Employment in Detroit Michigan and New Orleans, Louisiana Essay Example

style="text-align: justify">Authorized by the bipartisan legislation in the autumn of 2005, the program is investing $2 billion in rising sectors that guarantee tremendous employment growth. Some of which include alternative energy, life sciences, homeland security, and advanced manufacturing. At the beginning of the implementation of the project, there were already 67 companies and projects that in turn created thousands of jobs in the state (Diversifying Michigan's Economy to Create Jobs, 2005).

State of Louisiana

With the growing poverty rate in the state, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco made programs on fighting poverty. One solution that her office considered is to empower adults to learn how to read because this will greatly help people to look for high-paying jobs. Another is to help families find a decent yet affordable housing (Governor Announces Solutions to Poverty Agenda, 2004). 3.

2 Reform Measures for City Governance Making changes for enhancement in order to get rid of abuse and injustices ("Reform,"), or simply reforms, are needed because these help improve the status quo.

In terms of the issue of employment, certain city policies need reforms because although the current policies already address the unemployment problem, still, there can be further improvements possible that are more efficient and more effective than the existing one. City of Detroit, Michigan The city of Detroit could consider alternative ways and means of solving the unemployment problem. Although conducting training services is a start, the city government should not fixate itself on that kind of solution.

This is because making training services is rather stagnant because it limits the workers on jobs that they learn in the said training.

It is evident

that the more human capital a worker has, the more chances he has in working in a wide range of companies. In addition, the worker would not be limited on the same nature of work. Having a wide range of knowledge would increase a worker’s chances of working in plenty of companies. City of New Orleans, Louisiana

Although the local government is performing a good job of matching the workers on what the market needs to the skills of its residents, either already acquired by the people or by training them, the problem with this solution is that it limits the residents of New Orleans to what others want. Particularly, the people in the area could not maximize their full potential on the activities that they have a comparative advantage on.

As a specific example, consider a person that knows more or is very interested in electronics. However, what the market needs is someone who is good in manufacturing.

With this, the person has two choices: either to stay unemployed or to train himself on the art of manufacturing that he does not want. More often than not, the worker would choose the latter and the said worker could not utilize the knowledge that he knows about electronics. In addition, another disadvantage of this policy, that why it needs reform, is that it is very costly to implement, either in monetary terms or not.

This is because the city government would have to use some of its funds to look for possible employers to its unemployed people or to train them.

Another cost would be the time and effort that the government

would exert, termed as haggling cost in economics. This enables its people to become well trained and equally competitive in the market. 3.

3 Major Issues Concerning City Governance As stated earlier, although unemployment is the single urban issue or problem, the solution differs from place to place, city to city. This is because there are different reasons why the people in a specific area are unemployed, thus there is a need for different solutions. This part of the paper tackles the different major issues concerning city governance.

City of Detroit, Michigan One of the issues in the way Detroit exercises its city governance is that it offers a broad assortment of workforce related activities.

With this, the training that the residents of the city would get would be too general. In economics, there would be higher chances of being hired, and a higher salary pay if the human capital of a person were specialized. The logic behind this economic thought is that it assuming all people could do the “general” job, only a few could perform a job that is somewhat specific.

With this, a person that specializes in something would eventually have a comparative advantage on that nature of work.

City of New Orleans, Louisiana On the other hand, the problem with the governance in this city concerning the unemployment problem is that they focus more on making their unemployed workers hired by other employers. What the city fails to do is that they forgot to put ample emphasis on entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship involves the compliance to take certain risks involved in starting and managing a business ("Entrepreneurship,").

The city should

take into consideration that funding certain businesses is also beneficial for it not only makes jobs, but it also makes the city increase it revenues through taxes, etc. 3.

4 Political Relationships between National and Local Policies The issue of employment is a universal problem. Therefore, in order for it to answer it properly, the policies of the city government should match to that of the national policies. Conflicting policies is not an option for it would just cause confusion to the people and would eventually drive off investors, among others.

National Policies The Employment and Training Administration, under the U. S.

Department of Labor, manages employment training and workforce dislocation programs under the federal government, giving away of federal grants to states for employment service programs that are available for everyone, and unemployment insurance benefits, among others. The aforementioned services are basically offered through state and city employment development systems (About ETA, 2004). National Policies vs. City Policies

Both the cities of Michigan and New Orleans adhere to the policies set and implemented by the national government, which is conducting job training programs, worker dislocation programs, and public employment service programs. However, what the two cities fail to implement is the national policy pertaining to implementation of an unemployment insurance benefits program. Although the cities are already helping their constituents to find a job, having insurance for the unemployed is very beneficial, especially to those who do not have a job yet or are still waiting to work.

3. 5 The Rise of Sunbelt Cities

Thousands of people migrate to the United States annually to look for a better life. Likewise,

millions of American people move to new locations due to the same reason. With this, some cities like Detroit and New Orleans are losing considerable numbers of their populations.

In turn, other cities are gaining these alleged domestic migrants at a quick rate. The cities that are receiving the said migrants are located in the sunbelt, a term used to describe cities in the South and West for their favorable weathers, thus gave rise to the term sunbelt cities (Frey, 2003). Alas, most growth in such cities has occurred in the suburban areas.

Sunbelt cities namely Phoenix, Atlanta, and Orlando, are a few of the most suburbanized and therefore decentralized cities in the country. Because the said suburbanization is most swift in the Sunbelt, where cities are encountering unprecedented growth, the suburbs of these cities are the neediest contenders for a project that would eventually bring forth regional definition and identity (Frey, 2003).

3. 6 Issues concerning Urban Expansion and Sprawl Urban Expansion This is defined as the expanding area of development for urban uses like that of housing ("Urban Expansion,").

Some of the issues connected with urban expansion include failure of controlling rural-urban migration flows, and the decreasing urban densities in all regions (Angel, Sheppard, & Civco, 2005). On the issue of rural-urban migration flows, due to lack of employment in the cities mentioned, some of its people resort to migrating in other places resulting to Sunbelt cities as discussed earlier. Failure to address the problem immediately will lad to the loss in significant number of skilled workers, and no one would be left in their own homeland, and the already developed

Sunbelt cities would only continue to flourish.