Unemployment Rate Drops
Statement
President Obama announced this week, that November, 2014 was already the best year of job growth since 1999. Here in South Texas we are seeing very similar results. According to the Texas Workforce Commission statistics, in the McAllen, Edinburg, Mission MSA, the unemployment rate dropped from 10.3% in November of 2013 to 8.2% in November of 2014. Individually the cities of McAllen and Edinburg's unemployment rates dropped considerably since last year with McAllen dropping from 6.5% last year in November to 5.0% in November of 2014. Edinburg went from 6.8% in November, 2013 to 5.5% at the same time this year.
Our nation, our state and our region of Deep South Texas are all seeing a positive trend in the increase of employed residents. I firmly believe that education is the key to the success of lower unemployment rates. According to the Texas Education Agency, 93.5% of our students in Region One Education Service Center graduate from high school. This figure is significant because it is higher than the state of Texas' graduation rate of 93.4%. This is the result of a long term effort from the federal to local levels in providing a well-trained and skilled workforce to employers. Our workforce is preparing itself to meet the needs of high demand industries. Last July, President Obama signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) after the bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. The legislation, which reauthorizes the decades-old Workforce Investment Act, will help connect job training programs with the needs of employers, ensuring workers learn the most in-demand skills and to be prepared for the jobs of tomorrow. I have long supported these measures that promote career pathways and utilize sector strategies for delivering job training services. These same strategies have had successful outcomes in the Rio Grande Valley. We are not only seeing an increase in small business in our region, we are also witness to active efforts to increase international trade through our ports of entry.
Texas has always had a healthy number of undocumented workers throughout its history. We know that undocumented immigrants are spending their wages in our communities and that helps to boost our economy. There is no doubt in my mind that if we were to pass a Comprehensive Immigration Bill, we will see our economy strengthen at the local to federal levels. With President Obama's executive action in place, America's workforce will continue to expand. This action will also serve to encourage new businesses which creates more job opportunities.
If we had the votes to pass the Dream Act, we would immediately see an increase in the number of highly-skilled foreign born immigrants succeeding in careers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Undocumented students have the potential to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, scientists, mathematicians, engineers and even members of Congress. They can contribute to our nation's competitiveness in our global economy. All of this should be taken into consideration when it comes to the advantages we will see once our broken immigration system is finally fixed.
All of this means the creation of jobs is well underway across our nation and in the Rio Grande Valley. I will continue to work in Congress to help make more major strides so that we all will continue to progress and help to create more jobs in our region. I will also continue to help people receive quality job training and to improve their skills so they can compete in the 21st century global economy.
When I took office in January of 1997, the unemployment rate for Hidalgo County was 22%. I made it my goal to bring this number down to a single digit and we succeeded and within the first ten years, we brought the rate down below 6%. We saw once again how the unemployment rate shot up when our country went through one of the worst recessions in our history. However, after a lot of hard work, we are now at or below that once record unemployment rate. We have made a lot of progress and we will continue to work on this successful path for our future.
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