Many evacuees could benefit from Tennessee’s economy
NASHVILLE — With one of the more robust economies in the Southeast, Tennessee looks attractive to the thousands of jobless Hurricane Katrina evacuees across the state plagued with uncertain futures.
Many say they want to begin their new lives here and have already started looking for jobs, according to state labor officials, who have been contacted by some 500 evacuees so far looking for jobs in Tennessee.
“We’re considering staying here permanently,” said Vicki Campo, who along with her fiance arrived at a Nashville shelter Tuesday night from one of the hardest hit suburbs in New Orleans. Campo, who began looking for a home Wednesday, said she expects to stay in Middle Tennessee at least three to six months.
On Monday, she’s setting out to find a job in the restaurant industry or as a convenience store manager — the type of job she had in Louisiana.
“Everyone here has treated us wonderfully,” Campo said. “People are friendlier and things are more organized. There’s nothing for us back home. It’s destroyed. The mold is growing over everything.”
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for the month of July was 5.5 percent, lower than those of Louisiana and Mississippi. Tennessee also leads many Southeastern states in per capita personal income, although job creation has been particularly sluggish within the last several years, economists say.
“Tennessee is a state with a low unemployment rate compared to other states in the region,” said Peter Rousseau, Vanderbilt University economics professor. “Evacuees would be in good position to find jobs because there’s a lot of slack in the market here. Nashville is one of the best-kept secrets in the country in terms of places to live and work. You wouldn’t find a big climate difference here (for evacuees). You’re in a place that doesn’t carry an income tax and which pays reasonable wages by regional standards.”
Mark Chandler, director of Field Operations for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said there are currently about 6,800 job orders that have been placed with the labor department by employers across the state.
The department has about 80 career centers throughout Tennessee where evacuees can go to look for jobs, Chandler said. And job fairs are also being planned at some evacuee shelters in Tennessee, which currently has about 15,500 evacuees from Gulf Coast-striken states.
“For some of them, they may actually find a job that’s better than what they had,” Chandler said. “For some it may be a different kind of job, a different occupation or career. Some have indicated now they just need an income.”
Several companies across Tennessee have also contacted the state offering a broad range of jobs to evacuees — from construction to truck driving to service industry positions.
Executives and professionals from Gulf Coast states are also trying to regain their footing in Tennessee, officials say.
Allan Ramsaur, executive director of Tennessee Bar Association, said about 15 to 20 lawyers have contacted his office asking about requirements to practice law in Tennessee. About a dozen people have called looking for jobs, he said.
“Setting up or re-establishing (their) law practice is not a high priority right now,” Ramsaur said. “But people are beginning to move in that direction.”