A full-time Flagstaff employee currently earning minimum wage has an annual salary of $36,192.
A Coconino County workforce agency is busy assisting dozens of local workers laid off this summer because of a plant shutdown and retail business closures.
The largest job loss was at Schuff Steel, which displaced 63 employees when it closed its fabrication plant Aug. 31 in Bellemont, west of Flagstaff.
Other recent business closures include Big Lots, Kachina Kitchen, Grimaldi’s and Peter Piper Pizza.
Billy Francis, Coconino County Workforce Board executive director, said there are different reasons for the business closures.
“The [layoffs] at small mom and pops and smaller franchises, it appears that it’s the pricing of housing and wages,” he said. “But your Big Lots and Schuff Steel [layoffs] are more corporate decisions,” Francis said.
Big Lots announced last month that it was closing 20 stores in Arizona and more than 300 nationwide.
Schuff Steel is consolidating its operations, said Regina Salas, coordinator of the county’s Rapid Response/Workforce Reduction Support.
The company, which opened in Bellemont in 2007, has other fabrication plants in Phoenix, Eloy and in California, Texas, Utah and Kansas, according to its website.
Last month, the county’s Rapid Response team held a hiring event at Schuff Steel for the 63 workers who lost their jobs. The team assisted workers with job opportunities, resume writing, job training, career counseling and unemployment insurance, Salas said.
Roughly half of the affected workers attended the two-day event. A dozen Schuff workers either transferred to another company plant or found other employment.
Six employers participated in person, connecting with the dislocated workers. That included Grand Canyon Railway, Northern Arizona Healthcare, Coconino County, City of Flagstaff, UACJ Automotive Whitehall Industries and Joy Cone, one of the largest makers of ice cream cones.
Lisa Bettencourt, UACJ Whitehall human resources, said the company is looking for electricians, machine maintenance workers and a production supervisor.
Arizona’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate ticked up in July to 3.4% from 3.3% in June. That is below the national rate of 4.3% in July, up from 4.1% in June.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story, Francis said.
“We’re tasked with the sustainability of these workers in high-wage, high- demand occupations. The [unemployment] data doesn’t tell us about the underemployed. You’ll hear the excitement – ‘All right! unemployment is low!’ Then why is everybody moving out of Flagstaff?” Francis said, exaggerating to make his point.
The Coconino County Workforce Board is taking action to address local employment issues, which have spawned debates about Flagstaff’s minimum wage of $17.40 per hour. Arizona’s minimum wage is $14.35 and the federal minimum is $7.25 for non-tipped employees.
“We are in the process of contracting with a consultant to help us understand the impact of minimum wage on our economy and workers,” Salas said. “We cannot really do anything about the higher minimum wage in Flagstaff,” she said. “What we can do is analyze how it impacts businesses and our workers, and the quality of jobs.”
Grimaldi’s at Aspen Place issued a statement about the closure of its Flagstaff restaurant:
“This was purely a business decision driven by the rising cost of operations in the Flagstaff market. We will continue to welcome guests at our six other Arizona locations.”
In 2016, Flagstaff voters approved a proposition to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 by 2021.
The current minimum wage of $17.40 will be adjusted for 2025 based on the cost of living as calculated by Consumer Price Index. A full-time Flagstaff employee currently earning minimum wage has an annual salary of $36,192. FBN
By Peter Corbett, FBN
Photo by Peter Corbett: Billy Francis is the executive director of the Coconino County Workforce Board.