Northern Kentucky leaders are sounding the alarm on what they are describing as the region’s tight labor market.
On Tuesday morning, Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties’ judges/executive spoke at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs ‘N Issues breakfast panel, where each addressed their county’s recent accomplishments, challenges and goals.
Throughout their speeches, a prevailing theme emerged: the region’s workforce.
“The very first thing is because of this demographic issue, we must attract more people in Northern Kentucky if we’re going to solve our workforce issue, period,” Campbell County Judge/Executive Steve Pendery said.
This problem isn’t specific to Northern Kentucky. Currently, there are 9.5 million open jobs in the U.S. but only 6.5 million unemployed workers, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report.
Other reports presented at earlier Eggs ‘N Issues events have shown the Northern Kentucky labor market is facing a demographic decline in skilled trades and an aging workforce.
Demographic challenges are among the most important issues facing the Northern Kentucky economy, said NKY Chamber President Brent Cooper in an interview with LINK nky.
“It doesn’t matter the industry, when we survey – the number one overarching issue is we don’t have enough people,” Cooper said.
Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann told the audience that all three counties are trying to take the necessary steps to navigate the issue going forward. One specific organization he highlighted was the Northern Kentucky Workforce Investment Board – a committee that provides policy and funding oversight for the local workforce investment system. Despite the efforts, Knochelmann alluded to the fact that there isn’t a perfect solution.
“The other part is looking around the region and the country to say, ‘what are people doing to be successful at,'” Knochelmann said. “And I don’t think there’s anybody who totally says, ‘We’ve got the answer.”
Pendery noted that building more housing is one step the region could take. In September 2023, the Northern Kentucky Area Development District published a housing study that concluded the region needs more workforce housing. Northern Kentucky’s workforce job creation is outpacing workforce housing development.
“We need to build certain types of housing, we need to get more housing,” Pendery said. “There are a lot of people – I can understand it – you know, there are always frictions whenever there’s change and there’s growth.”
Another suggestion Pendery gave was for the region to leverage its educational assets, such as Northern Kentucky University.
Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore called workforce development a “team sport” and concluded that Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties needed a workforce development organization with a similar governance structure to the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy – a substance abuse policy advisory board that works with all three county fiscal courts.
“We need to have a similar governance model over workforce, like we did with the drug issue,” Moore said.
Going forward, Pendery highlighted the need for Northern Kentucky to continue adding more people.
“In order to preserve what we have, we need more people in our area and just everybody needs to understand that at the outset,” Pendery said.
