Many signs point to a Bakersfield boom

[M II A II R II K]

Many signs point to a Bakersfield boom


September 9, 2012

By Ricardo Lopez

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...847,full.story

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The state's economic recovery has largely been concentrated on the coast, leaving behind much of the hard-hit San Joaquin Valley. But Bakersfield, perhaps best known for oil, agriculture and country music, has reclaimed an old title: boomtown.

- Bakersfield has been adding population and jobs at a brisk pace and is a few thousand jobs from matching its peak employment level of five years ago. A price-fueled energy bonanza, low corporate operating costs and an advantageous location are contributing to the area's good fortune. Employment has grown across many sectors, including manufacturing. Even construction, which suffered mightily statewide during the housing bust, has strengthened. And unlike many struggling municipalities, in Kern County officials have recommended a budget increase that would allow hiring of more than 150 people.

- Roads and highways are getting face-lifts. And several corporations have moved operations to the area. These and other projects have given Bakersfield something to boast about. It leads the country in year-over-year construction employment growth, with payrolls swelling by almost 23% since July 2011. By comparison, state construction employment grew by 5%. For employers like Griffith Co., a general contractor, construction volume is up 20% from the year before for its Bakersfield branch; it expects to do more hiring when more projects get off the ground.

- According to state employment data, Kern County is just 5,600 jobs from matching its peak employment of 239,600 reached in September 2007, when developers were tossing up houses and condos at an unsustainable pace. And the big gainer is Bakersfield, the county seat and its largest city by far. The area, which has large petroleum deposits, is benefiting from a surge in energy prices. That has led to more drilling for oil and natural gas and boosted other energy projects, which means more hiring. "We have work in the oil fields," said Danny Kane, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 428, based in downtown Bakersfield. "We have a lot of solar work. We have wind. We are just fortunate to have those opportunities in Kern County."

- Although employment has recovered recently, population has been exploding for a decade as people have sought work opportunities and cheap housing. From 2000 to 2010, the county's population grew to 839,000, a jump of almost 27%, compared with 10% statewide, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The city boasted nearly 350,000 Bakersfieldians in 2010, about 101,000 more than in 2000, a 41% increase. "We're growing faster than we create jobs," said Melinda Brown, director of business development for the Kern County Economic Development Corp. But the recent employment growth is a signal that the area has gotten past "all the layoffs, and people are hiring here and there," she said.

- In the last year, several companies have decided to move operations to Bakersfield, attracted by cheaper office space and land and fast approval of business licenses. The city's location is also a selling point; it's just two hours north of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, attractive to companies with West Coast operations. Caterpillar last year bought 46 acres and has nearly completed a 400,000-square-foot distribution center at the Tejon Ranch Commerce Center near the junction of Interstate 5 and state Highway 99. This follows the opening of a Dollar General distribution hub this year. The industrial center houses hubs for Target, Ikea and Famous Footwear. Tejon Ranch Co., a publicly traded company, also recently announced plans to open an outlet center in 2014 with the Rockefeller Group at the intersection of the two highways, near its commerce center.

- But despite these gains, county economic planners say Bakersfield is still hindered by a variety of weaknesses. Among them, they say, many outsiders view the city as little more than a dusty industrial and agriculture town near an interstate. "Bakersfield's perception is tough to overcome," Kern County's Brown said. "It's a challenge in bringing companies here." But even more problematic for growth is the poorly educated workforce. Only 9.8% of Kern County's population has a bachelor's degree, according to census data, which means high-paying jobs in engineering are difficult to fill and tend to go to workers who relocate from out of state. "Bakersfield is still a Central Valley economy," said Eduardo Martinez, a Moody's Analytics economist, noting that the large agriculture industry means much of the labor force is migrant workers, low-skilled and uneducated. And the county's reliance on oil makes it vulnerable to drops in energy prices, Martinez said.

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