Employment Help Coming

Thanks to the Federal Stim package.

Mississippi officials hope to parlay $44.3 million earmarked for training programs in the economic stimulus package into job opportunities for the state’s residents.

The money comes as thousands of Mississippians are receiving pink slips and unemployment in January was 9.2 percent.

The amount of money allocated to each state for work-force and job programs under the stimulus package is based on a formula that includes population, unemployment rates, number of economically disadvantaged youth and other factors, according to the Labor Department.

In Mississippi, the money largely will be divided among the state’s four designated work-force regions.

Roughly $22 million will go toward helping displaced workers and other adults seeking assistance and training for finding new jobs.

One potential use could be in helping the state’s WIN Job Centers enhance their on-the-job training programs, in which employers are reimbursed up to 50 percent of a new hire’s wages for up to six months.

Toyota To Honor Obligations

I recently asked since Toyota had put the Prius factory on hold, how would Mississippi recover some of the cash thrown at them by the Governor.  And the answer is according to Barbour.

Governor Haley Barbour announced today Toyota will honor financial commitments made to the state and local entities even though the company has delayed start of production at its Prius plant, which is under construction in Blue Springs. “Toyota has told me it will cover its portion of debt service for the state and local entities, and will work with suppliers to ensure they do likewise. Toyota doesn’t want the state or local taxpayers to suffer financially because of this delay, and that is an approach I genuinely appreciate,” Governor Barbour said. These costs were anticipated when the Blue Springs plant was expected to begin production in 2010. Toyota’s initial payment of more than $10 million for debt service will be made in April 2010.

He said Toyota also will honor a commitment the company made when the Blue Springs plant was announced to provide $5 million a year for 10 years through the Tupelo-based CREATE Foundation for local education. The initial $5 million payment will be made in 2010.

Will Gaming Remain High?

The economic downturn is already devastating the gambling industry. Legal gaming in America attracted $93 billion in consumer spending in 2007, but battered incomes last year proved in spades that this is not a “recession-proof” business. Outlays at casinos have plunged, stock prices of gambling enterprises have collapsed and new building projects around the world are frozen. Native American casinos are laying off workers from Connecticut to California. State lotteries, too, have been reporting hefty declines in ticket sales — despite the fact that lotteries were sold to voters as a sure way to fund education programs even in hard times.

Polls and other indicators show that Americans aren’t necessarily ready to return gambling to its 19th-century status as a vice — what would teenage poker players do on Friday nights? But more Americans are looking at the social, personal, economic and cultural consequences of gambling, understanding that — even setting aside the moral issue — it is a black hole for practical reasons. So opponents are taking heart. “We’re seeing an increasing backlash as the public becomes reinformed about the negative consequences of gambling,” says John Kindt, a gambling critic and business professor at the University of Illinois.

Part of the shift in attitude is a result of the higher profile of “problem” and “pathological” gamblers, who studies say make up about 5% of the U.S. population — and whose proclivities can be more easily serviced than ever. Women are placing more than half of the calls to some state gambling crisis lines, double the percentage of a decade ago.

No wonder about 70% of Americans believe that legalized gambling encourages people to gamble more than they can afford, according to a Pew Research Center survey in 2006. That’s a noteworthy increase from 1989, when 62% expressed that concern in a Gallup survey.

Also to blame for the uptick in antigambling sentiment is the industry’s poor record as an economic multiplier. In locale after locale, citizens are realizing that they were snookered by politicians’ promises that casinos would provide a problem-free explosion in jobs and income from tourism. Three casinos have opened in Detroit, for example, but the city looks as desiccated as ever, and one of the operators is embroiled in bankruptcy court.

Will the Coast become part of this growing opposition?

FL: Jobs Creation

Owners of a Pensacola hotel chain are looking at land in Century to build an electric vehicle assembly plant that they say could create 1,100 jobs within five years.

Project Green Leaf — which includes local hotel owners Jay and Nash Patel — may invest $23 million into an existing facility in Century’s industrial park, or buy 25 acres of land to build a plant to assemble electric vehicles, said Century Mayor Freddie W. McCall Sr.

As proposed, parts would be shipped from an electric car plant in France and assembled in Century. The vehicles would be sold here, McCall said.

A county resolution supporting the business says the plant would bring up to 585 full-time jobs over three years.

The company anticipates producing about 150 cars per month and paying an average starting salary of $38,400, including benefits, he said.

The company also is considering putting its corporate offices in Escambia County, which could provide up to 65 full-time administrative jobs with an average salary of $50,000, said Larry Newsom, the county’s economic development director.

MS: State Gets Millions For Housing

Under its Long-Term Work-Force Housing program, the Mississippi Development Authority is awarding a second round of projects totaling more than $89.5 million, Gov. Haley Barbour announced Tuesday.

“This action will help construct 2,528 low- and moderate-income homes in our three coastal counties,” Barbour said. “The award recipients represent a cross-section of proposals from nonprofit organizations as well as projects specifically designed to serve the elderly and disabled. We’ve also been very deliberate in making sure these projects are spread among Harrison, Hancock and Jackson counties, and that the projects are built near schools and jobs.”

The LTWH initiative empowers individuals, private businesses and nonprofit groups to leverage federal disaster recovery grants to construct both single and multifamily homes designed to ensure a healthy stock of worker housing, particularly to support the ongoing Hurricane Katrina recovery.

