Sheri Ingles has driven 70 miles round trip every day for the last 16 years to her human resources job in Jackson County because Hillsdale jobs don’t pay enough for her position.
She’s lived in Hillsdale County for 35 years, but when the auto industry began to decline in the late 90s, Ingles started looking for a position outside Hillsdale County. That’s when she took a job as a human resources director with TNG, a magazine distributing company in Jackson in 2000.
“When I decided to change jobs, I looked at a lot of places — Bryon, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Indiana — including Hillsdale,” Ingles said. “But the salary for my type of position wasn’t in Hillsdale County.”
Ever since the decline of the auto industry, Hillsdale County has struggled to replace its biggest job supplier with a diversified job market. Hillsdale is still a manufacturing county, but it’s struggling to maintain a manufacturing presence because it is so far from major highways and airports.
The June 2016 wage and benefits survey, conducted by Six Feet Solutions, LLC and the Hillsdale County Economic Development Partnership, analyzed Michigan’s Branch, Hillsdale, Jackson, and Lenawee counties — along with Steuben County, Indiana — and reported that 72 percent of the economic activity in these counties is in the manufacturing industry.
Hillsdale County was the biggest participant in the study, contributing 53 percent of the responses.
According to the survey, the average salary for a human resources manager from one of these counties is $70,354. According to the Michigan Department of Technology’s Management and Budget branch, however, the average salary for a human resouces manager in the state of Michigan is $102,070. That puts Hillsdale and the other counties reviewed by the survey in the 25th percentile.
“I’ve continued to watch the human resources job market in Hillsdale and the benefits are the same across the board, but isn’t anywhere near Jackson County in terms of compensation,” Ingles said.
Sue Smith, the executive director of the HCEDP, played a key role in distributing the survey to local businesses and confirmed that Hillsdale County is not as competitive with wages.
“We have a lower wage scale and a lower standard of living, though, so it’s all relative,” Smith said.
As technology advances and continues to shake up the manufacturing industries, the skills required for those industries are “changing at a very rapid pace and they’re always competing,” Smith said.
Only four businesses in Hillsdale County have expanded since 2011: Martinrea Jonesville LLC; NEX Solutions; Nyloncraft, Inc.; and Bob Evans Farms. Three of those businesses are in manufacturing, according to data provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The wage and benefits survey reported that the average salary for an electrical engineer in the manufacturing industry is $67,666, but MDOT reported that the average salary across the state for this position is $87,640.
Councilman Adam Stockford said he thinks wages shouldn’t be as low as the survey indicates, and businesses should be paying higher wages. The fact that someone like Ingles drives to Jackson for better compensation proves that Hillsdale needs to step up its game.
“We’re behind in everything,” Stockford said. “If you can make $8 more per hour by driving 45 minutes away, anyone will take that up.”
But the HCEDP released some data at its annual dinner Monday that suggest Hillsdale County is moving in a positive direction. Smith, who presided at the dinner, said a total of 435 jobs have been created over the past three years.
“There’s a limited number of industrial jobs so everyone’s vying for those jobs,” Smith told the Collegian. “My job is to attract as many of the higher skilled jobs as possible and that should raise the overall income for the county.”
Payroll has increased by $11 million across the country in the past three years, and the average Hillsdale County home sale has increased from $86,462 in 2013 to $112,725 this year. That statistic shows that county residents now have more money to spend on a home, suggesting that salaries may be on the rise.
“We’re a small community and we’re growing,” Smith said. “We’re moving very well in the right direction.”
Ingles said she thinks Hillsdale County will continue to struggle if it tries to keep up with the manufacturing industries because the required skills are constantly changing and because Hillsdale’s location is so remote. She believes the county will grow once it moves away from manufacturing and invests in other options, such as technology, service, recreational, and tourism-related industries.
“The growth for Hillsdale in a manufacturing environment is going to be limited,” Ingles said.
Until there’s more substantial growth in Hillsdale, Ingles will continue to drive almost an hour to Jackson every morning and back every evening to her home on Vine Street. She loves Hillsdale, but she also wants the best-paying job for her position.
“Hillsdale is a beautiful county, and we have lots of really beautiful areas,” Ingles said. “But we need to capitalize on what we have.”
