The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), September 28, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
All Rights Reserved
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)

September 28, 2005 Wednesday Indiana Edition

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A

HEADLINE: Stores bringing new jobs to Clark;
Veterans Parkway area is booming

BYLINE: DAVIS ALEX, alexdavis@courier-journal.com

BODY:
Byline: Alex Davis
Source: The Courier-Journal
Over the next two months, more than 900 people will begin new jobs along Veterans Parkway in Clarksville - strapping on red aprons at Target, selling lawn mowers at Lowe's and folding sweaters at Old Navy.
Clarksville - long considered a retail center - is in the midst of a boom that some say is its largest in decades.
New stores along the parkway will bring a total of at least 2,100 jobs, according to estimates from developers, town officials and the new companies.
Although some of those positions are coming from businesses that relocated from elsewhere in the area, the number of new jobs will still easily exceed that of some of Clark County's largest employers.
For example, Jeffboat, which makes barges in Jeffersonville, has a work force of about 800. And the Colgate-Palmolive Co., a manufacturing icon in Clarksville, employs about 500.
But labor experts and economists argue that job numbers don't tell the entire story.
Greg Denier, spokesman for the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, argued that an explosion of retail jobs actually could hurt a community. Employers such as Wal-Mart pay low wages and have high turnover, and they offer few full-time positions with health insurance, he said.
"When people don't get benefits, they get them from the government," said Denier, whose union has 1.4 million members.
Retail jobs also don't carry the economic punch that comes with some types of growth.
Vince Thompson, an analyst with the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University, said companies in the general-merchandise category are "pretty close to the bottom," compared with other sectors of the economy.
He said, for example, that for every five new retail jobs, another job is created to provide services and products. That's well below the corresponding ratio for other industries, such as manufacturing parts for motor vehicles, which brings in 1.27 jobs for every new position, or iron and steel mills, with 1.22 related jobs.
Many experts agree, however, that growth of any type, including retail, is positive.
John Minta, president of the Clarksville Town Council, said the growth on Veterans Parkway would build on the town's reputation as a retail hub that draws visitors from across Louisville and Southern Indiana.
"These are what I would call medium wage earners," Minta said, estimating that most will earn between $9 and $15 an hour.
Veterans Parkway was finished in May of last year after decades of planning. It connects Clarksville and Jeffersonville to the recently widened Interstate 65, though development on the Jeffersonville side of the parkway is not as far along.
Clarksville has not offered tax abatements to any of its new businesses. Minta pointed out that revenue from the growth is expected to help pay for construction projects on nearby Lewis & Clark Parkway and Eastern Boulevard, plus the salaries of several town employees.
Records from Clarksville's building commissioner show a total of $20.3 million in construction costs for just four of the largest new stores. Those same structures have generated $162,715 in building-permit fees, plus additional revenue from income and property taxes.
Bill Johnson, a manager at the new Target store in Clarksville, said starting employees will earn around $6.50 an hour. About 225 people will be needed to run the store, although 100 of them are coming from a Target in Clarksville that will close when the new store opens.
In a break area, Sue Stitcher of Jeffersonville pulled on a cigarette recently as she described her part-time job on the store's "flow team," unloading merchandise and stocking shelves.
Stitcher, 57, said she joined Target five months ago and will move to the new store in October. She said her pay, based on 20 to 24 hours a week, allows her to buy clothes for herself and to shop for her grandchildren.
Lynn Green, 36, started working for Target just after her 1987 graduation from New Albany High School. Now a presentation-team leader, she's in charge of holiday displays and seasonal items. She works full time, receives benefits and was recently preparing to buy her first house.
Managerial jobs such as Green's are often overlooked by critics of the retail industry, said Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation. Many large retailers also are good corporate citizens, and they offer flexible hours with opportunities for advancement, Krugman said.
Most of the companies on the parkway declined to provide wage figures for their employees.
Karen Cobb, a spokeswoman for Lowe's, said about 80 percent of the company's 200 new employees in Clarksville would work full time. They also will be eligible for medical, dental and vision benefits, she said, along with a stock-purchase program and a 401(k) plan.
But figures compiled by government and non-profit groups show it still may be difficult to make ends meet as a retail worker. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage of a retail salesperson in the Louisville metro area, which includes Southern Indiana, was $9.10 an hour as of May 2004.
That's below the $10.52 an hour that it takes for a single parent with a preschool-age child in Clark County to get by, according to a recent report by the Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless Issues.
"Not too many people who are in their first month at Wal-Mart are out looking for a house," said Art Wheaton, a labor expert at Cornell University.
But Wheaton also said any type of growth is usually favorable for a community, and he added that in Clarksville's case it likely will bring more shoppers and spending.
Theresa Williams, director of the Center for Retailing at Indiana University, offered a similar view.
"Any time you have more money going into the system, that's good for the community," she said. "It's a morale booster as well. Some towns with depressed economies would love to have a new Wal-Mart."
Garrett Brattain, who is 19, said his new $8-an-hour position at Lowe's is his first job after graduating from Restoration Christian High School near Sellersburg earlier this year.
Brattain, who is taking classes at Indiana University Southeast, said working part-time at Lowe's was appealing because the hours are flexible and he might be able to transfer to another store if he moves.
Jeffersonville resident Ralph Lowery, a retiree from the Kentucky Air National Guard who will coordinate sales for contractors at Lowe's, expects to work full time, using his background in civil engineering to supplement his military benefits.
"It's going to be one of the busiest stores in the area," he said. "I'll probably work till I die."
INFORMATIONAL GRAPHIC; CHART SHOWING STATISTICS ON THE LARGEST OF THE NEW COMPANIES; BY STEVE DURBIN, THE C-J; (SEE LIBRARY MICROFILM OR LIBRARY KIOSK PDF PAGES);
INFORMATIONAL GRAPHIC; MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF NEW BUSINESSES; BY STEVE DURBIN, THE C-J; (SEE LIBRARY MICROFILM OR LIBRARY KIOSK PDF PAGES)