The Economy has Changed, We Must Prepare - Part 1

Base export businesses, such as manufacturing, assembly, or mining businesses, continue to be one of the most important elements to a local economy. They export product to other areas of the country and import cash back into our economy to pay employees and purchase local products and services. These types of businesses help form the foundation of Elizabethton’s local economy as well.

We are, however, seeing a shift in what these base export industries look like. While they were once large behemoths employing hundreds of people, today, they employ only 100 of the 500 employees they once did and often can locate in facilities a third of the size they once needed. Despite this, many are still increasing production.

This shift is best attributed to technology. We have one local industry who is down over 10 employees than they were this time last year. Why? Not because their production has slowed (as a matter of fact they have increase production) or they are looking at shutting down, but because they have just replaced two production lines of people with two machines. One former line now only requires 1 person and the other requires no additional persons. Many times, industries are hiring less people with little or no training for those who have mechanical or robotics training or who may have a Master’s degree in engineering.

Our local, state, national, and even world economy has shifted with the addition of technology and robotics to manufacturing. Even if these types of industries began to on-shore (come back to the United States) most of these businesses will hire only a fraction of the employees they did when the left.

Of all of the job openings at this very moment in East Tennessee, 80 percent of them require a high school diploma, 3 percent of them require some type of vocational or post-high school training, and 17 percent require a degree of some kind. In Carter County, approximately 20 percent of the population doesn’t have a high school diploma or equivalent and 38 percent have only a high school diploma. We must work to ensure that students today stay in school through high school at a minimum and those who do not have a high school diploma go on to receive their GED.

In Carter County, the salary difference between having a high school diploma and not having it is over $6,500 per year. Even in today’s world a High School diploma is still worth something. What could your family do with an additional $6,500 a year?

Next week, I'll talk about some of the programs out there to help ensure our workforce is able to meet the demands of this changing economy. Until then, let's talk about it!