Honest day's work

 “A job is the best social service program”, an election year talker oversimplifying a complex set of economic conditions, can be true when multiple factors align to make a connection between a job seeker and an employer. Finding out about job opportunities used to rely on word-of-mouth from someone in your orbit or at the unemployment office. Not knowing how to do the job was not the barrier as the employer took care of training. That old system helped build the middle class.

It’s not that simple today because of global competition, advances in manufacturing techniques, and other cost drivers finding a job is hard. Being qualified to keep the job is harder. The total economic impact to our community from missing this connection can be staggering. Luckily, we know this need and have developed systems and partnerships to connect people to family transformational employment. But we have work yet to do.

I have first-hand experience on the impacts a good job has on a family. My dad bounced around jobs for most of the 1980s. We relied on my mom’s stable income for most of that decade. I was a kid so I really didn’t really see it at the time but looking back I understand just how much our fortunes shifted when he landed a job on the line at the Ford plant in St. Paul.

He was one of those who found out about it from the unemployment office, what we know call CareerForce Centers (say "hi" to Leona Martin when you stop by the center in Minneapolis) It was competitive to get a job with Ford and so he had to wait in line, a few places ahead due to his veteran status, for the opportunity. Once he received the call to work, he had start working only weekends overnight, then moving to full time nights, after which finding a spot on days, and finishing in a union rep role helping Ford build the trucks more efficiently.

By that last post he was able to use his expertise gained doing essentially every position on the line to find a better way to get the job done. My dad has a High School diploma and some college, while he’s super smart he really didn’t need to have any advanced training or an understanding of how to build a truck. Once he was in, Ford and the UAW trained him. The job solidified our family’s financial footing and he built Rangers for almost 25 years until the plant shut down in 2011.

The days of showing up to the factory without skill expecting a full career are gone. Jobs at all levels of the economy require training, starting with social-emotional skills coupled with skills on a continuum from technical acumen at a trade school all the way through a college PhD experience. Employers are looking for their workers to come to the interview with a strong base of knowledge. Consequential impacts in communities occur when employers don’t find qualified candidate creating a public interest to be the match maker.

In Minneapolis, we aim our efforts on the elimination of disparities along racialized lines because of clear gaps in wealth accumulation, employment, educational attainment, and home ownership rates. If we advance the economic status of say a Black family in the city, we will not only assist in that situation, but we will also improve the city’s overall economic health by pulling more people out of poverty. Our CPED team directly invests into people’s skill development through our employment and training strategies aimed to decrease disparities which in turn raise wealth across the board.

The numbers show poverty is not simply a black-white issue in Minneapolis or for that matter the entire state of Minnesota. My colleague Mark Brinda shared current data on poverty and employment. The data show the about 1-out-of-3 Black people are in poverty compared to 1-out-of-10 white people in Minneapolis, a stark contrast. The city is about 60+ percent white, so by number total population of white people in poverty is slight less than black people in poverty. Expanding to the full state, the percentage gaps are closely similar however in aggregate numbers there are more the three times more white people in poverty than Black families. Raising wage level for people in poverty adds billions of dollars on increased economic activity in Minnesota.

The poverty level in the contiguous 48-states is around $15/hour (~$31,000) for a family of four. Living at the poverty level is lower than the income caps to qualify for the City’s most deeply affordable housing units, which would allow the family to earn up-to about $18/hour. At a presentation last month, Mark and the City’s Workforce Development Director Debra Bahr-Helgen reported outcomes from our various programs including wage gains of almost $5/hour from participants in our WIOA and Pathways program.

Think about it, if we were to achieve that level of wage gain for every person in Minneapolis in poverty it would translate to $680 million increased income annually. If we gained that across Minnesota it would put $5 billion into people’s pockets. That amount of economic activity would be transformational.

So what, so how do we do it? Together. Back to my dad. He had a limited skill base to build trucks when he walked in for his first day at the Twin Cities Assembly Plant. Ford and the UAW molded this base into an expertise. Not all employers have the scale of Ford to take on training alone. The 16 workforce development area boards across the state, including the one serving Minneapolis have local industry leaders working with city and county staff to develop tailored programs to meet any localized skill needs. 

These boards build larger partnerships within industries to create career pathways programs connected to skill development. Local schools and community-based service providers step up in curriculum development to educate and support. Learning is a lifelong pursuit  We expand this reach with new ideas, like an apprenticeship outreach program or funding for a Rise Up Center, to advance connections with our local unions to support workers. And we keep count, learn for the data, and seek more participants and better outcome.

I know the impact first-hand what a job with a living wage, health care, pension, vacation, and overtime has on a family. We know what could happen if we share this experience with more and more people. We continue through partnership to grow this impact across the city until we don’t need to it anymore. Happy Labor Day!