Published: April 16, 2007 12:03 am            

EDC: Forbes rankings don’t tell whole story

By Erik Onstott

The Orange Leader



Southeast Texas might not rank so well in Forbes magazine’s latest ranking of the nation’s top 200 metropolitan areas — No. 193 overall, No. 43 in cost of doing business, No. 185 in job growth and No. 191 in educational attainment — but according to Orange County Economic Development Corporation executive director Bobby Fillyaw, the rankings do not tell the whole story.

“There’s a lot of different groups that have used different criteria for establishing rankings of various kinds. And it is almost impossible to establish a ranking system that encompasses everything. There are going to be some things that we’re going to lag behind other areas in,” Fillyaw said.

Fillyaw pointed out that the area has been dependent on the oil industry for a long time and that when the oil bust of the 1980s occurred, the area went into decline for a long time. However, many good things are happening now in the industry, he says, and Forbes’ latest rankings do not take these latest events into account.

“The oil industry is turning. The price of a barrel of oil makes domestic exploration more feasible. We see some job creation is happening,” Fillyaw said. “I don’t know when they took their numbers, but we’ve had new jobs created in Southeast Texas in the last year — a lot of new jobs created in Southeast Texas in the last year. We’re looking at having to bring 15,000 workers into this area just to meet the demands of the construction jobs that are going to take place,” he said.

Fillyaw noted that figure did not take into account what was going on in the shipbuilding industry.

“They’ve picked up a lot of their workforce now, but there’s still more that they will do,” he said, referring to the shipbuilding industry. “So that ranking system doesn’t account for what’s here now, and what’s happening around the corner — which is one of the biggest job booms this area has ever seen.”

Fillyaw acknowleged most of the 15,000 jobs he cited were going to be in Jefferson County, but he said they would still have a positive impact on Orange County.

“That goes back to the fact that not all those 15,000 jobs are going to come from Nederland. There’s not 15,000 in the Golden Triangle that can handle that,” he said. “Those 15,000 are people we’re going to attract from outside of here to meet those jobs. That’s not including the people who are actually going to go to work. Realistically, we could be looking at 20,000 jobs created just in the plant expansions and stuff,” he said.

“You throw in the shipbuilding expansions, general manufacturing and such, and we could be looking at creating 25-30,000 jobs over the next couple of years.”

According to the Texas State Data Center, as of Jan. 1, 2006, the population of the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area — which comprises Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties — was 379,920. Fillyaw also pointed out that number was much larger than the actual workforce.

“Your labor force is more like 200,000. So you’re creating 25 percent more jobs for your labor force,” he said. “Find me one area in the United States that’s creating 25 percent more jobs for its labor force. This doesn’t account for that.”

Fillyaw noted the one bright spot in the Forbes survey, the Golden Triangle’s ranking in the cost of doing business.

“When you look at the cost of doing business, we’re in the top 25 percent of all the metropolitan statistical areas in the nation for doing business. So if you are a company looking for a low-cost area to do business, Forbes tells you this is a great place to come,” he said. “Some businesses take a look at it, but I guarantee you the thing that’ll stand out to most of those businesses is the cost of doing business, because we have to do more with less now. And the cost of doing business actually bodes well for us.”

Fillyaw acknowledged the Golden Triangle’s lag in educational attainment; however, he said, there were reasons for that.

“When you look at our numbers, you look at the numbers of educational attainment in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the Austin MSA, or the Waco MSA, or Bryan-College Station, we’re not going to have the kind of numbers that they have, for a lot of reasons,” he said, referring to, respectively, the homes of the University of Texas, Baylor University and Texas A&M University.

“They are in a high-tech, large university system that is focused around that university system. We have a different focus,” he said. “We have a lot of vocational and skilled jobs that are available here, and we’re encouraging our youth to take a look at going into those vocational routes, as opposed to going off to college and trying to make an education.

“I know of people right now who are in this area, who have the college education, who are havng a tough time finding jobs. But yet, there are kids with high school diplomas who are in a position to make huge money,” he said.

Fillyaw also noted the Golden Triangle’s population base was small, and that there were big school districts in low-income areas.

“Typically, what you see in these areas is low educational attainment. We don’t have those large population numbers outside the city centers where you typically see the higher education that offsets those numbers,” he said.

Things were about to change, though, Fillyaw said — especially in Orange County.

“When this Inspire 12 program gets in full force, and they start handing out the scholarships and things, you’re going to see educational attainment change in this county dramatically,” he said.

The scholarships would be great for low -income students, Fillyaw said, because many of them do not have the funds for higher education and thus do not have the opportunity to get the higher education they need to further their status.

However, Fillyaw said, there is one major issue that needs to be resolved.

“We have got to teach our young people that drugs are not the way to go,” he said. “The jobs are here, and we can teach them the skills. We can give them the skill sets to take advantage of the jobs that are there, but if they get involved in drugs, if they get involved in criminal activity, they knock themselves out of those jobs.”

However, Fillyaw said, in all likelihood the Golden Triangle was not any worse than other places. He said the perception of the problem was more acute because of the inherent nature of the area’s dominant industries.

“In this area, with the chemical industry and the welding, being in possession of all your faculties at all times is required for these jobs,” he said. “The drug tests are mandatory, and people think they can get by with these tests, that it’s not going to be a problem for them — they’re wrong. They’re a liability to the companies they work for, and the companies cannot afford to take that risk.”

Fillyaw said that many who apply for the higher-paying jobs in Orange County could not get hired because they could not pass a drug test.

“We’ve got to find a way to curb that,” he said. “If we did that, we could see our unemployment rates go to some of the lowest in the country.”



Reach this reporter at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2616, or eonstott@orangeleader.com

        

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