More fundamental question should be.. What is a "State" In my view "State" is an entity which is funded by State's residents jointly to take care of their interests.. I guess, it is very old definition.. how ever we still forget that how important factor is a "job" created by companies producing goods and services which earn real net revenue for state instead of churning money within..
"State" needs to do everything possible to create such jobs.. go out of the way as their benefits are 100 times more than any state job.. Couple of millions of training is nothing if it gets state even few jobs in these production facilities..
In my view it is one of the best usage of "States" money.. even if it creates as low as a single job.. In my view, "States" should double or make it 10 or 100 times these kinds of funds.. these are the best usage of "States" money.. once you have jobs producing net revenue for your state, rest of the economic development will automatically follow....
feel free to let me know your views... Here is the complete news details from our local Mercury News..
Should states pay to train workers for companies?
Firms benefit when governments finance programs for jobs
By Motoko Rich
New York Times
KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — Some of Caterpillar’s newest factory workers are training inside a former carpet warehouse in the heart of tobacco country. In classrooms, they click through online tutorials and study blueprints emblazoned with the company’s logo. And on a mock factory floor, they learn to use wrenches, hoses and power tools that they will need to build axles for large mining trucks. The primary beneficiary is undoubtedly Caterpillar, a maker of industrial equipment with rising profits that has a new plant about 10 miles away in Winston-Salem. Yet North Carolina is picking up much of the cost. It is paying about $1 million to help 400 workers acquire these skills, and a community college has committed to develop a custom curriculum that Caterpillar has valued at about $4.3 million. Caterpillar is one of dozens of companies, many with growing profits and large cash reserves, that have come to expect such largess from states in return for creating jobs. The labor market is finally starting to show some signs of improvement, with the government reporting on Friday that employers created 200,000 jobs in December.
Although the sums spent on training are usually small compared with the tax breaks and other credits doled out by states, some critics question the tactic.
“The question is, why shouldn’t the company pay for this training?” asked Ross Eisenbrey, the vice president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “It’s for their benefit.”
Critics suggest the programs may not even be in the best interest of workers if the resulting jobs pay low wages or simply disappear after a few years, leaving employees with narrow skills that do not help them land new positions.
In North Carolina, for example, people are still smarting from the departure of a Dell factory that put nearly 1,000 people out of work just five years after the state spent close to $2 million on training.
“On the whole spectrum of things that are done to attract businesses, this is one of the best investments and highest return for the invested dollar that our state and many other states do,” said J. Keith Crisco, North Carolina’s secretary of commerce.
Caterpillar, which is investing $426 million in the new factory, is one of several companies supported by North Carolina, where the unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent and thousands of textile, furniture and other manufacturing workers have lost their jobs in recent years. The training support is part of a $51 million package of incentives from the state to lure Caterpillar to Winston-Salem.
According to the state, North Carolina spent about $9.4 million to train workers as part of projects that created nearly 4,500 jobs in the 12 months through June 30.
Business executives argue that government-subsidized training is a fair payoff given what the companies bring to the table.
“At the end of the day we’re creating more jobs for the state of North Carolina,” said Mark Pringle, director of operations at a Siemens gas and steam turbine plant in Charlotte that has received close to $1.2 million worth of training from the state for about 700 new workers.
Workers who have spent months, or even years, hunting for jobs view a training spot as a stroke of good fortune.
Dante Durant, a 42-yearold former Dell employee, had been searching for more than two years when he attended a Caterpillar job fair at Forsyth Technical Community College in June. He arrived at 9 a.m. and was number 1,808 in line. He was one of the first 13 people offered a job, and finished training in Kernersville in October.
North Carolina officials say the skills these workers learned in training and on the job are not wasted.
The training was “customized for company A, but are there applications to company B?” asked Maureen Little, associate vice president of customized training for the North Carolina Community College System. “We think the answer to that is yes. But it does not mean that they are not going to require additional training.”
