The Hickory Metro number was 15.4%, up from 14.9% in May and the Catawba County number is 15.5%, up from 15%. We are obviously back to where we were with the March numbers. We will soon see other dreadful numbers as college kids come home to find there are no jobs and no opportunities available.
Here is a quote from a lost soul that I read on the HDR website:
No, the problem is that there are to many people out there who don't want to have to go to work for 6.15 and hour because they can draw more on their unemployment check than they can if they go find a job. I have looked at the job search engines and there are some job out there for people with minimal skills, the problem is that no body wants to start over making 8 or 9 dollars an hour. I have heard people say why would I want to go work for that when I can make more sitting at home with my 3 kids and living of the government for a while. My husband has worked for 9.80 for 10 years and he is just thankful he has a job to go to everyday. More American's need to realize that they may have to start over and tighten their belt's. I have no sympathy for someone who will not take responsibility for themselves and their own choices.
That is the "It's better than nuthin" motto that I have been talking about. How does this person expect to pay for ever escalating costs like healthcare, fuel, taxes, food, clothing, retirement... That is the type of least common denominator attitude that has killed this city and this area. Do you really think that people would rather be on unemployment? -- Please.
One of my best friends was laid off from a job where he was making over $15 an hour. The sales had slowed, because what the company sells is directly effected by the housing market. He liked the job, so he has hoped that he will get hired back. He is good at the job. but others had more seniority. His unemployment benefits aren't going to last forever and I have seen the emotions that he is going through and I promise you he isn't lazy. He is an excellent worker and if/when I am able to start a business up, he would be one of the first people I would hire.
Our city officials think it's just great to turn this area into a restaurant and retail center. Well, the local City of Hickory officials have weaved such a tangled web in their dealings with developers, that the developers are taking business to the fringe areas of Hickory -- Granite Falls, Conover, Catawba. Remember that Wal-Mart that was going to be off of Kool-Park Road? Poof, it went to Conover with all of the tax revenue that would have come along with it. So Hickory's sales tax base is now getting split with other communities, because certain city officials would rather have no businesses, than to have what they call Big Box stores. Hickory's former stranglehold on the local retail sector is disappearing faster than a rabbit in David Copperfield's hat.
I personally have seen my lifestyle hurt by the Black Ice Management we have seen devour our employment capacity over the last 8 years. All of the people that once worked in manufacturing are now being pushed into the restaurant business sector, in what has become a game of survival. The successful restaurants in this area are now catering to budget meals, which means constant cost cutting measures, lower quality food, lower profitability, and lower wages for the staff. Owners of Fine Dining restaurants are hanging on by their fingernails and the Country Clubs in the area are going in the hole. Yep, sure sounds like a direction local leaders should be pushing us into (sarcasm).
The question is, are people going to continue to accept the area's status quo or are we going to say enough? There are things that we can do to turn our situation around, but is our city government worried about job creation or public relations?
Last week in the Hickory Daily Record, I read about Operation No Vacancy. I am all for this type of activity, but how many jobs will it create? Our city has been spending way too much time on these marketing tools in a time when job creation should be our focus. This report on Operation No Vacancy is another in a long list of our city's efforts to obfuscate what is Hickory's most defining issue -- JOBS.
Focusing on all of these awards and fluff should be monikered "Operation J.O.B.S." Whenever our city officials think about J.O.B.S., they aren't thinking about putting people to work, they are thinking about Justifying Our B.S.
It is time to shake up the structure around here. We have got to have people in city hall that will "eat, drink, and sleep" putting people back to work. Dabbling around the fringes isn't going to accomplish this. We have systemic problems and we need to change our mindset. Are we going to get there by maintaining the Status Quo? In the end, do these awards and certificates matter? Did that All-American City award produce what was promised by city officials?
The only award I want to see is 5% to 7% unemployment and positive economic growth. I know that is a tall order with our current national economic picture, but let's be honest, we can do better than we have been doing. We should have higher expectations. We are in the bottom 5% of employment numbers in the whole country. It took years of "No Control" management to get us where we are today. We have to change our mindset or we will continue to languish.
Right now we have negative momentum, when it comes to the economic opportunity of the average citizen in Hickory. No plaque, award, or certificate puts food on a citizen's table or money in their pocket. The only thing that does that is a JOB. As long as we have the same ole people, doing the same ole things, then we should expect the same ole results. Why not try the opposite? Maybe it's time to think about bringing some fresh faces, who will bring some fresh ideas into the picture, and then we might start seeing some positive momentum.
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