Good jobs require sound preparation

Published 7:23 am Wednesday, January 24, 2018

 

Last week’s job news from Beaumont-Port Arthur was grim but it needn’t be the final word on this community’s prospects.

Our metropolitan statistical area — it’s composed of Jefferson, Orange, Hardin and Newton counties — trailed the state of Texas for employment, sharing the low rung among 27 MSAs with McAllen-Edinburg-Mission. The month before, we rested at the bottom alone, but misery does not necessarily love company.

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Here’s the skinny, in short: Beaumont-Port Arthur limped along at 6.7 percent unemployment, trailing badly behind the state jobless rate of 3.9. What that reflects is 11,000 people in this MSA who want work can’t secure it. That’s of 172,000 ready-and-willing workers.

Of course, there are many more unemployed people here than those numbers suggest. To be officially unemployed in the state’s eyes, you have to be at least looking for work. Not everyone can work or wishes for a job.

Over the course of a month, Beaumont-Port Arthur’s unemployment rate increased, although it appeared that more people held jobs. However, the formal workforce rolls increased faster than available jobs.

Texas itself presents a rosier picture. Unemployment ranks beneath the national rate of 4.1 percent and the state appeared to add 306,900 jobs over the course of the previous year. That’s reason to celebrate.

This, too, is encouraging: Texas has the second-largest workforce in the country, adding 66,800 workers in December.

So what’s wrong with Beaumont-Port Arthur when it comes to jobs? Some folks might point to an uncertain economy in the wake of Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey. But this MSA’s work woes started well before 5 feet of water was dumped on our county. In fact, our 6.7 percent unemployment is better than it has been in Beaumont-Port Arthur for much of the past decade.

And natural disasters, sad to say, can create jobs and inject some economic life where they impose their worst destruction: People replace their durable goods, build and repair their homes and businesses, buy and sell construction materials. The economy churns.

Or could our chief employment problem rest in this snapshot: Of the five of seven listed “Jobs of the Week” on the Workforce Solutions page for Southeast Texas, five required at least an associate’s degree up to a master’s. If you are looking for work, can you compete in that sphere?

That’s something all of us must weigh. Of the four fastest-growing industries in the area, three — two in health care, one in management — suggest the need for at least some higher education. Do we have it? If not, are we willing to seek it?

Beaumont-Port Arthur offers promising work opportunities. In Lamar University, Lamar State College and Lamar-Orange, it offers available preparation for good jobs.

There’s a connection and people must make it.