The unemployment rate fell to 3.5
percent, down from 3.7
percent. That is the lowest level since 1969.
We just saw a fantastic job report.
You know, 50 year low unemployment rate.
We have a 50 year low for the unemployment rate.
Wages have risen 3.4
percent over the last year.
If you look at wage and isolation, you do have individuals that will
move for twenty five cents.
Fifty cents an hour. I mean, that's that's real.
This is the brand new break room at Marvin.
Marvin isn't a tech startup.
It's not a boutique creative agency.
It's not a Gen Z digital outlet.
Marvin is a fourth-generation family-owned manufacturing company
headquartered in War Road, a remote town in northern Minnesota.
Like, really remote, so remote that Marvin had to fly us up there on
a private company plane to shoot this story.
Marvin makes windows and doors and they've been doing it for a while.
Think over a hundred years based in the same remote northern
Minnesota town the whole time.
And their employees, well, they've been there a while to get here.
Twenty five years of 14 years of service.
I've been married for almost 13 years.
Even with a loyal workforce.
Marvin and other manufacturers find themselves squeezed by this
historically tight labor market where unemployment is low and workers
have more job opportunities.
And not just workers in San Francisco and New York.
Even in this rural Midwestern town with more than seventeen hundred
people, that sits six miles from the Canadian border.
So just like the big guys in the most populous cities, Marvin had to
get creative. The strong U.S.
economy has led to a tight labor market.
That means there are more jobs available than workers to fill them.
Unemployment came in at 3.5
percent in December 2019 .
That's a 50-year-low.
There have been more job openings than unemployed people since early
2018. And the manufacturing industry is not immune.
In fact, those numbers are even more dire for employers.
In December 2019.
The unemployment rate in the manufacturing space was sitting around
2.7 percent.
The labor market for this industry has been getting tighter and
tighter. Since 2010, we've had unemployment rates underneath four
percent. Sixteen out of the last 18 months.
These are tight labor markets.
Firms are competing for 4 four workers in their training.
Any margin they could do to successfully compete for them.
That competition comes in many forms.
Some employers are easing hiring requirements.
A 2019 survey found that 62 percent of employers would hire workers
with less than the required experience, and larger companies have
gotten more creative about how they attract and keep their talent.
Aol routinely hosts lip sync competitions.
Adobe built meditation rooms.
Intel offers free on site carwashes.
But many of those companies have at least one thing in common.
They're in big cities with lots of workers.
But Marvin isn't.
The company employs more than 2000 people in their Warroad
facilities. That's more than the entire population of the town.
This means that even in a less competitive economy, they would still
need to attract workers from outside of War Road.
And even though some manufacturers have laid off workers in recent
months, unemployment throughout manufacturing industry employees is
still low and competition for these workers is as fierce as ever in
the northern Minnesota region.
Polaris, the multi-billion dollar ATV and snowmobile manufacturer,
has a factory just 20 miles down the road in Roseau, Minnesota.
It's about a 26 minute drive away around northern Minnesota.
The jobs are available all over the place up there.
So that's one of the things that is hard to retain people and keep
people in the area. One way that Marvin does compete right now is on
salary. Starting pay at Marvin is between $15.25
and $18.25 per hour.
That's higher than the Minnesota minimum wage, which is $10 per hour.
But with unemployment at a historic low.
Marvin is stepping up its game.
Part of that strategy turned the factory into a place where people
enjoy spending their time.
That brand new break room that Marvin built.
There's a reason it looks like it would fit right in at the Airbnb or
Google offices.
It's because Marvin went on a design inspiration, tour right through
Silicon Valley. We've been to Google, we've been to Pinterest,
Airbnb. The space uses Swedish design.
It has pastel colors, a communal meeting table, new booths, power
outlets and one employee favorite.
Lots of new microwaves.
Marvin also cut into the ceiling of the plant to add skylights.
The only way to get natural light into a room located in the middle
of a building. It may have been a wise decision, according to the
Harvard Business Review, "Comfortable light" is an important wellness
perk to 50 percent of workers."
I definitely like how bright it is.
It seems so gloomy and dudgeon before project involves renovating all
the bathrooms in the building, some of which hadn't been remodeled
since the 60s.
Marfan's also adding private telephone booths on the floor and
updating the offerings for new mothers.
The idea for the lactation pods came from our our H.R.
team that supports the operations group.
And I received an email from a couple of them and had indicated A
there is a need, but then be in an airport.
We saw one of these mobile pods and they said, well, could we give it
a try? And Marvin isn't just making changes to its physical
workspaces. The company is also experimenting with a revamped work
schedule. Marvin introduced a new long weekend shift, offering
employees flexibility and work life balance.