TRAVIS DOVE/NEW YORK TIMES
Leon Spencer receives job training Dec. 8 at Caterpillar’s factory in Winston-Salem, N.C.
"State" needs to do everything possible to create such jobs.. go out of the way as their benefits are 100 times more than any state job.. Couple of millions of training is nothing if it gets state even few jobs in these production facilities..
In my view it is one of the best usage of "States" money.. even if it creates as low as a single job.. In my view, "States" should double or make it 10 or 100 times these kinds of funds.. these are the best usage of "States" money.. once you have jobs producing net revenue for your state, rest of the economic development will automatically follow....
feel free to let me know your views... Here is the complete news details from our local Mercury News..
Should states pay to train workers for companies?
Firms benefit when governments finance programs for jobs
By Motoko Rich
New York Times
KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — Some of Caterpillar’s newest factory workers are training inside a former carpet warehouse in the heart of tobacco country. In classrooms, they click through online tutorials and study blueprints emblazoned with the company’s logo. And on a mock factory floor, they learn to use wrenches, hoses and power tools that they will need to build axles for large mining trucks. The primary beneficiary is undoubtedly Caterpillar, a maker of industrial equipment with rising profits that has a new plant about 10 miles away in Winston-Salem. Yet North Carolina is picking up much of the cost. It is paying about $1 million to help 400 workers acquire these skills, and a community college has committed to develop a custom curriculum that Caterpillar has valued at about $4.3 million. Caterpillar is one of dozens of companies, many with growing profits and large cash reserves, that have come to expect such largess from states in return for creating jobs. The labor market is finally starting to show some signs of improvement, with the government reporting on Friday that employers created 200,000 jobs in December.
Although the sums spent on training are usually small compared with the tax breaks and other credits doled out by states, some critics question the tactic.
“The question is, why shouldn’t the company pay for this training?” asked Ross Eisenbrey, the vice president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “It’s for their benefit.”
Critics suggest the programs may not even be in the best interest of workers if the resulting jobs pay low wages or simply disappear after a few years, leaving employees with narrow skills that do not help them land new positions.
In North Carolina, for example, people are still smarting from the departure of a Dell factory that put nearly 1,000 people out of work just five years after the state spent close to $2 million on training.
“On the whole spectrum of things that are done to attract businesses, this is one of the best investments and highest return for the invested dollar that our state and many other states do,” said J. Keith Crisco, North Carolina’s secretary of commerce.
Caterpillar, which is investing $426 million in the new factory, is one of several companies supported by North Carolina, where the unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent and thousands of textile, furniture and other manufacturing workers have lost their jobs in recent years. The training support is part of a $51 million package of incentives from the state to lure Caterpillar to Winston-Salem.
According to the state, North Carolina spent about $9.4 million to train workers as part of projects that created nearly 4,500 jobs in the 12 months through June 30.
Business executives argue that government-subsidized training is a fair payoff given what the companies bring to the table.
“At the end of the day we’re creating more jobs for the state of North Carolina,” said Mark Pringle, director of operations at a Siemens gas and steam turbine plant in Charlotte that has received close to $1.2 million worth of training from the state for about 700 new workers.
Workers who have spent months, or even years, hunting for jobs view a training spot as a stroke of good fortune.
Dante Durant, a 42-yearold former Dell employee, had been searching for more than two years when he attended a Caterpillar job fair at Forsyth Technical Community College in June. He arrived at 9 a.m. and was number 1,808 in line. He was one of the first 13 people offered a job, and finished training in Kernersville in October.
North Carolina officials say the skills these workers learned in training and on the job are not wasted.
The training was “customized for company A, but are there applications to company B?” asked Maureen Little, associate vice president of customized training for the North Carolina Community College System. “We think the answer to that is yes. But it does not mean that they are not going to require additional training.”
TRAVIS DOVE/NEW YORK TIMES
Leon Spencer receives job training Dec. 8 at Caterpillar’s factory in Winston-Salem, N.C.
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