Last Monday, on the eve of the election, Gov. Nathan Deal put out a press release announcing “Georgia ranked No. 1 state in U.S. for business.”
Hot diggity dog, I thought, Georgia is on the right track!
After years of dreary news about the economy, it’s good to be numero uno in something good. The ranking came from Site Selection magazine, a trade publication for companies looking to locate their next big distribution plant, factory or call center. In fact, the magazine ranked Georgia No. 1 last year.
“Receiving this ranking for the second year in a row confirms what we’re doing here in our state is in fact working,” the Governor said in his release
But before cheer totally overtook me, there was a nagging in my brain keeping me from pumping a fist in celebration. I sit near smart-aleck business reporters and remembered they wrote a story not too long ago that started, “Thank God for Mississippi.”
They were evoking the perpetual punchline because Mississippi kept Georgia from being ranked 51st in U.S. state unemployment rates (Washington DC was 49th.) Mississippi was 8 percent, Georgia 7.8.
But while researching to see if I remembered that correctly, I discovered Mississippi leap-frogged us, leaving Georgia dead last with a 7.9 percent rate.
Hmmm. We’re first and we’re last. I think they call that a conundrum.
I called state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler for illumination. The Republican who just won re-election to his job said the U.S. Department of Labor’s methodology is suspect, that it surveys about 1,500 homes and then “they run it through some sort of mathematical matrix to come up with the numbers.” He likened it to the political polls that were vastly wrong about Tuesday’s elections.
“We’re seeing all the signs Georgia is improving, except the unemployment rate,” Butler said. He said the state added 83,000-plus jobs in the past year, the sixth-largest net job gain in the country. He said the 2 percent gain (there are now about 4.1 million Georgian’s working) is ahead of the national average.
Being the sixth largest net job gainer is good, although there were just eight states with larger labor pools. Michigan has about as many people working as Georgia, as does our hated rival, North Carolina. Michigan added just 33,000 jobs. But North Carolina added 109,000. Also, the U.S. added nearly three million jobs, a 2 percent bump. That means our increase would rate as average, although no one puts out press releases crowing “We’re just like everybody else!”
I called Mark Arend, editor of the Norcross-based Site Selection, who said the magazine’s methodology mixes data about taxes and new plant info with a survey of corporate site selectors. It’s sort of a beauty contest, you could say, one that says Georgia’s red clay looks good in a bikini.
“Our ranking is about the business climate that makes a state more attractive to potential investors,” he said. Although he could not pinpoint why such a beautiful business climate does not translate to making our jobless rate less ugly.
In fact of Site Selection’s top 10 states with the best business climates, none break the top 15 states with the lowest jobless rates. Kansas is 15th at 4.8 percent. In fact, five of Site Selection’s top 10 fall in the bottom 15 states when it comes to unemployment rates. You could say the more desperate states get, the more beautiful they appear to businesses. They certainly show more leg in the form of tax breaks and Right to Work laws.
‘I’m holding on by dental floss’
A visit to the state unemployment center at Toco Hill shopping center found a slow stream of folks early Friday afternoon.
Linda Robinson, 59, and dressed professionally as if she wanted to walk into a new office job today, said she has made do with a scattering of temp jobs since losing her administrative assistant gig some two years ago.
“It’s a harder transition getting back on your feet when you’re older,” she said.
One of those her temp jobs was a low-paying call center job. Site Selection’s article lauding Georgia noted that one of the state’s bigger gets was a call center. “I’m holding on by dental floss,” she said. “My rope’s long gone.”
I showed her the Governor’s “We’re No 1!” press release.
She smiled. And then rolled her eyes. “I’m not buying that,” she said. “That’s where the greed comes in. Businesses are doing good without hiring workers.”
Sending out applications and résumés
Across the computer terminal from Robinson was Warren Fraser, also 59, a man who made a comfortable living peddling mortgages for 20 years until the bottom fell out in 2009 and his firm vanished.
Fraser liked working on commission because his work ethic made him successful. He said he’s still a bit picky, but not like he once was. His annual income has dropped a zero and he gets by doing some independent bookkeeping and tax returns and the occasional mortgage.
He sees accounting and tax and payroll jobs available but rarely gets a response to an application. He sends off his résumé to companies’ websites — mostly a black hole from which nothing returns. “There’s no belly-to-belly interviews,” he said. There are few chances to let another human being know who you are or tell them what you can do.
He looks at my two sheets, the governor’s press release and the state jobless stats. He hands them back with a shrug, “Seems like the No. 1 state would have a better employment rate.”
Seems like.
Any of you new businesses want a couple of older workers who’ll show up and give you a good day’s work, the job center has their info.