In this round, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties will see LTWH projects totaling $16.1 million, $44.4 million and $28.9 million and unit levels of 348, 1,016 and 1,164 respectively.

Of the total $89.5 million awarded, single-family and multifamily funding is $53.9 million for 1,437 units and $35.6 million for 1,091 units, respectively.

“These grants will greatly accelerate the pace of installation of affordable housing and will meet many previously unmet needs,” Gerald Blessey, Katrina recovery housing director, said.

AL: Joblessness On The Rise

Unemployment continued to rise statewide and in southwest Alabama, according to figures released Friday.

The statewide jobless rate rose to 5.1 percent, up from 4.7 percent in June and 3.6 percent in July 2007. Last month’s unemployment rate was the highest since August 2004 and represents 111,903 people looking for jobs statewide.

In Mobile County, joblessness rose to 5.7 percent in July from 5.4 percent in June. In Baldwin, the jobless rate rose to 4.3 percent from 4 percent.

In Baldwin the number of people with jobs fell by more than 1,000 to 82,125, though unemployment was third-lowest among the state’s 67 counties. June is often Baldwin County’s peak employment month of the year, because of the summer tourism season.

Rural counties in southwest Alabama saw even higher unemployment, with jobless levels ranging from 7.3 percent in Escambia, to 13.3 percent in Wilcox, the state’s second-worst level.

But the economy is strong….well…cool…but if you do not have a job…then it is BS.

MS: Economic News Is Not That Good

The Governor tells the residents just how bright the future looks for the state of Mississippi, but there are some figures that he des not want to share.

How did your state’s workers fare in July? Here’s a rundown of unemployment rates that standout, as reported by the Labor Department today. Others run more closely in step with the national trend. (For reference, the national unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent in July—1.0 percentage point higher than a year earlier.)

States with the highest unemployment rates:

• Michigan: 8.5 percent
• Mississippi: 7.9
• Rhode Island: 7.7
• California: 7.3
• Illinois: 7.3
• Ohio: 7.2
• South Carolina: 7.0

The bad: Mississippi and South Carolina saw the largest jumps in their unemployment rates between July and June—both were up 0.9 percentage point.

AL: Jobs Loss To China

A new study indicates 37,400 jobs were lost to Alabama between 2001 and 2007 because of Chinese imports. The Economic Policy Institute, which released its study last week, believes that the Chinese government gives its exporters an unfair boost through various methods, including holding down the value of Chinese currency.

But defenders of the current trade system attacked the methodology of the study, noting it assumed that all jobs lost to Chinese-made goods came from the United States and not other countries where workers make less than Americans.

The study comes as the institute and its ally, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, are trying to ratchet up the political heat over Chinese trade policies that they say give the Asian nation unfair advantages over American companies.

A loss of 37,400 jobs would represent nearly 2 percent of Alabama’s 2.1 million employed workers, the 13th largest percentage hit among the states. Nationwide, the study put the toll at 2.3 million, or about 1.6 percent of the nation’s 146 million employed workers.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has been an advocate of increased trade with China, most recently visiting the country on a trade mission in April. Riley has focused on lifting exports from Alabama. The state sold China $809 million in goods in 2007.

And yet there are those that still support all of these trade agreements that are costing residents their jobs.  Why?

AL: Job Seekers Bilked

The offer went something like this — give me $110, and I’ll get you a job doing construction work at the future site of the ThyssenKrupp steel mill.

The man making the pitch said he worked for Halliburton, the giant oilfield services contractor based in Houston, said Daphne Police Lt. Jud Beedy and ThyssenKrupp spokesman Scott Posey. Going by the name Jamie Hewitt, the man claimed Halliburton was to displace MACTEC, the Atlanta-based engineering firm that manages the Calvert construction site for ThyssenKrupp, Posey said. People interested in jobs filled out paperwork, and then the man asked them to give him $110 in “union fees.”

An employee at the Hampton Inn said many people had been calling about the supposed recruiter, but said she knew nothing else about it. When asked if the man had rented a meeting room, she said she wasn’t allowed to give out that information. Beedy said Daphne Police were told the man was meeting with prospective employees in an individual hotel room.

ThyssenKrupp has many contractors on its site, and the construction workforce, recently at 800, is growing toward a peak of 7,000. To help fill those needs, the Mobile branch of the Associated General Contractors is setting up a plan to sign up workers for jobs. People who want to become one of the 2,700 permanent employees are being recruited by the company and by Alabama Industrial Development Training, a state agency. None of those groups charge fees of job applicants.

AL: Job Market And Prospects

While Mississippi’s Gulf Coast economy is doing well, its neighbor to the East is not so lucky.

About 90 percent of companies in the Mobile area expect to hold their number of employees steady between July and September, according to a survey released today by Manpower Inc., a personnel agency based in Milwaukee. The remaining 10 percent said they expect to add workers, while none expect to cut staff, the survey said.

Nationwide, 26 percent of companies plan to add workers, while 58 percent expect to hold steady and 10 percent expect to drop workers.

Manpower predicts Mobile will have the flattest job market in Alabama during the summer. Statewide, 28 percent of employers plan to add workers, while 60 percent expect to stand pat, 8 percent plan cuts, and 4 percent didn’t know