MADISON AUMENT: For 91.9 KVCR News, I’m Madison Aument. This is Economics IE.
The government shutdown has loomed large over many aspects of American life this month. Employment data is no exception.
Each month, I speak with Matt Mena from IEGO about the region's job numbers for the month before, but we don't have those numbers for September. So MENA delves into why and other ways IEGO is trying to gauge what's going on with the IE’s economy. September, no jobs numbers. Why not?
MATT MENA: So this is one of the side effects of a federal shutdown. So as we all have heard on TV, things like TSA, we have TSA agents that are working without pay. But the other side effect is that we don't have data. We have not been given a jobs report. I don't know if we're going to get one next month, either. And you know, we can get into why that affects all sorts of things.
MADISON AUMENT: Yeah, why? Why does that affect all sorts of things?
MATT MENA: You know, as we started to report, as you and I have had these conversations since this past year, folks have, you know, heard a lot of this information, sometimes for the first time, sometimes listeners have not really thought about jobs numbers or heard it on the news as a statewide jobs number, but not really seen an Inland Empire specific, specific data point. The reason why it is critical is because there's all sorts of other institutions that use this information. As we start to look at interest rates, they actually take — they pull that number straight from the jobs report to see how the economy is doing. Other folks, economists, it'll affect other investments as well. That interest rate, though, is an important piece, because our economy is really heavily affected by people investing in real estate.
MADISON AUMENT: Here, can you talk a little bit more about that investment in real estate?
MATT MENA: Yeah, when we're looking at these projects, it's not you buy the property and then tomorrow you start building, especially here in California. It's you buy it, and then you have to go to the city hall or the county government and start getting permits. So it really you're looking at a three-year investment just to put, let's say, a warehouse up so — or even a school. All those things will — they will affect us moving forward, it looks like we're not going to get October numbers either. This is, I think, now the second longest government shutdown in American history, and I think it's on its way to the longest.
MADISON AUMENT: Are you guys doing anything to try to fill in those gaps in that data?
MATT MENA: Yeah, we would like to start doing — and this is something that we have been like ongoing, doing this — surveying businesses and seeing how they're looking at hiring moving forward. We've done this for the Center of Excellence, which is how community colleges develop their technical training programs. Even if the jobs numbers aren't coming in, at least getting data in the hands of folks that are developing the future for our region and making sure that they are seeing what types of jobs are going to be available.
MADISON AUMENT: Without these federal jobs numbers, is there any way that you guys are able to gauge what's going on with the IE’s economy?
MATT MENA: So there are private companies that are collecting data. So ADP collects private sector data, and so we are looking at how we can get a little more accurate information on the Inland Empire. Of course, it's not going to be the public sector information, but we are looking at how we can get that information out.
MADISON AUMENT: Is there anything else you want to add?
MATT MENA: Yeah. So we have a Center of Excellence for cyber security here in the Inland Empire at Cal State San Bernardino. Data security is something that's huge for us in the region, and it's a huge driver for education. We are training students for the future of these sorts of jobs. When we think of cyber security, we probably think of someone in homeland security or that works for the military. But really, as you start to kind of drill down on what cybersecurity jobs are, we're looking at folks that are working on water districts. We're looking at folks that work in hospitals and even in manufacturing. If there's any manufacturing, when the government opens up and they have a DOD contract or a Department of Defense Contract, these manufacturers need to have trained professionals who can be certified. The Department of Defense or federal contracts do need folks that specialize in cyber security that are part of those contracts.
One of the things that we are doing is, in April, we are hosting what's called the Inland Empire’s Tough. We are partnering with both counties, school districts, all middle high school and community colleges to participate. It's a competition for cyber security. You know, part of that is training these professionals to move into from middle school to high school to community college, and then hopefully Cal State San Bernardino or UCR, and really making sure that there are jobs at the end of that.
MADISON AUMENT: That was MATT MENA with IEGO. Join us again next Monday for Economics IE. This segment is supported by the Novak family. For KVCR News, I'm Madison Aument.
