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West Central Georgia
State of the Workforce
What is
West Central Georgia?
West Central Georgia is a ten-county region that encompasses
Butts, Carroll, Coweta, Lamar, Heard, Meriwether, Pike,
Spalding, Troup, and Upson Counties. With a population of over
375,000 in 2000, the region is a blend of rural areas with
pockets of industrial centers. For all the variation among the
ten counties, community leaders are increasingly coming to
understand that they have much in common that requires them to
think and act regionally. Their challenge is to shift from a
lower skill manufacturing economy to a higher skill, more
diverse economy. The current workforce and the emerging
workforce (youth and underutilized populations) must be prepared
to be productive within that vision.
The Workforce Supply
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The population is growing unevenly. While Meriwether
scarcely grew at all in ten years, neighboring Coweta
County grew at a tremendous rate, far in excess of state
and national averages.
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The region is becoming less racially diverse, and
gaining little in ethnic diversity.
- Poverty
exceeds the national average and is significant in
Meriwether and Lamar Counties.
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Both per capita and median household income are lower
than the state and national averages.
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Most counties have significant literacy problems.
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The labor force grew at a much faster rate than the
population did between 1990 and 2001, which is reflected
in lower unemployment rates during that decade. Even so,
unemployment is still higher than the state and national
averages.
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(Click Any Graph to
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Per
Capita Personal Income,
1990 - 2001
Educational Attainment, 2001
Percent Change in Hispanic Origin,
1990 - 2001
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Implications:
- Having the image of a
high poverty, low diversity region can turn away both
potential employers and a potential workforce.
- Low literacy and
educational attainment can cripple attempts at industry
diversification towards high skill/high wage job growth.
- Poverty levels may
indicate corresponding problems in healthcare and future
educational attainment.
- Highly disparate growth
between neighboring counties may indicate a trend toward
a “have” and “have not” region.
- Higher than average
unemployment can indicate a ready workforce --- but only
if they have ready skills
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Workforce Demand
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Manufacturing dropped nearly 4,000 jobs between 1990 and
2000. It is no longer the top employing sector in the
region. Services now has a greater share of the labor
market than any other sector, having grown by over
17,000 jobs in the same time period.
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Although manufacturing is lessening its importance to
the region, it is still a far larger percentage of the
employment in West Central Georgia than it is in the
Southeast Region and the nation.
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Skills in demand include active listening, speaking,
problem identification, social perceptiveness, and
information gathering along with reading, writing, and
mathematics.
Most of the occupations that are growing the fastest are
low skill, low wage jobs like cashiers, guards, nursing
aides and orderlies, and waiters and waitresses.
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West Central Georgia has a higher percentage of people
working in low wage jobs than the metro area of Atlanta.
Even in the same occupation, the wages in Atlanta are
many times much higher than for that occupation in West
Central Georgia.
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22% of the region’s employment has annual wages of less
than $20,000 per year. The region’s unemployment rate
trends higher than the state and nation.
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(Click Any Graph to
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Percent
Change in Employment
by Industry, 1990 - 2000
2000
Employment by Sector
Occupations With Largest Growth
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Implications
- While the region
has available workers, they may not have the level
of skills needed to attract employers looking for
a trainable workforce.
- Shifting from a
manufacturing economy to a service economy implies
different skill sets. Service jobs can be high
paying or low paying. If West Central Georgia
wants high skill, high wage service jobs, it must
build on transferable old skills as a base, and
identify the new skills it needs to attract higher
wage employment.
- Displaced workers
from declining industries such as the textiles and
garment sectors need an intermediary system that
can educate and train them for new opportunities.
- Having a low-wage
economy will make it difficult to attract or keep
the best and brightest workers and graduates.
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Comments from Community
Leaders:
- “We have a large
labor pool with good work ethics, but they have
low skills.”
- “There is a need
for higher paying jobs to create a better wage. We
must diversify our industry mix.”
- “When industry
prospects inquire, they are asking more and more,
‘Is your labor force trainable?’ They are
inferring does the labor force have the academic
skill as well as the work ethic to be a part of
their teams.”
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The Emerging Workforce
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High school completion rates in West Central Georgia are
on par with the state. However, the Georgia’s 1998
dropout rate was 45th in the nation. Being equal to the
state means too few youth complete high school.
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Only three counties in the region consistently score
higher than the state average on the high school
graduation test.
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High school seniors who continue their education prefer
four-year institutions.
Only a little over 10% of graduates plan to pursue
public technical and adult schools.
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Seven counties in the region exceed the state average
for percent of students qualifying for free or reduced
price lunch.
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Teen birth rates are high, with only one county below
the state average. The state average is one of the
highest in the country.
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The county that has the lowest high school completion
rate is the same county that has the highest rate of
youth in single parent households.
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(Click Any Graph to
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High
School Completion Rates
Class of 1999 & 2000
Post
Secondary Plans
of 2001 High School Seniors
Youth in Poverty,
1998 Estimates
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Implications:
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Education tends to reduce reliance on welfare and public
assistance programs. In 1996, 25- to 30-year-olds who
had dropped out of high school were about three times
more likely to receive income from public.
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Education tends to reduce criminal behavior. 62% of
Georgia’s prison population are high school dropouts.
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Youth who live in poverty and/or become parents too
young have more limited opportunities to become
productive members of society and contribute to a high
skill economy.
