North Texas mayors say region must better prepare workers for jobs

The mayors from Tarrant County’s three largest cities, and from Dallas and Irving, pledged Thursday to find new ways to address workforce skills gaps in their communities and the region.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams, North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne gathered at a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Fort Worth Convention Center to discuss the findings of a JPMorganChase New Skills at Work report.

In May, the bank released its Dallas-Fort Worth report and committed $2 million to fund workforce training in Tarrant County. It is a part of the bank’s $250 million, five-year global workforce readiness initiative, the largest-ever private sector effort aimed at addressing the skills gap. In 2014, Chase gave Dallas County $5 million for workforce training.

“You can’t grow, or even maintain growth, if you don’t have a strong workforce,” Price told the group of about 400 business leaders. “It’s our job to involve our businesses.”

According to the 29-page report, DFW’s economy has 960,000 middle-skill jobs, which represents 29 percent of the region’s workforce. Middle-skill workers are those people with more than a high school diploma, but less than a bachelor’s degree.

The local economy is projected to generate 42,000 middle-skill job openings annually through 2018, the report said.

The mayors agreed that some initiatives need to focus on schools and getting business more involved in education. And they agreed it was a part of their roles as mayors to be involved in educational efforts.

“The Dallas-Fort Worth area has been driven by business people. We know how to do business,” Rawlings said. “But we’re not doing a good job providing the workforce. It may be the most critical issue the state of Texas is facing.”

Williams said encouraging elementary-age students to select a career path is a start, even if they do change their mind.

“This forward thinking makes a difference,” Williams said. But he told the fellow mayors, “It starts with us. We’re charged with creating jobs.”

Van Duyne said the cities and the region suffer economic development loss when businesses say they don’t want to move to North Texas because of the schools.

“We compete, but we also realize to have a strong region we have to work together,” Van Duyne said, citing the relocation of Toyota’s U.S. headquarters to Plano from California. “Who’s not benefiting from that?” she asked.

“We can’t be successful without each other,” Trevino said.

This story was originally published July 16, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "North Texas mayors say region must better prepare workers for jobs."