Editorial Board's Opinion: Learning is a vital part of jobs picture

“In the labor of engines and trades and the labor of fields I find the developments, and find the eternal meanings.”

— Walt Whitman

Labor Day is different this year. If you’re among the 3.9 million people still employed in non-agriculture jobs in Georgia, the holiday may mean more than usual as you celebrate the value of honest work this weekend.

If you’re one of the 493,748 Georgians looking for work, you’re likely hoping a job comes through soon — real soon.

As in both life and economic cycles, there’s good news and less-than-good news as we head into the final months of recession-ravaged 2009.

The half-full part of this glass is that, thankfully, the economic bad times we’ve endured seem finally to be heading toward the exit. The glass looks a little more empty, though, given that we may be a ways away yet from crossing into full recovery.

The journey will take much of 2010 and could well stretch into 2011. Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University, said late last month, “The fallout is far from over when viewed through the prism of job loss rates and income growth.”

Dhawan’s latest economic forecast notes that the United States has lost more than 6 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Georgia payrolls have bled away more than 250,000 jobs as the state’s unemployment rate soared to a record 10.3 percent. Things will likely worsen before they get better.

Those hard-times numbers will eventually ease somewhat as the economy improves and companies resume curtailed investments in plants, goods and people. Such normal recovery will heal part of our economic wound.

Given that hiring tends to lag recovery, the jobs market will be rough for a while yet. That makes it imperative for our schools, job-seekers, and even those who are currently employed, to do everything they can to help speed the recovery.

What more can we do? For starters, our state’s record of graduating, at best, three out of four high school students doesn’t speak well overall of the qualifications of Georgia’s work force. We must do better.

Nationally, even those who complete high school are often inadequately prepared for the work world. A recent study, “The Ill-prepared U.S. Workforce,” reports that one-third of responding employers found newly hired high school grads were “deficiently prepared” for their jobs.

The report says there is a “high need” for better training in basic skills, such as writing, and in critical-thinking, problem-solving skills.

Work force weaknesses make clear the need for lifelong learning and post-high-school training, such as that offered through Georgia’s technical and two-year colleges. These efforts can pay off. Witness the role of Georgia’s Quick Start program in helping train workers at the new Kia Motors auto plant in West Point. Quick Start, a program of the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education, helped set up a center at the factory site to recruit and train Kia’s new workers.

Randy Jackson, director of human resources and administration at the West Point operation, said Kia isn’t necessarily looking for people with manufacturing experience. “We look for the right mind-set,” he said. “We’re looking for people who want to learn, are flexible, can work in a team environment and can think about things differently than they’ve thought about them in the past.”

Kia, which has hired 1,138 people as of last week, had the advantage of assembling a new operation literally from the ground up. Building a better work force for the rest of Georgia requires businesses to clearly state what skills they need. Schools at all levels must listen and guide their efforts toward ensuring that graduates master basics and have the ability and desire to learn continuously throughout their lives.

Workers themselves must also take responsibility for sharpening their skills. Studying at home or online can help applicants enhance their competitiveness in a marketplace so tight that Kia received 43,000 applications for the Georgia openings. There’s some truth in the old saw about luck being where opportunity meets preparation.

So if you see a few neighbors devouring textbooks this weekend in their backyards while simultaneously watching over their barbecue pits, don’t razz them. Their work may well pay off as the national jobs freeze starts to thaw.

Andre Jackson, 
for the Editorial Board