As part of our ongoing series “The Age of Work,” about how demographic shifts — specifically in the aging U.S. labor force — are shaking up the global economy, “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal and ADP chief economist Nela Richardson visited Utah County, which is one of the youngest in America.
In the final installment of this trip, they visited Sunpro, a building supply company, at their Lindon truss manufacturing facility.
Sunpro
“Trusses are the triangles on a roof that make everything that hits it flow out,” said Joe Cranford, the Sunpro truss plant manager. “It’s a structurally engineered product.”
Trusses stacked up on a forklift outside of the manufacturing facility.
Andie Corban/Marketplace
Trusses hold up your roof, and Cranford said the ones they make are usually 30 to 60 feet long. Sunpro usually sells them to general contractors. “We build everything from, I say, dog houses to penthouses,” he said.
The truss manufacturing plant uses a mix of automation and manual labor. For the past three years, they’ve been using the H-2B visa program, which allows employers to hire foreign workers for temporary jobs when there aren’t enough qualified American workers.
“It’s been great to help us win a battle that we don’t have a solution to really in the market here in Utah County,” said Sunpro vice president Steve Broadbent. “There just aren’t enough people that are willing and able to do the job.”
Joe Cranford shows Nela Richardson and Kai Ryssdal how manual labor contributes to truss assembly.
Andie Corban/Marketplace
Reflections on Utah County
Ryssdal and Richardson got on the phone about a month after their reporting trip to reflect on what they saw in Utah County, what it taught them about the economy, and how it connects to their time in one of the oldest counties in the country.
One of Richardson’s main takeaways?
“Invest in the youth,” she said. “I’ve never seen so much hustle and grit, off a sports field, as I saw in Utah.”
It also reinforced the importance of entrepreneurship and small business.
“Whether it’s in your basement or in this amazing innovation hub, small business is the heart of Main Street.”
Use the audio player above to hear more.