The occasion was the November breakfast meeting of the BWI Business Partnership. The speaker, Defense Media Activity (DMA) Director Mel Russell, was discussing how many jobs the agency had open as a result of its recent consolidation and move to Fort Meade.
“We offered 70 civilian workers jobs from our Air Force production facility in San Antonio [at the DMA] here in Maryland,” said Russell, “but only nine accepted the offer.”
Having jobs to offer a Baltimore-Washington workforce that’s hungry for them isn’t the norm in this day and age, but that’s another story. At that moment, the DMA needed workers to fill the 61openings.
Initially, Russell thought that hiring five dozen workers to the DMA’s brand new production facility on post would be a challenge. To his delight, it wasn’t.
“We found many more qualified workers than we ever would have inside the [Washington] Beltway,” said Russell. “For one other position, head of operations for DMA, my head of personnel said that we literally had 20 people that he would have been glad to hire.”
The group of jobs that transferred to Fort Meade from San Antonio were entry level in the journalism area, and were “not real taxing or creative,” said Roger King, executive officer for the DMA. “So it wasn’t worth it [for most of the employees in Texas] to move, since GS 5 pay goes farther in San Antonio than it does around D.C.”
But there are reasons that so many people wanted jobs that they may have been overqualified for, King said.
“We got qualified folks who wanted to get their foot in the door or they were military spouses in search of employment,” he said. “Because of the nomadic nature of their lives, it can be tough to get a job, gain much experience, become a permanent employee and move forward in their profession.”
Another reason is that, as is the case in Howard County, it’s hard to find low level workers in D.C. “They have a very talented work pool there and people are trying to be mobile. So what you find inside the Beltway is a dearth of lower- or journeyman-level workers. The talent pool is really deeper than they need.”
As for the DMA, King said that the agency has already hired about 70 employees and has 40 more en route to work in various positions at various levels.
Huge Asset
Whatever the needs of a given employer, the Corridor’s talent pool is “a huge asset in this area that is not spotlighted often enough,” said Darrell Nevin, broker with LeaseWright Commercial Real Estate in Columbia.
“That’s what led to Mel Russell’s surprise when he told his story about having so many qualified workers to choose from” when filling positions at the DMA, said Nevin, who was at the partnership meeting that morning. “It’s the kind of thing that we sometimes take for granted.”
That asset is what has keened the focus of the new Howard County Economic Development Authority CEO Laura Neuman, who has highlighted that aspect of the county’s workforce to attract the Creative Class to add to its highly-educated talent pool.
Despite the gloom of the slow recovery that has hovered since the recession, Nevin found Russell’s observation something to be happy about.
“That factor bodes well for our area for future employment growth,” said Nevin. “I think that the kind of development that is taking place along the Route 1 Corridor will help us attract more companies and expedite the economic recovery during the next three or four years.”
Other observers echo that thought. “I think many companies locate in the Corridor due to the variety of the skills and talents of our workforce,” said Fran Trout, administrator for the Howard County Office of Workforce Development, noting that the percentage of residents age 25 and older who have a bachelor’s degree (or higher) is 57.1% for Howard County (Ellicott City and Columbia are among the smartest U.S. towns of their size, according to recent U.S. Census data) and 35.9% for Anne Arundel.
There is, however, another side of the coin in this case.
“When Mel Russell said that he got only nine of the 70 employees from San Antonio to relocate here, that often has to do with the cost of living in this area,” Nevin said. “That’s what potentially limits certain businesses from locating here.”
Employment Shift
Another attendee at the breakfast that morning was Walt Townshend, president and CEO of the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber in Laurel. He also thinks that the struggling economy had a fair amount to do with the DMA’s abundant talent choices.
“People don’t want to have to pay for more gas and parking,” said Townshend, “and you have to factor in the time they save, too. [Working close to home] offers a much better quality of life.”
And other DMA applicants may have been the victims of a recent reduction in force, too.
“There has been considerable downsizing in the media field and these workers may have found the DMA to be a good alternative,” he said, noting industry-wide cutbacks, “and other workers may have been gainfully employed, but saw its new state-of-the-art facilities and fast-paced environment. and found it was a solid alternative.”
Townshend also noted the Corridor’s neighbors to the north. “Workers in the metro Baltimore market have to be finding the Fort Meade area much more accessible than going to Northern Virginia or even D.C. The Corridor market is a much stronger option for employment than it used to be.”
Still, King was quick to point out that there will probably always be a portion of workers who feel it’s in their best interests to cowboy up and make that long commute.
“Some of these folks here at the DMA are higher level workers, too, and are much more willing to move around,” he said, “and they’ll drive farther. One of our component chiefs rides his motorcycle all the way from Fredericksburg, Va., every day. He was in Northern Virginia with us.
“He added the 38 miles to his commute,” King said, “because he’s worked his way to the top of his field.”
