Eliatamby
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City must address job losses, expert
says
Columbia should take steps to deal with
four straight years of job losses, a regional economist
for the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday
"I think there is a good reason
for concern in the Columbia area," said Michael Wald
of the U.S. Department of Labor's Atlanta Office.
The city might want to study similar
regions of the country that have been successful growing
jobs over the same time frame, Wald told community leaders
attending the Columbia Regional Job Summit.
Mayor Bob Coble called for the summit
after reports that the Columbia metro area lost jobs each
year from 1999 to 2003.
About a hundred people attended the meeting
at the State Museum, which also featured a look at the job
numbers by USC research economist Donald Schunck and additional
explanations by representatives of the S.C. Labor Market
Information service.
A panel of area business people presented
views of the local employment situation.
Panelists included: Peter Brown, Colite
International; Trip Gregory, Palmetto Health Alliance; Deepal
Eliatamby, Alliance Consulting Engineers; Nathaniel Spells,
Jr.,Construction Dynamics; Rick Wade, Palmetto GBA; and
Diane Sumpter, DESA.
Brown said government needs to be pro-business,
not pro-jobs. "Business creates the jobs, not government,"
he said.
Spells lamented the lack of qualified
workers in the building trade, referring to bricklayers
and plumbers as "lost trades." He suggested more
programs are needed to train such workers.
Eliatamby recently started his business
downtown and is trying to fill four full-time positions.
"It's not just jobs; it's the type of jobs that we
need to work on creating," he said.
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Another panel focused on local, state
and regional initiatives that impact the job market.
A total of 12,300 jobs were lost in the
Columbia region between 1999 and 2003, according to the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Wald said he would be less concerned
about the numbers if the data were only for the last couple
of months. "You might look at that and say it is subject
to revision and things might change."
But the trend is based on numbers the
Department of Labor is confident about, he said.
Wald suggested Columbia look at Ventura,
Calif.; Sarasota, Fla.; Boise City, Idaho; and Fresno, Calif.
Each had basically the same private employment
level in 1999 as Columbia and the best employment growth
through 2003. Wald excluded government employment numbers
from this data to get a truer picture for economic development.
Ventura, Calif., likely will be the destination
for an upcoming inter-city visit by Columbia, Coble said
after the summit.
Beyond learning from other regions, the
mayor said he believes the city needs to be more small-business
friendly, since that sector creates most of the jobs.
He suggested Columbia might create a
council to study how the city can be a small-business friendly
place. Coble also said the region needs to focus on:
• Developing technology jobs through
initiatives like the USC Research campus and the university's
high-tech incubator
• Filling an increasing number of advanced manufacturing
jobs
• Creating a work force to meet the demands of employers
•Developing tourism, although the jobs are not relatively
high-paying.
Earlier in the summit, Schunck said he
remains bullish on Columbia.
"The Columbia area is going to be
seeing job growth," Schunck said. "What kind of
jobs is the question."
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