Eighty-three percent of industries in Fayette County have a hard time finding qualified employees, according to a survey just completed by the Chamber of Commerce Existing Industry Committee and the Development Authority.

Partly as a result of the survey, chamber and authority volunteers and staff will be heavily lobbying local state legislators this coming year in hopes of getting funding for a new satellite technical training facility within the Peachtree City Industrial Park. Plans are to work with Griffin Technological Institute to develop courses in computer programming, how to run electro-mechanical equipment, industrial maintenance and the like.

"This is a very tangible effort that this committee has put forth to try and deal with that issue," said Tate Godfrey, director of the Peachtree City Development Authority and a participant in the county authority's committee, during a presentation of the survey results Tuesday.

Jeff Young, another member of the committee who helped conduct the recent survey, said the organization will be working to get industry leaders all over the county involved. "We're working on a strategy for involving you people in industry in helping convince the legislature of the importance of this project," said Young, calling the shortage of technically trained workers a "chronic and continuing problem."

The chamber will ask every industry in the county to write letters in support of the facility plan, said Young. "The process of obtaining funding involves politics. We need to show the legislators that there is a support base," he added.

Eighteen volunteers from the committee interviewed executives at 23 Fayette industries for the survey, which is part of an overall Business Retention and Expansion Process.

Surveyors found that 65 percent of industries are planning expansion within the next five years, and none of the respondents have plans to relocate outside Fayette County, encouraging numbers according to Susan Arrington of the state Department of Community Affairs, which assisted with the process.

Responses listed under "future plans" in the survey were "some of the best we've seen," said Arrington. She said she compared Fayette's responses with those in five other metro Atlanta counties, and Fayette was best or second best in several categories.

Among those was exporting activity. Of those answering the question, 65 percent said they export products to foreign markets, and 87 percent of those predicted an increase in that export activity, she said. "Only one other county had a higher percentage of exporters," said Arrington.

The 23 firms surveyed employ a total of 5,030 employees now, compared to 2,611 five years ago, another encouraging response, Arrington said. Job growth averages 19 percent a year, and 1,741 of the new jobs came from expansion of existing industries... only 781 from new industries locating here.

"We've always known that the majority of new jobs were created by existing industries, but until now we weren't sure what the proportion was," said Alan Nesmith, project manager for the Development Authority and coordinator of the BREP effort. "This is a significant ratio and it underscores the value of a competent existing industry program," he added.

The biggest problem facing local industry, she said, is lack of a qualified labor pool, a problem mirrored in other metro Atlanta counties, she added. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they couldn't find employees for specific jobs, while 48 percent also cited a lack of work ethic in general as an employment problem.

Thirty-nine percent said there is a lack of job skills among the local labor pool, and 35 percent cited a lack of basic education.

Nesmith pointed out that most of the employees for local firms come from outside the county, so complaints about basic education aren't necessarily pointed at the local school system. In fact, 40 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the school system, while an additional 40 percent had no opinion. Twenty percent were less than satisfied.

Among other responses by industries:

Ninety-six percent are satisfied with local police protection. (Only nine percent reported cases of burglary or vandalism within the last year.)

Eighty-seven percent said they are satisfied with Georgia as a place to do business, and 91 percent are satisfied with Fayette.

Fire protection also drew 96 percent satisfaction, as did local economic development efforts, the highest in the metro Atlanta area, according to Arrington.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents are aware of the Development Authority, but only 39 percent are aware of state programs to help them expand and add jobs. Arrington suggested more educational efforts in this area.

Firms were asked to identify three key issues facing them. Eighty-three percent cited growth-related concerns such as infrastructure, 48 percent named market-related issues like international competition, and 43 percent said labor-related concerns are paramount.