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Labor steps it up.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

CRESWELL - At Wise Woman Herbal, a small manufacturer off Interstate 5, every workday begins with 10 minutes of stretching and yoga. The company pays employees their regular rate to participate, and all 18 of them do.

The stretching is one of several unconventional offerings in the company's benefits package. Others include a 15-minute massage and a catered lunch every month.

Owner Ken Koenig said he offers such benefits on principle.

"My feeling is, if people are going to spend a third of their lives here at work, we want to make it as enjoyable an experience as possible."

That principle also is helping Koenig attract, and hold onto, skilled workers in the tightest local labor market in a decade.

Lane County's jobless rate was 5.1 percent in June, its lowest point since 1997, according to figures from the state Employment Department.

Employers vying for workers are responding to the tight labor market by adding benefits and recruiting more aggressively - some even luring workers away from competitors.

"Employers have to look harder for good employees, and they may have to increase wages," said Brian Rooney, an Employment Department labor economist.

The low unemployment rate has been a boon for workers, giving them the chance to look for a better job, or demand more pay and better benefits in their current one.

Gabriela Snyder discovered that when she recently took a job at Summit Bank, after working for Umpqua Bank for the past nine years.

The move was a step up in wages and benefits, she said. Snyder had been Umpqua's Internet banking manager; now she oversees all...

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