FedEx Nighttime Hub Will
Bring Lots of JOBS!
Oh, Really?
What Jobs?
It’s a Bogus Argument!
Here are some facts to think
about:
1
1992-97: Private
sector high tech job growth in Triad = 56% (higher than in Raleigh and
Charlotte) .
Source: Brookings Institution, July, 2000, p. 7. A report prepared for the Z. Smith
Reynolds Foundation. (See FIG. 1)
Fig 1
1970-96: Triad (without a hub!)
had 75.6% employment growth. Memphis and Indianapolis (with a hub for 27
and 12 years, respectively) had 76.8% and 64.8% employment growth,
respectively .
Source: DEIS (FAA), 2000, Appendix E, p. 3-3. (See FIG. 2)
Fig 2
Despite the fact that the
Indianapolis hub has been open for 12 years, the DEIS reports that "In
Indianapolis, it would appear that cargo shipment capacity has not yet emerged as
an important location factor in attracting new industry to this area."
Source: DEIS, Appendix E, Page 4-15.
- 1978-97
: Triad had 49.9% employment growth
(national average = 45.5% for comparable regions) .
Source: MDC, Inc., Chapel Hill, as reported in News & Record, Section B, p.1, Sept. 4,
2000.
1990-97: Employment growth in Triad outpaced (!)
population growth (outpaced it more than in comparable metro areas and was the same as
national average).
Source: Pace of Economic Growth Study by UNC-G, as reported in News & Record,
Outlook 2000, Part 3, p.3, Jan. 31, 1999.
- By 2020, the DEIS projects a job growth due to the hub of 16,192
in the six major counties within a 30 mile radius around PTIA, where the vast majority of
the job growth is expected to occur (directly and indirectly related to the hub's
presence). That is an average of 953 jobs per year added during the first 17
years of the hub.
Source: DEIS (FAA), Vol. 1, Table 5.4.3-6, 2000. In 1998, High Point alone
created 1,000 jobs ! Source: High Point Economic Corporation, 1998 Annual
Report.
- Forward Guilford lists 3,330 new jobs and 2,500 jobs lost for 1999 in
Guilford county. That is a net gain of 830 jobs or, if projected over the first 17
years of the hub’s operation, a net (!) 14,110 jobs in Guilford county alone
.
Source: Forward Guilford, as reported by Norman G. Samet in News & Record, Section H,
p. 6, September 3, 2000. This compares to the hub’s projected 16,192 gross
(!) gain of jobs for the entire six-county region.
From 2004-2020, the 12-County Piedmont
Triad Region is expected to grow by a total of 171,665 new jobs WITHOUT the hub.
Source: DEIS (FAA), Appendix E, Table 4.2, 2000.
The total number of projected hub-related jobs of 17,510 constitutes only 1.7% of
all the jobs expected to exist in the 12-County Piedmont Triad Region by 2020.
Source: DEIS, Appendix E, Table 4.19, 2000. (See FIG. 3)
Fig 3
In summary, there
will almost be the same or likely more and better (!) jobs in the Triad over the coming
10-20 years without the hub!!!
This does NOT take into account findings by the Brookings
Institution, other think tanks, and numerous regions across the USA that a clean
environment, quality of life, good schools, a well-educated workforce, and a well
developed infrastructure attract good businesses and good jobs.
It also does NOT consider the thousands of jobs that could be created with
the hundreds of millions of tax and other incentives, thrown at FedEx by our federal,
state, county, and city officials.
In short, a "manufacturing-transportation-distribution cluster with FedEx as its
lead anchor" (Source: Regional Technology Strategies, Inc., 1999), and the
resulting traffic congestion, sprawl, environmental destruction, health hazards, and boom
and bust economy, will ruin the Triad. It will turn it into the "armpit of
North Carolina."
(Compiled by Citizen Action
Committee, September, 2000).
FOR
INFO CALL: (336) 869-9143.
WE MUST DO BETTER!!!