News
S.C. Chamber wants state ‘work force czar,' more effort to improve schools, port
January 6, 2010
By David Dykes
Business writer
A unified work force development strategy — including a proposed Cabinet-level agency to coordinate the effort — and a viable port operation are two critical economic development tools for South Carolina to bring more jobs to the state, business leaders said Tuesday.
More than $800 million annually for work force development and training flows into several South Carolina agencies, yet the result is fragmentation of services that makes it difficult for job seekers and employers to get the coordinated help they need, the business leaders said.
They believe that to better align the state's work force strategy that a single Cabinet agency with a “work force czar” should be created to coordinate efforts involving unemployment insurance, job placement, job training and temporary assistance for needy families.
They said other states with a unified strategy are helping more people more quickly and cost effectively than South Carolina — at a time when the state's unemployment rate has risen to double-digit levels. South Carolina's jobless figure was 12.3 percent in November, the latest available number.
In a meeting with editors and reporters from The Greenville News , officials from the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce said, however, their goals for the new legislative year aren't limited to work force development.
“There's also the issue of education in our state to prepare the work force of the future,” said Dick Wilkerson, chairman and president of Greenville-based Michelin North America.
Chamber officials said there has been discussion about re-directing some state lottery money to benefit education from kindergarten through the 12th grade, but no specific plan has emerged.
The state's port, Wilkerson said, is a “major, major engine” for economic development and a critical underpinning to South Carolina's business health.
The port's position as a deep-draft operation gives it a competitive advantage with shippers who use larger vessels and will go through an expanded Panama Canal, Wilkerson said. Michelin is a major user of the port
With supplies from Asia having to go to the West Coast and then be transported across the U.S., it becomes “much more economical to ship directly from Asia to the East Coast, and after you cross the Panama Canal, one of the first places to stop with a deep-draft port is Charleston,” he said.
“We need to really support it,” Wilkerson said.
