Supply chain, employment challenges are constant concerns in South Dakota, Thune says

Supply chain issues and the struggle to find workers to fill open jobs are the two topics Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., hears about chronically as he travels the state.

Both came up during a Thursday visit to Banner Engineering in Aberdeen.

Banner Chief Operating Officer Andy Barnauskas said supply chain challenges have meant what used to be a 16-week lead time to order the components Banner needs to make various electronic parts is now 70 weeks. But, he said, the company is adapting and improvising as those challenges arise.

While Banner has seen growth in past year, Barnauskas said it could have been greater if not for supply chain issues.

Banner Engineering adds 45,000 square feet

Banner recently added 45,000 square feet of production space to its Aberdeen plant, and space previously used for parts storage will soon become production space.

Senior Human Resources Manager Angella Miller said a recent increase in wages has helped with a new influx of hires who will be going through the week-long onboarding process in the coming weeks.

During the next three weeks, Miller said about 30 people will be added to Banner’s Aberdeen workforce. With more Spanish-speaking employees, Miller said, the business is also also hiring someone to help with Spanish translation.

Could a visa program help?

When it comes to employment solutions, Thune speculated that a visa program might be a helpful option. He said one company he visited recently had employees from Ukraine and the employer was impressed with their work ethic.

Thune said there are specific visa programs for temporary employees in the service industry and agriculture jobs, but added that there is a need for another visa program.

Barnauskas also brought up research and development tax credits, which, he said, have been a big benefit for Banner, allowing the company to immediately reinvest in product research and development.

Those tax credits are part of the 2017 tax act.

But, Thune said, the parameters of that program will soon be changing. Instead of immediately seeing the credit, he said, companies will have to spread it out over a 10-year period.

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“It’s a huge incentive,” Thune said of the current program.

He said there’s been an effort to make that program more permanent, but there’s also political resistance to codifying elements of the 2017 tax act.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Workforce, supply chain issues are problems in South Dakota, Thune says