Jenna Kendrick was born in Warroad and has worked at Marvin for six
years. Earlier this year, she left her job as a production senior to
become the weekend to lead her team of six works 12-hour shifts on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Not having to find somebody to drive my children to their events has
been just a big relief and also being able to see them play their
games because most of their summer events games are during the week.
I also have a younger my youngest, he is seven years old.
He is home, and when my two oldest are out playing sports, I have
nobody to watch him. So that's another really flexible scheduling
isn't unique to Marvin.
Non-traditional perks like flexible scheduling, fitness incentives
and onsite healthy food options.
Top U.S. workers wishlists.
According to a 2019 survey, Marvin's efforts appear to be working, at
least with their current employees.
The renovations and updated shift schedules are popular.
It shows that they care when you get to come and enjoy your break in
here. The atmosphere and even the bathroom.
Marvin declined to disclose the exact cost of their renovations, but
promised the commitment they're making is, "not small."
But if they're already spending all that money, could the answer to
hiring and retaining employees be as simple as just giving everybody
a raise? We make sure we're providing meaningful work for a fair
wage. I don't think things are siloed.
I don't think it's this or this.
It's a blend of many things.
So provide a total experience for the employee.
In addition to trying to create that total experience, the
renovations will also likely be cheaper for Marvin than an across the
board raise. Economists say that nontraditional perks let companies
improve and employees time at work.
But more importantly, those perks don't drag down company profits.
So when they do a wage increase, what they do is to change the nature
of the bargain with an employee that becomes the new base.
So that's part of the whole cost of doing business.
It eats into their profit margin, which how slim their margins in
terms of where they operate say in a very competitive environment, If
they do a benefit, kind of a one off benefit, such as something like
having these really beautiful break rooms and things like that.
There is an investment. But it's not a continual contribution
necessarily to a higher pay scale to maintain to maintain that
business. Even if employees are happy, there's another problem,
decades in the making.
Manufacturing workers and the towns that housed them are getting
older. According to a 2016 study, 27 percent of manufacturing
employees are 55 and older, meaning the industry is facing a wave of
retirements in the next decade or even sooner.
Marvin knows this.
It's another reason behind the renovation decision.
Marvin has been blessed that we have so many employees who have been
here decades upon decades upon decades.
Remember? Twenty five years I have fourteen years of service, almost
13 years. But there's an inevitable downside to celebrating so many
multidecade work anniversaries.
But we are making decisions and we're looking at our shift schedules
with different ways to accommodate and look at the incoming
generations as well as our current generations do, so that we can be
a desirable place where, you know, people are.
They're coming here and not just to do a job, but they feel connected
in a broader way to our purpose and what we're doing.
Polaris, the snowmobile company with a plant in nearby Roseau, is
also feeling the pressure.
We had reached out and partnered with 31 different schools, doing
about a two hour radio global call to ensure that we've got the
connection to the relationships and are not only supporting, but
building in the interests of bringing students in through internships
throughout the summer, providing a look for them to see that it's not
a job that blurs that it's a career.
Roseau County, which includes both Warroad and Roseau, has its own
initiatives to attract new talent to that rural region.
The City of Roseau estimates the area loses around three quarters of
its 18 to 22 year old population when they leave for college.
They're focused on drawing those people back to small town life in
their late 20s when they have kids and are looking for stability.
The county runs a downpayment assistance program aimed at helping new
residents purchase a home and put down roots in the area.
The revolving loan program provides eligible candidates with up to
$7,500 to be used for a down payment.
Funding comes in part from major employers in the area, including
both Polaris and Marvin.
These northern Minnesota initiatives are part of a larger nationwide
trend. The Kansas Commerce Department offers up to $15,000 in student
loan repayments for individuals who move to one of its 80 rural
counties and in the Northeast.
Vermont is putting up cold, hard cash.
The state's program offers new residents $10,000 over two years in an
attempt to draw people to an aging state with 2.3
percent unemployment by 2030.
Twenty four percent of Vermont's population will be over 65, up from
just 13 percent in 2006.
Those initiatives may be working.
Millennials are leaving big cities by the thousands in 2018.
Nearly twenty seven thousand people aged 25 to thirty nine left
cities like New York and San Francisco for more family friendly and
affordable places to live.
It was the fourth year in a row these urban centers.
Other young adult population shrink.
Christine Marvin says attracting those young workers to Warroad will
be a part of Marvins next chapter.
We're going a new age, right?
And we're in such a fast paced digital world.
And now we're experiences, you know, our king alongside, you know,
the products, quality products we create that we're in a unique
position to help, you know, make the make the future real and help
drive us into that, you know, that next generation.
And if the future is modern break rooms, mobile lactation pods, small
like bathrooms and schedules aimed at work life balance, Warroad,
Minnesota just might be able to give those big cities a run for their
money. Invest in you.
Ready, Set.
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