A constant theme for governor candidates in Mississippi is job creation. Gov. Tate Reeves is no exception. When he announced for re-election he touted, among other things, his success in growing jobs.
He highlighted the $2.5 billion Steel Dynamics expansion coming to the Golden Triangle. The announcement said the company would create 1,000 new jobs by 2029 with average pay over $90,000. Reeves got the Legislature to commit $247 million in state incentives for the plant – a hefty cost per job.
The Governor also said Mississippi employers added “nearly 22,000 jobs over the course of 2022” and projected an additional 44,000 jobs for 2023.
A critic of massive public investments to lure industry, Northside Sun owner and publisher Wyatt Emmerich asked, “If it’s necessary to bribe companies to Mississippi with huge tax breaks, why were 22,000 jobs created in 2022 when there were no company-specific megadeals?” He continued saying, “What’s luring the 44,000 jobs predicted in 2023 if only 1,000 of them will be created with massive state tax incentives?”
No doubt the Governor and folks at the Mississippi Development Authority would point out that numerous other deals – just not so mega – helped attract a number of other major projects.
“In 2020, we had 36 corporate investments adding 4,485 jobs,” MDA deputy executive director Laura Hipp told Y’all Politics in September. “In 2021, we had 40 corporate investments adding 4,149 jobs. In 2022, we have already had 17 corporate investments adding 1,522 jobs, and we look forward to announcing more economic development wins before the end of the year.”
The interesting aspect to this comes from the numbers. The Governor talked about adding 22,000 jobs and 44,000 jobs. MDA talked about attracting 4,485 jobs, 4,149 jobs, and 1,522 jobs.
The difference results from how our jobs get created. Some come from state investments, the ones MDA usually talks about. The others, most others, come without state investments. That gets to Emmerich’s point. Why does the state need to spend so much on so few jobs when more jobs get added without state investment?
One answer comes from studying the types of jobs that get created. More than half of the 20,000 or so jobs added in 2022 came from the leisure and hospitality and retail sectors. They are the sectors with the lowest average annual pay according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – leisure and hospitality jobs, the sector with the greatest growth, paid $20,079 and retail trade jobs $30,699.
Manufacturing jobs, the jobs governors like to claim credit for, accounted for slightly under 25% of the increase and paid $53,947.
It seems to take major incentive packages to attract companies with high wages like Nissan, Toyota, Continental Tire, Yokohama Tire, and Amazon to Mississippi.
Are they worth the investment? Governors tend to think so.
“Give thanks in all circumstances” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18.
Bill Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
