Category: Labor and Workforce
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Owens & Minor Goes for Millennials, Walkable City
Good economic news for the Richmond region: Medical supply giant Owens & Minor Inc. announced plans Thursday to open a client engagement center in downtown Richmond that will employ 500 people. Jobs will average about $53,700 in annual pay. In making the announcement Governor Terry McAuliffe made much of the fact that Richmond competed against…
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Alternate Facts Regarding Virginia Employment
Virginia’s economy may be down in the dumps by Virginia standards, but it still looks buoyant compared to many other states, according to Gallup Organization data based on tracking interviews with nearly 355,000 U.S. adults. The official state unemployment was 4.1% in December 2016, lower than for 33 other states. But the unemployment rate does…
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Many Virginians Prefer Training over Incentives
The Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs has published a public opinion poll delving into Virginians’ attitudes toward a wide range of issues relating to K-12, higher ed, and workforce training. The poll appears to be methodologically sound. I will use the poll results as stepping stones to address several topics. Workforce training: When…
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Invest in Virginia Workers, Not Corporate Subsidies
(The Richmond Times-Dispatch published my op-ed this morning.) The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), once one of the most respected economic development teams in the country, has been taking it on the chin. A year ago, a Chinese company bilked the partnership for a $1.4 million incentive payment in a deal that never transpired. The…
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Forget Globalization. Worry about Automation.
Watcha gonna do… watcha gonna do… whatcha gonna do when robots come for you? Robots aren’t science fiction. You need to start thinking about them — and so does Virginia’s political establishment. The 2015 Oxford automation study, “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation,” concluded that 47% of all U.S. jobs in 702…
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New VEDP Chief Brings Workforce Training Credibility
Steven Moret, an economic development executive from Louisiana, has been selected to run the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) on the strength of his track record of attracting private investment to Louisiana by building one of the most respected workforce training programs in the country. The VEDP board approved the hire in a special meeting yesterday against…
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Workforce Training that Focuses on Unfilled Jobs
The Martinsville area, a manufacturing powerhouse as recently as the 1980s, has become the poster child for Virginia’s rust belt. Unemployment hit 20% during the bottom of the last recession, and still lingers at 6.8%. Ironically, the Martinsville-Henry County area simultaneously suffers from a labor shortage — a shortage of labor with the right skills, that…
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In Praise of Occupational/Technology Degrees
Here’s what stands out from this data table from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV): The average income (five-year-rolling average) for students earning two-year occupational/technology degrees was $36,600 a year within 18 months of graduation — measurably more than $34,500 for those earning four-year degrees. Occupational/technology degrees are generally obtainable through community colleges. Tuition…
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A Novel Idea: Train Your Own Workforce
Alexandria-based Michael & Son is establishing a vocational school in Richmond to train its workforce in plumbing, electrical and HVAC trades. The first class of enrollees is expected to start in the next few weeks, according to Richmond BizSense. Said President Basim Mansour: We’re probably not going to be fully running for another four to six…
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Chart of the Day: Shrinking Workforce
This chart, published by Hamilton Lombard on the StatChat blog, shows how the working-age population of the United States has begun shrinking in much of the United States. While metropolitan areas still experience a growing workforce as they suck up labor from rural counties, even urban growth is slower than it was ten to fifteen years ago.…
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Four of Five Virginia Job Openings Do Not Require a Bachelor’s Degree
This post is excerpted from the Executive Summary of the “Virginia Job Vacancy Survey” prepared for the Virginia Employment Commission by the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis at Virginia Commonwealth University. Key Findings — Statewide Employers project a 4.2% overall job vacancy rate in 2016, 61% due to separations and 39% due to new positions.…
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Virginia Tech Makes Big Bet on Big Data
by James A. Bacon Virginia Tech wants another $70 million of your tax dollars. That’s a lot of money, but give Tech credit for thinking big. Its audacious plans for a $225 million Global Business and Analytics Complex could be the next big thing that elevates the university to ever greater heights of prominence. Of course,…
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The New Idle Class: Men
by James A. Bacon Earlier this week, I noted that employers in Martinsville, a city with one of the highest unemployment rates in Virginia, have 1,400 unfilled jobs. Many jobs require skills that locals do not possess. But few aspiring workers are enrolling in courses at the region’s New College Institute that would equip them…
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Is It Time to Blame the Victim?
by James A. Bacon Martinsville is one of Virginia’s hard luck cases. Once a thriving center of home-grown furniture and apparel enterprises, its economy has been hollowed out by international trade, and its unemployment rate chronically runs around twice the state average. Earlier this year, when the statewide unemployment rate was hovering around 4.0%, joblessness in Martinsville…
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Virginia Retirement System — Trouble Ahead
Last week as I was watching the business channel, I was very interested in the comments of AIG’s head of investments about the effects of low interest rates on his firm. For those involved in life insurance and other long-term products, today’s historically low interest rates pose a significant problem. With negative rates on investment-grade…