Community leaders meet for a conversation on income, employment and education
Conversations ignite change. Understanding the power of dialogue, Greenville Forward focuses on creating conversations, through programs like the monthly Momentum series. The series, which is open to the public, is an intimate community conversation where a local visionary facilitates a moderated dialogue on topics ranging from social services to youth engagement.
Inspired by a recent study on national income mobility conducted by the Equality of Opportunity Project and featured in the New York Times, the discussion point for August was “Climbing the Income Ladder,” a conversation on Greenville’s economy and the opportunities for employment.
1. The Income Gap
Greenville County seems to be doing better than most of the country on unemployment rates, but there’s a clear need to also provide a living wage and skills to the labor market.
“In 2011 there were about 2,000 jobs open in a one-month period. About 40 percent of those jobs required that you have an associates degree or better. The vast majority of those jobs did not necessarily require an education, but when you look at the income distribution if you have less than a high school diploma, you’re making about $12.60 per hour, based on the available jobs. If you have a high school diploma you’re making another $6, so you’re making about $18 per hour; if you have an associates degree or better you’re roughly making $26 an hour. So you can look at the heavy income disparity.” – Curtis Askew, president of DataNgine Consulting LLC
2. Resources Needed for Employment
“Transportation is a big problem for a lot of my constituents. We have the idea in Greenville that we don’t need that much transportation. We drive our cars. And quite often a lot of these people, they can get to a job in an outlying area, but there’s no transportation to get them back home.” – Xanthene Norris, Greenville County councilwoman
3. Challenges for Academic Institutions
The economic downturn caused people to return to school to increase their education and potential for employment. Unemployment also created new challenges for Greenville’s colleges and universities.
“If you’re out of work, your family is suffering and there’s the possibility of losing your home. Academic work requires a lot of concentration and a lot of effort. Now you’ve got somebody who hasn’t been in school for a while, trying to be retooled, with all those extra pressures. So as instructors and as an institution you become more than just a teaching facility.” – Lenna Young, dean of business and public service, Greenville Technical College
4. Matching Skills with Jobs
“I’m at the table recruiting businesses to come to Greenville County. I tell them we have a great workforce that has a great work ethic. Many of the jobs I recruit for are CNC operators, welders, the little bit higher-skill jobs. There is a huge gap there. I cannot recruit enough people for these jobs. There is a training issue there.” – Johanna Gunter, area director, ReadySC
5. Greenville’s Textile Heritage
“Our textile heritage is a great thing to hang our banner from a historical standpoint, but it also does a bit of a disservice. There’s a huge misconception about what a CNC machinist does, there’s a huge misconception about what it is going into manufacturing, and we’re not teaching that at a lower grade level so when students come out they have the basic knowledge of what that takes. It’s not simply standing on a line and watching things go through. It’s a highly mathematical oriented job.” – Brock Koonce, business and community relations manager, Brown Mackie College
6. Next Steps
“I think guidance counselors need to be focused on too, especially elementary and middle school. They are so overworked. And they don’t know what most of the jobs entail, especially the manufacturing jobs. If you don’t get them out to Bosch or if you don’t get them to BMW or some place where you can see what high-tech manufacturing looks like, they think back to the mills. They need to be educated so that they can share with children. “ – Linda Gallicchio, associate director, Clemson University Rutland Institute for Ethics
The next Momentum will be at noon on September 5 at the Greenville Chamber. Register online at greenvilleforward.com.
