Expressway Industrial Park in Toledo, 89 acres of improved industrial land, is served by the Thus in Toledo, when new automobile business turned down sharply in the spring of 1954, unemployment rose to 16,000 (in May)-almost double the year-earlier level and amounting to 8.5 percent of the area's labor force. Unemployment was centered in three automotive plants, Willys Motors, Electric Auto-Lite, and Dana Corp., although many other shops, large and small, felt the shock. Rossford Ordnance Depot, Toledo's major military installation, dropped 2,000 employees, while an Air Force contractor, A. O. Smith, had its B-52 landing gear subcontract canceled, rendering 1,500 workers jobless and closing down a 270,000 square foot plant. Fortunately, there were bright spots. LibbeyOwens Ford, producing curved glass windshields for General Motors and flat glass for the booming construction industry, held its own job-wise throughout the recession, as did many smaller companies in the area's growing number of diversified industries. How the Town Met Its Problem Leadership in Toledo is exceedingly responsive to the community's needs. This is probably derived in part from the fact that, while the city boasts a population of over 300,000 and a metropolitan area comprising 413,000, it is small enough so that community problems do not become compartmentalized. For example, when area industrial relations were critical a decade ago, the then Mayor Michael DiSalle estab lished the Labor-Management-Citizens Committee to help promote industrial peace. The city's leading industrialists and labor and civic leaders still give their time to this voluntary mediation board and are largely responsible for the establishment of what is now the best industrial peace record in the State. When unemployment in Toledo became severe in late 1953, the Chamber of Commerce, the AFL and the CIO, the City Government, and the TOLEDO BLADE all wanted to take action to initiate an aggressive industrial development program. Rather than dissipate their efforts in competition, they joined forces and combined funds in a Toledo Industrial Development Council. This Council is governed by a fourman Board of Trustees, two from business and two from labor. City government contributed services and support. Most of the businesses and unions contributed TIDC's original $35,000 development fund. The writer serves as Executive Secretary. Objectives The objectives of TIDC are in general the same as those of similar organizations elsewhere in the country: to develop new job opportunities to keep pace. with the growth in their labor forces. These objectives are three-to help existing industry to expand, to help bring in new industry, and to improve the industrial climate. Industries all over the country are expanding their The ever-available plant, 18,000 sq. ft. of modern, one-story industrial space, now under construction at Expressway Industrial Park in Toledo to house new industry. When sold, the proceeds will be used to finance additional modern plants. plant and equipment at an almost unprecedented rate. At the same time, communities, railroads, and utilities, from coast to coast, are competing feverishly for the expanding industry. In order to be seen in the crowd, a community has to offer something to expanding industries that they cannot find elsewhere. After a manufacturer has decided on a general region in which to establish a plant a region that may include two to three States he starts looking for plant space or possible sites for new plants. A large part of TIDC's efforts during its first year and a half of operation was to create some "better mousetraps" so that the industrial world would find its way to Toledo's door. Organizing a Planned Industrial District Industry more and more is looking for planned industrial districts in which to locate plants. A planned industrial district is an area of choice industrial land fully developed for industry, just as a residential subdivision is developed for housing. The location must be well served with highway networks and rail sidings, and complete with utilities-water, sanitary and storm sewer, gas, electricity, and telephone, and it must be zoned for industry. Potential manufacturers and distributors like to find areas where these problems are taken care of for them. There are about one hundred such districts in the United States. One of TIDC's first jobs in improving the climate for industry was to create an industrial district in Toledo. With the help of a survey of industrial sites from the local Plan Commission and advice from the Real Estate Board, a group of local architects and engineers, and the City Government, possible sites were reduced to three. Then meetings were arranged with the Industrial Panel of the Urban Land Institute and the Area Development Division of the Department of Commerce, and one site was chosen. Principal reason for its selection was its location at an interchange of a new expressway which will connect Detroit and Toledo with the Ohio Turnpike, just south of the city. It took 9 months' hard work to bring this dream into reality, and another 10 months before all the utilities were completed and the first factory started turning wheels and employing Toledo workers. Here were some of the hurdles that had to be surmounted: 1. The Plan Commission changed its Master Plan for 24 of the site's 89 acres to conform with its present industrial zoning. 2. The owner, a food manufacturer, agreed to develop the land as a planned industrial district (at his expense) rather than to sell it off piecemeal. This involved an investment of several hundred thousand dollars, and was based on a careful engineering and economic study showing how this investment would be returned over a period of years. 3. The New York Central Railroad, which borders the Industrial Park, agreed to put a rail siding into the property without any guarantee of the rail tonnage to be produced. 