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Hmmm...

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This is an OK article, and maybe it shows why the Jersey Journal should consider improving both business and education coverage by hiring a full-time business reporter who would also be the education reporter.

Basically, what the people quoted here are trying to say, politely, is that it's hard to hire good people around here because, aside from the fact that the local public schools have a hard time pleasing yuppie mamas, they also have had a hard time educating kids to be good plumbers or carpenters.

One good thing about this article is that it somewhat gets away from the following pattern:

- JJ Cub Reporter interviews a hardcore socialist at some 1960s-era jobs or economic development agency about unmeployment and underemployment among local residents.

- The official trashes the waterfront companies for not meeting hiring commitments.

- The official and the reporter never really include the point that the businesses need employees with some skills, and a lot of the unemployed people in Jersey City lack those skills and have no great way to acquire those skills at any level that would impress an employer.

Of course, the waterfront companies should hire more local people. But this particular article points out that the community has an obligation to help make unemployed people employable, not just get unemployable people employed by fiat.

I would never "out" a lister's identity, but i have it on good authority that one of the people quoted in this very article is a JCLister most of us would recognize as a not-infrequent poster...

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS IN HUDSON
For the job-hungry, there are plenty of choices

Thursday, March 01, 2007
By DORINE BETHEA
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Lawrence Haynes is a fairly new employee at the Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson. He's a bellhop who enjoys his interaction with hotel guests.

Stefan Fritz is chef de cuisine at the full-service hotel that opened in the summer of 2002.

Luis Aponte, a parking attendant, works there, too.

The trio may not know it, but their jobs are in one of the fastest-growing industries in Hudson County: the hospitality and retail field, a significant factor in the area's economic growth that is reshaping the county's workforce and redirecting labor officials' training efforts.

The industry is one of four offering new, attractive employment opportunities in Hudson County, experts say. The others are corporate services and real estate, supply chain industries and manufacturing.

"There are a lot of job opportunities here," said Haynes, 35, a Newark resident who found his new job through a classified advertisement.

According to data compiled by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, finance and insurance had the largest employment pool in 2005, the most recent year with available figures. Then, the industry employed 16 percent of the county's total workforce of about 197,000.

The percentage reflects the rapid growth that occurred in the county's financial areas between 1992 and 2000, said James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

"The future there really is Manhattan becoming too expensive and Manhattan not having any vacant space," Hughes said. "Wall Street West is really going to depend on firms spilling over from Manhattan to New Jersey because of cost reasons."

Within the county's financial district - mostly along the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City - the securities and commodities industry in 2005 paid the highest average annual salary, $156,339, according to the labor department.

"The fastest growing sector is the financial activity, but also health services are growing very fast in Hudson County and in the state as a whole," Hughes said. "Second is leisure and hospitality. People are working in hotels and people are working in restaurants. Hudson's labor force is growing at both ends."

That means nearly every type of job is available, from positions in Downtown Jersey City's financial district to jobs in retail shops and jobs that follow - like attorneys' offices - or are a part of growth and development.
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"Construction employment has been strong," Hughes said.

OFF THE WATERFRONT

New employment opportunities, however, aren't restricted to the waterfront.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy lobbied hard for property on Route 440 to become the site for a mega-warehouse that will create new several hundred jobs.

"New businesses bring jobs and pay substantial property taxes to our city," Healy said. "While Jersey City was once a major industrial center, the factories that once provided our citizens with solid employment have mostly left. Yet new types of businesses are taking their place and are providing new job opportunities."

According to Rutgers University research, Jersey City alone was responsible for 91 percent of the new jobs created in the state's urban areas that occurred in the 1990s.

"Whether it is a high-cube warehouse, a Wall Street financial firm or a luxury hotel," Healy said, "Jersey City's unique location that is proximate to Manhattan, Port Elizabeth-Newark, and major transportation arteries make it a desirable location for business to locate."

Overall, the 2006 New Jersey Labor Force estimates show a decline in the unemployment rates in most of the county's municipalities from January to December.

Union City and Kearny had the largest drop in unemployment rates during that time, going from 7.6 percent early last year to 5.7 percent in December, and from 6.2 percent to 4.3 percent, respectively, according to state labor estimates.

Jersey City's rate fell from 6.3 percent to 5.1 percent during that period. Hudson County's unemployment rate stood at 4.5 percent, compared to the state's 3.9 percent.

"The economy looks promising. There is work out there," said Anthony Corsi, director of the Hudson County Workforce Investment Board. "The key is training and education," especially for skilled work in finance and construction.

"An electrician's union requires strong math and science skills," he said. "It does take years to become a carpenter or a plumber."

New development is under way throughout the county, particularly in Jersey City where old warehouses are being redeveloped into luxurious residential units. Builders are as busy constructing in Weehawken and in Hoboken. Yet, despite all the development in Hudson County, the work crews are often out-of-towners.

"There are tremendous numbers of construction jobs that do not necessarily mean that there are Hudson County residents getting them," said Dan Frohwirth, director of real estate for the Jersey City Economic Development Corp. "Most of the jobs are major union jobs and, when you talk about putting up a Goldman Sachs, the tallest building in Jersey City, they really brought in very sophisticated steel workers."

Gary Morgan, 39, is a Jersey City native who still lives and works here. He has worked in the construction field more than 20 years.

"You see a lot more people from the area getting jobs compared to back then," Morgan said. He looks around the area and begins pointing to building on which he and his nephew, Albert Smith, 22, also of Jersey City, have worked.

TRAINING PROGRAMS

Frohwirth said the JCED works with companies to help increase jobs for local residents. For example, he said some developers have hosted job fairs to recruit potential construction workers from the area.

Similarly, within the first two years, 25 percent of new hires for businesses opening in an Urban Enterprise Zone - areas designated by the state that can charge half the sales tax in an effort to stimulate business - must be local residents. Companies that fail to meet that requirement pay the state up to $100,000. The state and city then use the money to pay for job training.

"They pay us money for us to help educate a workforce that can get jobs in the areas," Frohwirth said.

Corsi said his agency is part of a consortium that is working to prepare for future growth in the Meadowlands area. That includes East Newark, Harrison, Kearny, North Bergen and Secaucus, all of which are in Hudson County.

Working with several Hudson and Bergen county agencies, Corsi said the group has started developing strategies to respond to the regional economy. With more than 9,300 businesses in the Meadowlands, the area already employs 46,350 Hudson County residents.

"We're trying to respond to our economic and growth needs. There is a lot going on that neither one of us alone can address," Corsi said. "We have to do it together. We have to match up the needs of industry with the needs of our workforce."

Corsi said there are jobs here to employ Hudson County residents. The applicants, he said, must be prepared and qualified.

"If job seekers are not willing to keep skills and education current and not focus on the needs of the growing industries, their futures are not so bright," he said.

In addition, the women's advocacy group WomenRising of Jersey City is working now with the state Labor Department and Hudson Community College to train prospective employees in the hospitality industry.

Their free four-month training program covers three specific areas: housekeeping, introduction to hospitality and front desk.

"This is a segment of the economy that needs jobs," said Ilene Singh, a job developer for Community Partnerships and Hotel Employment, a component of WomenRising. "If you are good and you prove yourself on the job you can get promoted and you can get promoted fast."

Since the program began five years ago, it has trained and placed nearly 160 people in jobs, she said. Participants earn $9 to $11 an hour.

"Even though the salaries are not fabulous, if they want to stay in that placement they will get benefits," Singh said. "The benefits are generally good."