Local economic status given by RCF guest speaker Lawyer
To attract new companies and grow jobs successfully, Knox County needs higher wages, talented entrepreneurs and a large pool of workers in the 25-to-54 age range, Knoxville Chamber of Commerce vice president Doug Lawyer told Rotary Club of Farragut members during their meeting in Farragut Community Center Wednesday, Oct. 11.
“‘We have business sectors that are having worker shortages and having trouble hiring — health care, truck drivers and low-skilled workers,” he said. “The average salary in Knox County is $57,000 and that ranks fourth in the state behind Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties.
“Right now, you need to be making at least $81,000 to afford to buy a house here,” Lawyer added.
Concerning Knox County business parks, while there still is some space available, there are parks filling up.
“Right now, today, those parks are held by a company called the Development Corporation of Knox County,” Lawyer said. “That entity is getting ready to sunset, and it will all be held by the Knox County Industrial Development Board.
“That process is in its final phases,’ he added. “As far as remaining acreage, if you go up Pellissippi Parkway, north to Hardin Valley (behind Double Dogs), we have Pellissippi Corporate Center. In that park there, there’s probably about 60 acres remaining.”
Lawyer said Hardin Business Park, with Fed-Ex and Scapa Healthcare, essentially sold out.
“West Bridge Business Park in Karns is completely sold out,” he said. “Owens and Meyer just built a new warehouse and distribution center for medical product distribution throughout the entire region.”
Behind Karns High School in one of the county’s newest business parks, there are about 80 acres.
“It is currently all available for development, so we’ve seen a lot of prospects looking at that location,” Lawyer said.
Midway Business Park has about 180 acres has space available, Lawyer said.
Farragut West Knox Chamber of Commerce president/CEO Julie Blaylock, also a RCF member, asked about workforce issues businesses are having centered around “No one wants to work.”
“After COVID, everybody was like ‘People just don’t want to go back work,’” Lawyer said, but added, “We have more people working in our
workforce today than we did in November (20)19, before COVID, so the challenges we have (are) we have more jobs open than we have human beings in this region.”
