Economic Development Leaders Focus On Landing Quality Jobs

Too many jobs aren’t worth having.

The jobs pay less than welfare.

They lock the worker and the family into poverty.

They force taxpayers to subsidize low-wage employers by providing poorly paid workers a welfare supplement. An overabundance of these jobs in a community creates an underclass that doesn’t pay taxes but instead taxes the community’s infrastructure and resources.

This saps the economic vitality of the overall business community, requiring higher taxes to maintain public services and dragging down disposable income.

Spokane doesn’t have too few jobs. It has too few good jobs - work that pays a living wage and fair benefits. One measure of fair benefits is the extras that taxpayers in their role of employers are shelling out to public employees.

Of these jobs, Spokane suffers a severe shortage.

And as a consequence, this community is rife with poverty. Per capita, its welfare rate tops the state.

Its income per capita lags the nation by about 10 percent and Seattle by about twice that.

At the same time, its unemployment rate is among the lowest in the region.

No, Spokane doesn’t need any more sub welfare-level jobs.

Having said all this, how can Spokane go about targeting and recruiting better jobs, so more and more workers don’t collect their pay with one hand and their welfare supplements with the other?

That in essence is the issue confronting the Spokane Area Economic Development Council (EDC).

As reported in this column two weeks ago, the Northwest Policy Center at the University of Washington emphasizes that enlightened economic development groups today target only a few key industries.

“By focusing on specific sectors,” says the UW think tank’s executive director, Paul Sommers, “these organizations are developing the expertise necessary to ensure that their programs make a meaningful contribution to the economic vitality of their state or community.”

To that end, the Spokane Area EDC has retained a national consulting firm, The Pace Group of Tupelo, Miss., to conduct a definitive study.

The approximately $60,000 project is funded by Momentum, a Spokane business-financed economic development organization, and the Washington State Employment Security Department.

A thorough appraisal of Spokane’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential as a place to do business is the No. 1 priority. Pace Senior Vice President Steve Jenkins has already completed 70-plus community interviews designed to further insight into which industries would benefit most from locating in Spokane.

Among those deemed likely to prosper here, the consultants will single out those capable of meeting the community’s expectations for quality jobs, pay and fringe benefits.

And finally, Pace will target a handful of specific industry clusters, including “representative companies,” upon which Spokane recruiters would do well to set their sights.

In addition, Pace will help formulate a program to spot local industries ripe for expansion, as well as others needing attention to keep them here and in good health.

And lastly, Pace will set forth a detailed plan of action and cost projections to implement the prescribed recruiting, expansion and retention strategies.

The outside consultants will size up the Spokane labor pool in terms of education, skills and other demographic indicators of how well the work force compares to the competition.

Consultants will scope out the extent to which the local work force is under-utilized, and the economic ramifications of placing underemployed workers in better jobs.

Pace consultants will conduct a cost analysis of hourly wages and benefits in the Spokane labor market.

They will catalog current demand for job skills, extrapolate future demands, and predict what these factors portend for job attraction and retention.

Researchers will provide an unbiased review of state and local taxes relevant to economic development efforts.

They will impartially examine Spokane’s quality of life - cost of living, secondary education, crime, housing availability and cost, health care coverage, cultural amenities, climate and recreation.

And they will grade Spokane’s leadership - private and public.

All this is invaluable to everyone interested in how Spokane honestly and truly stacks up against the competition, and what its future can be if the community puts forth a best effort.

A full report is due by October.

, DataTimes