September 24, 2009
Building a Door of Opportunity to Future Job Growth
"If opportunity doesn’t knock," the late great American comedian
Milton Berle once said, "then build a door." Creating job growth
incentives and a business-friendly private sector environment continues
to be a major priority for me and my council colleagues. I brought forth
an initiative to organize the first annual Anaheim/OC Job Fair and
Expo this year, and by doing so, we built a door of opportunity to
future job growth.
Our inaugural Anaheim/OC Job Fair and Expo was a remarkable
partnership event with community and business leaders, all of whom can
take pride in the fact that 7,500 job seekers and 102 employers made
positive job growth connections. Our efforts led to a substantial
accomplishment. By the end of the day, more than 1,000 potential
employees were interviewed, and of that group, more than 400, or 34%,
have now been hired for meaningful jobs in office and administrative
support, production, military, healthcare, management, sales and sales
related work, engineering and aerospace, retail and food service,
protection services, as well as in business and financial operations.
We’re not saying by any stretch of the imagination that we have found
the magic bullet to remedy what ails our current unemployment rate.
However, the fact that 102 employers hired 400 new employees
demonstrates how we can optimistically facilitate an economic turnaround
in job growth to combat unprecedented unemployment rates in our region.
In these tough economic times, we must keep building doors of
opportunity for economic recovery in our region through creative job
growth incentives that will relax or eliminate burdensome business
regulations and lower taxes. In moving forward with such incentives, we
will be producing a positive overall economic stimulus in the region.
By way of example, the Anaheim City Council created its own economic
stimulus plan as an incentive for continued development of residential
projects given current market conditions. Under that plan, payment of
development impact fees that the city would normally charge at the time
permits are pulled was deferred to the time of certificate of occupancy
issuance. As explained recently by a residential developer, not having
to pay $1 million in total fees up-front led to the building of
additional units this year resulting in 70 additional full-time jobs
from all the different trades that it takes to build them. This also
stimulates the lumber, steel, concrete, roofing, landscaping, furniture
industries… on and on – leading to significant job growth overall.
To encourage an even wider range of construction activities, we extended
our economic stimulus incentive plan to commercial development in
Anaheim . Our overall goal is to help accelerate construction activity
through innovative decision making and to facilitate the upgrading of
older, outdated commercial and industrial sites.
Other positive signs are cropping-up in the region. Although monthly new
business-name filings in Orange County are down 20% from what they were
this time last year, an 80 % filing rate also means that many of our
local entrepreneurs are willing to set-up new ventures in spite of the
economy. Similarly, monthly small-business loan volume in the
SBA-guaranteed program has crept back up to $38.6 million in August.
Some employment gains are already looming on the horizon. And, in the
wake of the economic downturn, while many major retailers faltered,
others have rebounded. Also, as stated in the Institute for Economic
and Environmental Studies (IEES), California State University Fullerton,
August 2009 Report: "The Southern California Leading Economic Indicator
increased by 0.92% in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the first
quarter of 2008. This increase suggests an increase in economic activity
in the Southern California region in the next three to six months."
So, slowly, but surely, the job market is gaining some strength. It
still needs help. Through innovative, visionary action and incentives –
we can make a difference by continuing to build doors of opportunity to
future job growth.
