By 2030, 85 percent of the jobs in the United States do not exist today, the head of a Gulf Coast economic development group told business leaders Thursday at the 2020 Economic Outlook Forum at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Thad Cochran Center.
Ashley Edwards, president and CEO of the Gulf Coast Business Council, was one of three featured speakers at the Economic Forum, which was sponsored by The First, A National Banking Association. Other speakers included Jack McCabe, research specialist of the American Bankers Association, and Adrienne Slack, vice president and regional executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s New Orleans Branch.
Edwards said businesses will experience a revolutionary change that they have to be prepared for.
“We have to do something to improve our economic sustainability,” he said. “We will be losing jobs that pay $25-35 an hour and replace them with jobs that pay $11 an hour.”
Edwards recommended audience members should read “The New Geography of Jobs” by Enrico Moretti. The main takeaway from the book is jobs will go where the people are, Edwards said, citing economic growth in the Nashville, Tenn., area.
“The economy shifted from manufacturing to innovation,” he said was one of three areas covered in the book. “The value of United States manufacturing companies has more than doubled from 1980 to 2012. However, the number of blue-collar workers has plummeted.”
Edwards said reports are predicting that will be no truck drivers by 2030.
“The job market is changing,” he said. “Highly-educated workers and engineers in manufacturing increased. … The future of human capital is innovation. One job will create five others for support.”
McCabe, who presented national numbers in different economic areas, said the economy continues to be slow, but steady.
“As consumers go, so goes the economy,” he said, listing three areas of concern in the national economy. “Coronavirus is a major threat to the economy. And, the Fed Reserve stands ready to act.”
McCabe said housing has shown an upturn in the last two quarters of the 2019, while business investment has declined. Another effect on the economy has been the uncertainty of policy.
Slack said the Federal Reserve defines the economy in three areas: Growth, labor, and inflation. The Fed’s target for the next five years is economic mobility, she said, noting that the Southeast has the lowest economic mobility in the nation.
The main concern of many business representatives in the building is the spread of the Coronavirus, which has had a major effect on the stock markets.
“(The Coronavirus) is substantial enough to chance the balance of risks to change the Fed rate,” she said.
USM President Rodney Bennett and First Bank President and CEO Hoppy Cole gave opening remarks at the forum, while Bret Becton welcomed the audience. Becton is the dean of the College of Business and Economic Development, which directed the forum.