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Jobs of the future are more likely to require a 2-year
technical degree than 4-year diploma. Youth aspirations
are inconsistent with the economy.
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Comments from Community Leaders
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“Businesses are telling educators that their product is
not meeting the needs of our industry.”
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“Business drives the expectations of education.”
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“Education and workforce development drive the kind of
industry we are able to attract.”
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“As we grow, I am concerned with the level of education
attainment of our youth.
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Workforce Preparation
As a
region, West Central Georgia has many assets that can contribute
to developing the workforce it needs to become more productive
and competitive. It also has many resource gaps that will hinder
progress. Among its assets are:
Excellent
public postsecondary institutions including -
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LaGrange College
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University of Georgia, Griffin Campus
- Gordon
College
- Griffin
Technical College
- West
Central Technical College
- West
Georgia Technical College
- Flint
River Technical College
Resources
that come into the community for labor exchange and to help fund
training of workers and potential workers are nearly all
federal, primarily accessible through the “one-stop” Center. The
Griffin Career Center can play a role in developing the region’s
human resource assets. Over 13,000 people were registered for
work in October, 2002.
Fortunately, the area can count leadership among its assets.
Community leaders are positive and forward thinking. They admit
the challenges but are resolved to meet those challenges.
Several counties have already begun a strategic planning process
and have solid plans and goals for education and workforce and
economic development.
Implications
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Educational assets must be aligned with the vision of
the region to grow a high skilled, high paid workforce.
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Federal resources have been declining, yet the one-stop
system is heavily dependent on federal money to develop
its workers. Without local public/private investment,
the region can not address its own unique needs.
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Incentives may be necessary to convince workers to
develop new skills required for a changing work
environment.
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Comments from Community Leaders
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“Quality higher education institutions can be the
central focal point for a high quality of life.”
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“We have a need for access to more satellite locations
of our Technical Colleges.”
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“Quality of life indicators are becoming a major hot
button for prospective industry location.”
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“We must have a new mix of people in the community to
thrive.”
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“We don’t want people to just work here, we want them to
live here and be a part of the community’s fabric.”
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“Our challenge is in bringing government entities
together to work on issues. There is a need for
leadership.”
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Implications for Action
The State of the Workforce Report is intended to describe
the current conditions; it was not designed to advocate
for certain policy recommendations. In the coming months,
the West Central Georgia Workforce Investment Board and
the Planning Committee that oversaw development of this
report plan to engage many people and leadership groups
across the region to define the actions that need to
happen around workforce issues, informed by this research. |
Opportunities:
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Development of a regional comprehensive literacy
initiative.
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Integrate and expand educational opportunities in
diversified industry.
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Encourage and support the upgrading of skills of the
incumbent workforce.
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Develop a regional communications plan.
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Increase the testing and credentialing of knowledge and
skills mastery.
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Sell the region to employers on the basis of a
commitment to constantly upgrade the skills of our
workforce.
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Opportunities
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Development of a regional comprehensive literacy initiative.
Focus on making the connection between the problem of
illiteracy and the region’s citizens everyday lives. Any
campaign must be a comprehensive attack on illiteracy from
birth to adult. The region can no longer wait until someone
reaches adulthood before we do something.
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Integrate and expand educational opportunities in diversified
industry. Leaders of the Region should spend considerable time
crafting the continuation of the implementation a world-class
career/vocational system that is equal in quality and
perception to the academic track already available. Education
will respond if business makes their needs known.
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Encourage and support the upgrading of skills of the incumbent
workforce. The data and interviews conducted for this report
make it clear that leading firms in the region value and use
higher order skills of their workforce. One strategy could be
to build on that base by strategically focusing on how to
increase the critical skills needed by workers in high skilled
work settings. Upgrading strategies can take many forms,
including industry skill alliances spanning multiple firms,
building career pipelines within or across industries,
organizing innovative financing mechanisms to encourage skill
upgrading, and other approaches
- Develop
a Regional Communications Plan: For a fully integrated
systematic approach to the challenges facing the West Central
Georgia region, it is critical to develop a communications
strategy that keeps the stakeholders and the community at
large informed of the workforce challenges and what each can
do to impact those challenges. Community buy-in to a preferred
vision will be the catalyst for action.
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Increase the testing and credentialing of knowledge and skills
mastery. Educational leaders of the region would do well to
adopt and widely use basic skills and technical skills
assessment tools that could become understood and used by
workers, businesses and educators. For example, WorkKeys or
SHL could be adopted as a basic skills test undertaken in high
school and the workplace. Job profiling by employers could be
undertaken using either of these approaches. Individuals,
counselors, parents, etc., could then match these job profiles
with the skills profile of the prospective worker/student.
West Central Georgia could be a pioneer in this regard. Using
common tools widely would create a common language across the
region that would strongly connect employer needs with skill
development activities.
- Sell
the region to employers on the basis of a commitment to
constantly upgrade the skills of our workforce. The field of
economic development is changing rapidly and economic
developers need marketing information to demonstrate to
existing and prospective employers that this is a good region
to do business. One of the most powerful approaches to
economic development is to focus on how the region constantly
upgrades the skills of its workforce. The region is endowed
with very active community economic development organizations
and professional economic developers. They are well positioned
now to market the region based on its labor force
competitiveness.
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