Bay City Tribune

Although Texas remains significantly lower than the national unemployment average, the 8.2 percent jobless rate in September was a slight increase from the month before at 8 percent.

Despite the rise from August to September, Texas continues to trend well below the U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 9.8 percent.

Tom Pauken, Texas Workforce Commission chairman, said Matagorda County jobless rate tops the region, state and nation.

"In Matagorda County, you've got a higher level than the region and the state," he said.

"In September, Matagorda County saw the unemployment rate reach 11.2 percent and that compares with 8.5 percent in the Gulf Coast region and 8.2 percent statewide," he said.

Pauken said one of the contributing factors to such a high jobless rate is that the petrochemical industry has been very hard hit by the national economic recession.

"The proposed cap and trade legislation would have adverse effects on jobs in the Gulf Coast so companies aren't hiring right now," he said.

"They are keeping a wait-and-see attitude."

Pauken said the Texas Workforce Commission is working to provide aid to the local area to help build a skilled labor force.

Four petrochemical manufacturing companies have partnered with Brazosport College to provide training for 197 new or upgraded jobs using two Skills Development Fund grants totaling $956,234 from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).

The 94 upgraded jobs are included in the $812,456 grant with a petrochemical consortium comprised of Huntsman EA Holdings LLC, BASF Corp. and Dow Chemical Company.

Upon completion of training, precision instrument and equipment repairers will earn an average hourly wage of $27.29.

The 103 new and upgraded jobs in the $143,778 grant with ConocoPhillips Company are operators and trade workers. Upon completion of training, workers will earn an average hourly wage of $26.44.

"TWC makes these grants available each year, helping hundreds of Texas employers and workers succeed," said Pauken. "We take pride in the fact that we can continue to provide businesses a ready and skilled workforce."

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2008, Skills Development Fund grants created or upgraded 19,689 jobs, which paid an average hourly wage of $24.29. These grants assisted 148 Texas employers with their customized training needs.

The Legislature appropriated $50 million to the Skills Development Fund for the 2008-09 biennium.

Pauken said creating avenues for workers to improve their job skills will only be beneficial for them if there are jobs to have.

"You have an aging workforce and I think a lot of the older workers who have retired by now but that was the case before the serious economic recession," he said.

"Now many of them lost so much in the recession, they have to continue working longer than they would have."

Pauken said skilled and educated or not the job market is tough right now.

"It's really tough for young people coming out of college," he said.

"I was just visiting with a young man who had just gotten his mechanical engineering degree and had done well but it was a tough job market even for him."