4. The City Administration agreed to an overpass on a future expressway to permit the rail to come through to the front of the 89 acres, and the road to go back to the rear. When all these objectives were gained, the Expressway Industrial Park was launched. Since then the owners, with TIDC assistance, have been promoting the Park with American industry. Two national concerns, Sterling Precision Instrument Company and Graybar Electric Company, are now building plants there. Two more national firms are making final arrangements for locating there. And a number of others have expressed their interest in the site. Ever-Available Plants Our experience indicates that companies often cannot wait to build their own building, but need one immediately. Lowell, Mass. and Scranton and Pottsville, Pa. have built buildings prior to signing up manufacturers in order to meet this need. Few midwestern communities have such space available. TIDC determined to create such "ever-available plants" in Toledo. Various private investors were approached, the feeling being that such buildings represented economic undertakings, and private capital in a city this size was ample. Finally, a group of small businessmen interested in economic development of this area combined their resources, and the first "ever-available plant" is now under construction at the Expressway Industrial Park. This group plans to use their invested capital as a revolving fund, building another plant each time one is sold or leased. New Industry Interesting outside industries in one's city, providing them with accurate economic data about it, and convincing them to locate there is the principal concern of every industrial developer. TIDC is no exception. Expansion plans are among most companies' top secrets. So the developer's first problem is to find out who are his customers. Every manufacturer in the Nation is his prospect. Best source for leads is an alerted community. Leads have come to TIDC from manufacturers, salesmen, realtors, public officials, lawyers, labor leaders, utilities, railroads, neighbors, and interested citizens from many other walks of life. Other leads come from special mailings, advertisements, and personal visits. After determining whether or not a company has a need for space in your part of the country, it is necessary to find out exactly what he needs, and then discover whether or not you can produce it. Does he want an existing building, or does he want to build one of his own? What dimensions? What ceiling heights? What transportation and utilities? Right after Labor Day 1955, the local utility and TIDC representatives spent 2 days searching the surrounding countryside for a spot where a western manufacturer could find a hundred acres with rail service, a labor force of over 500 workers, and access to 4 million gallons per day of water. We found one, after expending generous amounts of shoe leather in the search. It is now being considered along with several others in a 3-State area. Research-accurate information on your community to permit the staff men of interested manufacturers to make comparisons with other communities is an important part of every developer's job. With the help of the Chamber of Commerce, TIDC has put together a fact book with answers to the most asked questions, called "Toledo Industrial Data Compiled." Included are aerial photomaps, prepared by the City engineers, of typical sites-such as our new Expressway Industrial Park-an idea borrowed from the C & O Railroad. Armed With All the Facts Following up interested prospects and trying to elicit a favorable decision, as any salesman knows, is the most difficult job of all. Since these are always major corporate decisions involving entire boards of directors, the most useful thing a developer can do is make sure the staff executive making the recommendation has all the facts on the area in question. Observation of this process for many years leads to the conclusion that the location in which the plant can be operated most economically usually wins out. Once a company decides to come, the job is not over. It needs help in getting a plant built, getting utilities in, finding housing for its top staff, and in clearing any other roadblocks. The most unusual experience TIDC has had in this connection was when Continental Aviation and Engineering took over Air Force Plant No. 27 just before Christmas last year. A few days after the announcement, they called in some distress to report their lawyers said they could not do business in Ohio with the word "engineering" in their title. The City Legal Officer came to TIDC's assistance, confirmed the fact, and set up a session with the State Attorney General in Columbus. Within a week, the Attorney General produced an opinion reversing one by a predecessor which opened Ohio to Continental and an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 new jobs in aircraft engine manufacturing. Three other new companies have come to Toledo with TIDC assistance. In addition to TIDC's activity, local manufacturers in glass, automotive, and petroleum have been expanding their plant, equipment, and employment. Libbey Owens-Ford are investing $48 million in Toledo plant expansion, creating over 1,000 new jobs. Dana Corporation has picked up 800 workers and Electric Auto-Lite 2,400 due primarily to Chrysler's dramatic recovery and to intensive efforts on the part of labor and management jointly to improve productivity in these plants. Sun Oil and Gulf Refining have made significant additions to their refineries. Accomplishments So Far When the BES announced in July that Toledo was no longer an area of substantial labor surplus (formerly Group IV), it confirmed a steady improvement the community had observed for some months. In fact, by mid-September unemployment had dropped to 3.7 percent of the labor force, less than one-half the rate in the spring of 1954. While most of the employment gain was due to the 1955 automotive boom, a promising start had been made on creating new job opportunities. The 2,500 new manufacturing jobs scheduled so far mean an estimated $25 million in new capital investment and some $10 million in annual payrolls. Most important, this em ployment should add to the stability of the area's economy