RSSWe're No. 1
We have the best employment prospects in the country, and it’s no surprise in light of our agriculture-based economyYakima Herald-Republic
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Please take note, all of you out there in the Silicon Valley, in the Big Apple, along the Strip in Las Vegas and on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. Yakima Valley is No. 1, and you're not.
A recent survey by Manpower Inc., a Milwaukee-based firm that provides employee recruitment and consulting services, has officially declared the Yakima metropolitan area the best prospect in the nation for employment in the second quarter. The Yakima Valley's closest competition? Our neighbors to the south in the Tri-Cities.
The survey was no light undertaking. It covered 200 metropolitan statistical areas across the country and measured 31,800 companies to see if they were adding employees or laying them off. The projected hiring rate dipped to its lowest mark ever since the surveying began in 1962.
But here in the Yakima Valley, the employment picture is much brighter.
The reason for this has to do with agriculture and a record apple crop that local fruit-packing companies, which pump out a weekly payroll of $10 million, are now trying to market.
Too often, the Yakima Valley is dismissed as just a farming community by those with urban ZIP codes. They have little appreciation for the bounty that this area produces.
The statistics bear witness. According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, Yakima County in 2007 was 12th in the nation for total value of ag products sold ($1.2 billion) and was No. 1 in the nation with respect to acreage for apples (54,676).
It was also tops in the state for sales of livestock and poultry, milk and dairy products, and sheep and goat products.
While technology may be the economic driver of California's Silicon Valley, agriculture has been ours and will be for years to come. As we have seen in past recessions, agriculture has kept the Yakima Valley's economy on a relatively even keel, without huge rises or precipitous drops.
That's why it was reassuring to see the county at the top of the heap in a national survey. Too often, we are near the bottom.
So when spring arrives -- and it will, we promise -- and fruit trees blossom, pause for a moment to take in the scenery. This is one of the reasons why we are No. 1. Enjoy nature's bounty. Our nation certainly does.
* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Barbara Serrano, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.
Maybe the reason is because we have so many people here who will work for relative half-wages. Maybe that is because we really don't have much else to choose from. Maybe it is because our children saw little opportunity here for a real living and went elsewhere, where there are more options to make a better income than farm labor, retail and call centers. Maybe it is because our "City Fathers" have frozen out industry for generations in favor of low-paying agricultural related jobs. We have created a vacuum in the job market here in the middle. You either work for very little, hence our magnet for the huge influx of immigrants, (legal and illegal) or you are retired.
Report Violationyeah, exactly! Watch the "We are #1" cheerleaders put away their pom poms when you filter out jobs that pay less than $30k per year.
Report ViolationRarely have I seen such dedication, in the face of overwhelming odds, to pessimism about Yakima and the detritus which comprises our population. I congratulate you both.
It's unfortunate that the facts don't actually support it.
"The mix of U.S. industries within the survey follows the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Supersectors and is structured to be representative of the U.S. economy." Link: http://manpower-employmentreports.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=270
You're right, though. The delightful tension one would enjoy in a six-figure job that has a 1:4 chance of disappearing *far* surpasses the $40,000 our median Yakimite receives, year after dreary year.
There seems to be plenty of good jobs in the newspaper compared to many others I've browsed...Quite a bit in Yakima in the way of a medical profession, not just agriculture.
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