Cat: The right size... for right now
- Details
- Published on Monday, 30 April 2012 14:42
- Written by Paul Gordon
When Caterpillar Inc. unveiled its first quarter financial report last weeks it boasted, rightfully so, that its worldwide employment was at 155,710 at the end of the quarter. That is almost 50 percent higher than it was at the start of 2010.
You may recall the start of 2010 was about the time Caterpillar had finished downsizing its workforce as part of its trough planning to get through the recession relatively unscathed. The company had ended contracts with most of the companies that supplied it with temporary personnel, laid off a boatload of workers and offered early buyouts to a bunch of others.
Employment had surpassed 112,000 when the cutbacks started and by the start of 2010 was down to about 93,000. The company said it had "right-sized" for the way business stood at the time.
A good portion of the increase since then had resulted from acquisitions, with employees of companies like Bucyrus Mining Equipment Co. adding thousands of workers to the Caterpillar payroll. But there have been a lot of others, including in central Illinois, that have resulted from a resurgence in demand for Caterpillar product.
Even without acquisitions Caterpillar's worldwide workforce has grown by 13,800 in the last year, with 6,560 in the United States.
Caterpillar did not break out how many of those jobs are in central Illinois, nor does the Illinois Department of Employment Security discuss specific companies when talking about employment numbers.
But it's a safe bet that the 5,100 jobs added in the Peoria region since March 2011 (according to IDES statistics released last week) were related to Caterpillar, either directly or new hires by companies that supply Caterpillar. Indeed, according to the state, 2,200 of the new jobs were in manufacturing and another 1,000 were in professional and business services.
That growth brought total jobs in the Peoria region to 182,600 and brought the area unemployment rate down to 7.8 percent in March, down from 9.3 percent in March 2011.
When some other reporters and I met last week with Ed Rapp, Caterpillar group president and chief financial officer, I brought up the employment numbers and reminded him that just a couple years earlier the company said 93,000 or fewer employees was the right size. What would it then call the growth to 155,710 employees?
Rapp didn't miss a beat. Grinning slightly, he replied, "The right size for right now." Notice there is no comma there; he meant it was the right size for this time and for how business is going at Caterpillar.
That is a good thing.
Kudos to library and others for development
Kudos to the Peoria Public Library for not wasting time once it got the OK to start its $28 million building project that included a new North Branch and total renovation of its other buildings, including the main library downtown.
The library project wrapped up last Saturday with the reopening of the Lakeview Branch, the system's busiest branch before it closed July 25, 2011 for renovations. It still looks the same from the outside but the interior is new, beautiful and functional.
All of the buildings can boast that now. They all are more user friendly and have shown that the Peoria Public Library was up to the challenge of adapting to the way technology has changed the way we read, research and reference.
Congratulations to library executive director Ed Szynaka and his staff.
Another milestone of sorts occurred last Saturday, as well. It was the last day of the liquidation sale to rid the Hotel Pere Marquette of everything from menu holders to sheets and towels to furniture and art was last Saturday.
On Tuesday there will be a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony to signal the start of the multi-million dollar renovation of the 87-year-old hotel and construction of a new five-story parking deck.
Construction of the new Marriott Courtyard tower that will connect to the Pere Marquette will come a little later. It must wait until the new Big Al's is built a few blocks away from the existing one, which then will be demolished along with the rest of that block between Madison and Monroe.
It's great to see it finally happening, huh? The developers were able to wait out the financing crisis wrought by the recession and get started, even though it was three-plus years after they originally intended.
But I couldn't help but notice the contrast between two projects separated only by the width of the Illinois River.
The new East Peoria Downtown project that is now underway has taken more than a decade to even get started. And the plans for the project have barely changed in that time. Just look at the ones drawn when Cullinan Properties Ltd. first got the contract with what is being done now. The economic downturn played a part in keeping that project from starting sooner, including the fact it was promised state money that took years to materialize.
Had Gary Matthews, president of EM Properties Ltd. and the new owner of the Pere Marquette taken even half that long the city of Peoria would have yanked its redevelopment agreement. In fact, it was ready to do that more than once and Matthews had to agree to changes every time in order to save it.
Now I am not criticizing the City of Peoria for being impatient. I have just never understood why it was impatient.
Both projects are important to their respective cities for similar reasons, to foster economic growth being chief among them. That's what is most important, regardless of how slowly or quickly they get done, right?
There are other projects that have taken a long time to get going. The new Peoria Riverfront Museum/Caterpillar Visitors Center project took a decade of planning and a bunch of hand wringing and architectural changes before it finally broke ground. It will be completed in October.
The Warehouse District has been under discussion for years but only recently got enough momentum for plans to start formulating. Of course, it was the Museum Square and Pere Marquette/Marriott projects (and perhaps even the East Peoria Downtown plan) that provided that momentum.
Maybe now that the momentum is there the Warehouse District will see progress in short order, especially if the economic recovery continues. We are still awaiting definitive plans from developers, though.
There also have been projects in recent years that moved pretty quick once plans were announced. Besides the Public Library building project look at the work done at the local hospitals, particularly the new Children's Hospital of Illinois. Then there was the new cancer research center at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.
The Peoria Park District often must wait to complete projects until they have money in hand, but once they do projects get done.
All these projects and others will, in their own way, help the area's economy. That, too, is a good thing.
Paul Gordon is editor of The Peorian. He can be reached at 692-7880 or editor@thepeorian.com