because it is in well-diversified industries. Toledo business and labor have evidenced their desire to perpetuate TIDC by subscribing $60,000 more to its support. Job Development-New Community Responsibility Industrial development programs which could with equal accuracy be called employment development programs are generally earning their keep where they are in existence, and new ones are being organized from coast to coast. Citizens recognize in increasing numbers that if they want jobs for their youngsters when they graduate from high school or college, if they want their economy to grow with their labor force, if they want increased stability in recurring national recessions, someone has to take responsibility for employment development. The local employment office can and should serve as the diagnostic clinic or economic conscience, but the business, labor, and civic leadership must organize the action indicated by their diagnosis. A new dimension needs to be added to the job communities perform for their people, and that dimension is creating new jobs for their workers when local unemployment becomes serious. LMI IN JOB DEVELOPMENT By PAUL W. WISEMAN Chief of Research and Statistics ABOR MARKET information is the foundation Lof an employment security agency's participa tion in a community development program. Without it the agency could offer little that could not be readily duplicated elsewhere. In order to participate effectively in community employment development work, we feel that any agency must first have a smoothly operating system of collecting and disseminating labor market information. Gathering the Facts The Washington Employment Security Department has developed many sources of labor market information. Regular employer visits and telephone calls are used in all areas, and the State office sends each local office the employment figures received monthly on the current employment statistics shuttle schedules immediately upon receipt from employers. Employer relations representatives can and do elicit a variety of valuable information from employers. Retail store managers, for example, are conscious of their sales and how they compare with the previous month and a year ago. By analyzing such information from a sample of retail establishments, the local office manager can draw useful conclusions regarding business trends. By securing from manufacturing firms the number and amount of orders on hand or received during the past month, he has a criterion of an industry's prospects. Labor unions, particularly in the building trades, can give an excellent insight on current employment and unemployment. The question "How many men do you have on the bench?" when asked of a crosssection of union representatives gives one immediate knowledge of the economic pulse of a community. Union business agents are continually acquiring labor information which an alert employer relations representative can utilize. Chambers of commerce and other service organizations can, as a rule, give adequate and reasonably accurate information regarding business expansion and construction in their areas. Review of newspaper and radio releases announcing new construction jobs, the expansion of an established business or the establishment of a new business, can lead to excellent labor market knowledge on job openings. Local office receptionists and claimstakers are in a position to pick up the latest information regarding layoffs and prospects for reemployment. Each of our local offices prepares for intradepartment use a monthly "Local Labor Demand-Supply Report." It concerns industry developments, job openings, relationship between labor demand and supply, shortage occupations, turnover, defense production activity, related factors affecting the local labor market, and employment figures-present and anticipated-for major firms in the area. Here, the manager can consolidate and analyze the information accumulated during the past month. Copies are sent to the Employment Service administrative office and to the Research and Statistics Section in Olympia. In addition to tabulations from the quarterly contribution reports from 55,000 employers with one or more employees, and the more than 2,000 monthly current employment statistics shuttle schedules, the Research and Statistics Section peruses business newspapers, bank publications, a privately issued fortnightly business roundup covering the Northwest states, and other business statistics and analyses from private and government agencies. Since World War II, informational sources have largely stabilized and gathering of data has become comparatively routine. Disseminating Labor Market Information Each month nearly all of the State's 26 local offices prepare a newsletter release entitled "Local Labor Market Developments" for public distribution. This publication is reviewed and mimeographed in the central office, but circulation lists are controlled by the local offices. Length varies from one to five or six pages, depending upon size of the office and the availability of newsworthy material. Each issue of the newsletter contains a discussion of employment and unemployment trends in major industries, the outlook, employment service and unemployment insurance activity, and, on occasion, a little advertising to encourage employers to take advantage of the services offered by the department. The newsletters of the three metropolitan areas-Seattle, Tacoma, and Spokane-include current nonagricultural employment and weekly hours and earnings. data. The size of the circulation lists varies widely among local offices, apparently depending not only upon both the content and value of the newsletters, but also upon the degree of public interest engendered by the local office. The monthly "Washington Labor Market" is written in the central office by the head of the labor market information program. It contains labor force and employment information, hours and, earnings data, and an analysis of statewide labor market developments. Generally it includes a feature story on some highlight of the employment security program |