. Examples are:
Accountant
Human Resource Specialist
Marketing Analyst
IT
Operations
Financial Analyst
Journalist
You listed programming. Most companies won’t even look at you without a degree.
If the student does not want to do plumbing, construction, brick laying, etc. well then the Guidance Counselor must recommend college, because that’s how you get those jobs.
Concerned citizen is right that a “generic” business degree can be useless to most. Generic would be like Business management or business administration. Accounting, finance, IT, marketing, are much more specialized and wouldn’t be thought of as “generic”
They absolutely do. I know that because that’s what I was told when I was in high school, and many of the young kids that are graduating and going into certain trades straight from high school are telling me that.
Also Jeff, the jobs requiring a college degree that you listed above. Have you ever applied for any of those jobs? Do you realize what they pay? The only one or two on your list that pays well is an accountant and IT. The others will start you maybe at $40-50k. And some of them will want a few years of experience…. So where does a college graduate go to get that experience? And what are they going to have to sacrifice, pay wise, to get that experience that may or may not lead to that better paying job? Is it worth the debt you put yourself in?
There’s many jobs to get into outside of the trades I listed that a person can do without a college degree. We have a TON of manufacturing in this county. Any one of them can go and learn about CNCs and machining right there on the spot. And if you take initiative and learn it? You become a VERY valuable employee.
You call it “recommending” college. I think they are “pushing” college. If someone doesn’t know what they want to do, pushing them to go into debt to figure it out isn’t the answer. The answer is to figure out their interests, and recommend jobs that they can start and try out. Obviously, if they want to be a Nurse, accountant, etc…. Yes, college is a must. But just because you don’t want to be a plumber, brick layer, etc. doesn’t automatically mean college.
I’m from the Louisville metro area but my sister is in Dubois Co. Cost of living there (in Dubois) is not any different than Louisville and $700 is CHEAP compared to here.
I also agree with Jeff that a generic business degree is very much an asset and can be obtained relatively inexpensively if you shop. (Certainly there is no need to pay for room and board at any college for it!)
Adrian is right. You have to attract people to the area and every city/town seems to follow the exact same blueprint thereby never making it stand out from the others. Just how many banks, pharmacies, etc can a municipality attract with taxpayer incentives?? And politicians still pretend these are net positives to the community.
School board races are THE MOST IMPORTANT races on the ballot. More important than who becomes President.
If you want to attract young new families. START THERE!
Schools are very important in attracting folks. However, schools need to change and are beginning to make the change. Look at what Pike and Perry central has done. Most people shy away from places based on the question. What is there to do? Especially younger people. A community challenge indeed.
Every “family” has different needs when they move to a new area. A single person moving to Dubois County won’t be checking out our Schools but a family with children will be.
If you want to attract people to your area you need to meet the needs of the family.
Families need housing, jobs, physicians, possibly transportation, and many other things.
Dubois County is lacking in transportation and low income housing with rental assistance.
There’s only 4 apartment complexes in Jasper with rental assistance and 2 of those are for Senior Citizens/Disabled people. There’s not enough.
There’s no public transportation in the County. Supposedly a plan has been made by the Jasper Mayor and a Committee. The plan can continue to be talked about for a few more years. But until someone decides to do something it still leaves us lacking.
Are the schools and a beautiful Courthouse Square enough to keep families in Dubois County?
If you want young people to move here or come back here after college, the powers that be should think about attracting businesses that offer entertainment and FUN. Unless walking on a footpath is your idea of a fun night out-you’d be out of luck in Jasper. I thought it was bad when I was in my 20’s but now I swear it’s an unwritten law that no one can be out of their homes past 10PM. Law enforcement and politicians have successfully closed nearly every bar in town. There is no place to see live bands, no arcades, no NOTHING. If you go to towns in neighboring counties on a Saturday evening you will see people walking on the sidewalks, going in and out of shops, restaurants, & bars around the square or maybe heading out to a venue to see a band. Not here. Not anymore. You literally get hassled if you have the nerve to sit down on the sidewalk and look up at the stars or get followed by the police just because you are driving on the street after midnight. I encourage my child to get the he#* out of here after high school and never come back.
The three past times of the area are to work yourself to death, drink yourself to death or go to church. Sometimes a combination of the three.
Not sure where your information is coming from but IT does not require a four year degree, most developers can learn to code online, many are self taught, there are all types of certifications that can be obtained for developing. If you have the skills there will be work for them inside or outside of Dubois County.
ok then why require a degree for anything? if you can just be “self taught”. and if you put programming under IT then yes you need a degree. Programmers are developers. Businesses in dc require it. I know from experience. So that’s how I got my information.