Are jobs really that hard to find in El Paso?

by Joe Olvera ©, 2013

According to University Medical Center CEO Jim Valenti, the hospital is doing everything it can to create new jobs. What with the new Children’s Hospital bringing in droves of new doctors and medical staff, pediatric specialists and other people who are dedicated to making El Paso a thriving source for caring for children’s health care needs, are finding jobs in the Sun City. But, one wonders. Isn’t it a Catch-22 situation in which more jobs are being created, yes, but, at the expense of increasing taxes and making El Pasoans pay even more for those jobs that are created?

To look at the Internet, El Paso must be booming with new jobs. Just look at all the different sites that claim to have the perfect job for you. Monster has beaucoup job openings, as does Craigs list, the Texas Workforce Solutions, Wic, and others. If that’s the case, however, then why does the city have a 9.1 unemployment rate, a rate that keeps steadily climbing. For awhile, there, El Paso went as low as having 8.7 percent of people looking for jobs. But, alas, these were seasonal jobs and as soon as the Christmas season was over, so were those jobs.

El Paso trails the State of Texas, which lords it over the city with a mere 7.1 percent unemployment rate. While El Paso has a high unemployment rate, it’s not higher than McAllen’s 11 percent, which is the highest in the state. To El Paso’s shame, the city of Midland hovers over a 3.2 percent rate. However, El Paso has gone down from January, when it recorded a rate of 9.5, down to the present 9.1. Since November, different sources say that they have added 200,000 new jobs. But, one must wonder, where are those jobs.

One person who didn’t want to be named, said she thinks that people are not really looking for work, but only pretending to. “People are getting food stamps, free rent in some cases, free medical care through Medicaid, free this, free that,” said the source. “So, why should these people look for work? They don’t need to work because the government will provide for them. Me, I’ve been searching for a job so that I can get off the public dole. But, no matter how hard I look, or how many applications, I submit, I haven’t had any luck. Maybe I should just relax and enjoy being cared for by my government.”

El Paso, which once had a thriving clothing manufacturing industry, such as Farah, Mann Mfg., and others; El Paso which once had a thriving copper refining industry, and El Paso which once had other thriving industries and businesses, must now rely on small businesses to pick up the slack. Even Fort Bliss, which offered a promising future, now faces a doubtful future. Because of sequestration, the Army base now faces a very real problem in having to furlough thousands of its civilian employees. In essence, they would earn less pay, which means that businesses would suffer from that loss of income. Despite the city’s high unemployment rate, El Paso continues to thrive. A recent bond election will soon provide new amenities to keep the populace entertained, and the hope is always there that through efforts by the University Medical Center, the Texas Tech Medical School, and other El Paso institutions, the city will continue to grow and to prosper. Eventually, the unemployment rate will come crashing down in a way that should provide jobs for them that wants them.