With university, college and high school classes beginning later this month, this is probably as good a time as any for many students to begin thinking about career choices. Not just your run-of-the-mill career choices, but ones that offer long-term potential.
Educators tell us we may be premature because many higher education students will change their major three times during their college years. They suggested we look for the jobs first and then the subject matter. That sounded reasonable, so we decided to try that approach.
For June, the unemployment rate was down or stayed the same in Arkansas’ metropolitan areas. The Little Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes North Little Rock and Conway, had a 6.6 percent jobless rate for June, down from 6.7 in May and 7.5 in June 2011. The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers MSA saw its jobless rate drop to 5.6 percent from 6.7 a year ago. Fort Smith’s 7.7 June rate is the same as May, but down from 8.8 percent a year ago; Hot Springs, at 7.6 percent, was down from 7.8 in May and 8.6 a year ago; Jonesboro’s 7 percent rate stayed the same as May but fell from 8.2 percent last year; and Pine Bluff’s 9.2 percent rate was the same as a month ago but down from 10.9 percent in June 2011. Economists say employment in Northwest Arkansas is at an all-time high, surpassing the high water mark set before the recession.
That translated into 211,100 jobs in June.
It also means strong growth across many economic sectors in the Northwest corner of Arkansas.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The rest of the state, and even most of the country is lagging behind. The area’s job growth is strong in the leisure and hospitality sectors, in addition to health services. A job announcement Monday at Conway caught our eye. PrivacyStar is expanding its corporate headquarters and adding 121 jobs in the city. What really got our attention was the jobs will have average hourly wages of $38, or about $79,000 a year.
That beats the wages working the drive-through window and flipping hamburgers. PrivacyStar is in the growing mobile apps business. “The need for talented and motivated employees in the mobile technology world has never been greater and will only continue to grow as the industry rapidly expands worldwide,” said Charles Morgan, company founder. The company develops apps for call and text blocking, caller ID and other privacy options for smart phones, with more than one million registered users. Morgan is optimistic the company can serve an international market from its new location. There are a lot of smart people in Arkansas, Morgan acknowledged. “I think we demonstrated that with our previous successes.” PrivacyStar is not interested in indolent workers. Building relationships with in-state universities and colleges will provide the company with mobile-technology application developers it needs to grow. They are growing their own because “there aren’t many software developers looking for work,” Morgan acknowledged.
Future success will depend on finding people with the “talents and skill sets” the company needs. Gov. Mike Beebe said the new jobs are part of a movement toward more educated jobs and economic development in Arkansas.
He has been preaching the science, technology, math and engineering message for several years. “We have something going in our state that all of you should be proud of,” he said.
He has sold us on his jobs message.