With Vertex Rail Technologies estimating the need to expand in the future, potentially adding at least another 1,000 workers to its current plans for 1,300, economic development leaders in Brunswick County welcomed the results of a recent labor study.

Commissioned by the Brunswick County Economic Development Commission and a regional partnership, the study released this week says that on the surface, data shows there are more than enough unemployed people to fill the positions at Vertex, a rail car manufacturer, and other companies in the region that are expanding.

“My main concern was to make sure the labor was still out there and the study did show that,” said Jim Bradshaw, executive director of BCEDC, on Wednesday.

The only concern, the study says, is whether Brunswick County “can provide a pipeline of the specialized skills of welding and metalworking being hired at Vertex at the same time that Vertex is ramping up employment.”

That need, however, Bradshaw and the study pointed out, is currently being addressed through existing programs, and a new one, at Brunswick Community College, which has established a lab to train metalworkers. A Duke Energy grant of more than $180,000 and some state dollars allowed the college to buy the equipment and simulators needed for its machine technology courses, said Velva Jenkins, vice president for continuing education, economic and workforce development for BCC.

Currently, 25 students are enrolled in that program, she said.

“It's designed to quickly give individuals skills to be job-ready in a very short period of time,” Jenkins said.

Since 2012, BCC has averaged 58 graduating students a year in its welding and maintenance programs, the study said.

Don Croteau, CEO of Vertex Rail Technologies, said expansion is part of the company's long-term strategy, and shared site plans recently during a visit from Congressman David Rouzer showing that doubling the size of the firm's 202 Raleigh St. location in the former Terex Crane plant is possible.

While there are numerous factors to take into account when it comes to future expansion, “We feel that it can be done,” Croteau said.

Croteau cited expectations of incremental increases in oil prices, new safety regulations for rail cars, limitations of competing manufacturers and the phasing out of 40- and 50-year-old rail cars as some of those factors.

The labor study, commissioned as a result of Vertex Rail's announcement last fall that it would be manufacturing rail cars in Wilmington, was completed by Creative Economic Development Consulting and co-sponsored by NC Southeast, a regional economic development partnership, and the Brunswick EDC.

Bradshaw said the study will be a useful tool as leads on companies that might want a Brunswick County location come in, mainly from site selectors, the state and walk-ins.

The study's recommendations for Brunswick include monitoring the student population, graduates and employment status of students in the welding and machine technology programs at BCC; investigating the Caterpillar Apprenticeship Program at Central Carolina Community College in Lee County, which “provides Caterpillar with a steady stream of qualified talent,” the study says; and addressing the perception of workforce shortage by regularly meeting with the Economic Development Partnership of N.C. to discuss current labor force statistics.

The study says the county might also want to “delve deeper into workforce data with an undermployment survey, transferable skills data, and research using primary/survey data of the un- and underemployed.”

Another recommendation encourages the county to use the information in every prospective and existing business meeting by including it in marketing and presentation materials.

The study ends by saying, “Workforce is the number-one site location factor and should be the number-one topic presented by the BCEDC.”