Unemployment continues its long trek downhill, as local rates continue to plummet.
Cole County marked a 3 percent unemployment rate in December 2015, the most recent month's data available. That's down from 3.1 percent in November and more than a full percentage point less than 4.1 percent a year before in December 2014.
December's unemployment rate - with only 1,179 people unemployed compared to employment of 38,760 - was Cole County's lowest in 15 years, since the county's last 3 percent month in December 2001.
Missouri's unemployment rate has been on a decline, too - 4.4 percent in December, down from 4.7 percent in November. (State and national unemployment rates are seasonally adjusted, while local rates are not.)
"It's a great thing for us in the U.S.; it's just tough on some of our employers," said Shaun Sappenfield, existing business manager for the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce. "It's a good problem to have. It's better than high unemployment."
Some local businesses continue struggling to fill positions with so few qualified applicants seeking jobs.
"To me, we're just tapped out. (With) unemployment at 3 percent, it's basically the people that really don't want to work or float around doing part-time stuff. If you need to find some employees, you're probably just stealing from somebody else," Sappenfield said. "The people that I'm hearing from that are vocal about this are a lot of our manufacturers ... and it's in the pay range that'll go anywhere from $9.50 to $11.50 an hour, give or take."
Paula Benne, owner of C&S Business Services in Jefferson City, said her staffing agency has had trouble filling positions from manufacturing to clerical to professional in recent months.
"It's across the board," she said.
Benne told the News Tribune in August the local job market was the tightest she had seen in her 27 years in business. Six months later, the situation hasn't changed.
"We have so many open job orders," she said in a late January interview. "I don't have an answer. I think we're just limping along and trying to fill them as best we can."
Part of the problem is the dwindling pool of applicants. Another part is the quality of the applicants still there.
"When you're at 3 percent, you're dealing with people who are going to have a criminal background; they're not going to be able to pass a drug screening, and that is going to be a challenge," Benne said.
But beggars can't always be choosers, and Benne has seen some local companies becoming more lenient in certain respects.
"They are being less stringent on the guidelines for a background. I think we've seen that within the calendar year," she said, noting a background check showing violent crimes is still a deal-breaker in most cases.
With a smaller selection of applicants, companies might have to try creative ways to draw new employees.
"We had one client change their shifts to see if they worked better to attract more candidates," Benne said. "Another client has brought in flexible hours to be attractive. I just had another client call me today and say they're raising their wage a dollar."
While individual businesses are bearing the brunt of the short-term burden, long-term concerns extend to the local economy as a whole.
"It's not necessarily good for Cole County. It is a positive to have people working in a good wage; however, these companies are struggling, and if we lose companies because they can go to St. Louis and have a wider pool to bring in to work, then they will. And then where are we going to be? ... I'm talking to the companies here in Cole County, and they see this as a huge challenge," Benne said. "Companies looking to relocate here are going to look at the unemployment rate, and they're going to pass us by if we don't become more attractive to new businesses."
Sappenfield said he's not worried about companies leaving the area, as the cost to relocate would be too burdensome, but agreed the low unemployment rate poses concerns for economic development.
"It's not that dire," he said. "One of our manufacturers here in town has 18 lines. If five employees don't come in, that just affects one line. That's not enough to relocate."
But it could be enough to keep new workers and employers from coming to the area.
"If you have an employer that said, "We have an opportunity to expand,' that's where the concern would be - because if they can't fill their 200 positions now, how are they going to fill 225?" Sappenfield said.
The Chamber of Commerce announced plans last year to pursue a local area labor study, which made it into the chamber's 2016 work plan. That presents a more long-term solution, though, as the chamber hasn't yet taken bids on organizations to conduct the study.
The chamber also coordinated a "workforce roundtable meeting" in November with representatives from staffing agencies, local school districts and the Missouri Division of Workforce Development to discuss the issue. The meeting offered a forum to discuss training for non-college-bound high school students who plan to enter the workforce right after graduation, but past that, it didn't necessarily offer solutions.
"Basically it told us what we knew: we've got low unemployment, and it's an issue," Sappenfield said.