COLUMBIA BASIN — The area edges closer to improvements in employee recruitment.

Area representatives gathered in Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building Friday morning to share the steps they've come up with thus far, and discuss how to proceed.

Rasmussen said the various subcommittees use an overall operations committee meeting as a sounding board to coordinate their efforts.

"We want to continue the work and efforts of all the needs for training, marketing and getting information to people about jobs, job opportunities, training and opportunities to move and live in Grant and Adams counties and the community," training committee co-chair Clyde Rasmussen explained. "We've got a lot of new employers coming and there's going to be a lot of new jobs and opportunities for not only our young people, but retire-rehires and new people coming in."

Marketing subcommittee representative Jeffrey Wiberg showcased an information booth on loan from the City of Moses Lake. The booth, Wiberg said, could be used as a display to market the jobs, the quality of life and the opportunities available in Grant County.

Wiberg and Grant County Economic Development Council Communications Manager Jon Smith showed a potential new Web site allowing job seekers to access information about companies.

Rasmussen and Mary Shannon shared areas of focus for training, including those suggestions born out of the recent high demand careers education forum held at the community college, such as the need to strengthen business partnerships with local education representatives, creation of a speakers bureau and alerting people to companies' training needs.

Data committee representative Albert Garza passed around information indicating the number of workers looking for jobs in the county. About 1,154 people are seeking employment, according to the data, with agriculture work, production work, forklift operators, construction laborers and truck drivers being the top five jobs sought.

"I think we're off to a great start here," he said. "We need to get more people involved. We need to make sure the businesses are here. We've got all the concerned people, now we need to look at the business consortiums and who else needs to be involved."

Interested people can contact Rasmussen, Wiberg, the economic development council or any subcommittee member to get involved.

The next meeting takes place 8 a.m. March 9 at the ATEC Building.