Westerman: Good-paying jobs are available but hard to fill

Congressman addresses economic group in Hope

The U.S. economy has improved, but employers are having difficulty finding people who want to work, according to U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark.

Westerman attended a meeting Thursday at the Hempstead County Economic Development Corp. in Hope with about 12 representatives of business and industry.

“I learn what is happening in the real world when I visit businesses,” he said.

He reported the unemployment rate was down to 4.0 percent in 2016.

“But there are fewer people asking for jobs,” Westerman said.

He said the poultry industry has been discussing transporting workers from Puerto Rico to the U.S. for work in chicken processing plants.

“I’ve talked to businesses who said business is great and they would like to put on another shift and add to the facility, but they can’t find people to hire. A number of people have difficulty passing drug tests. These are jobs paying $14, $15, $16 to $25 to $30 dollars per hour,” he said.

“I visited an oil rig in Columbia County and they had workers making $25 to $30 per hour and they can get as much overtime as they want. They had training in tech schools and trade schools. They were willing to work and work hard,” Westerman said.

He also suggested reforming the tax code to where an individual’s tax return would be the size of a postcard.

He discussed a variety of subjects from the forests, airports, health care and jobs to tax reforms.

Westerman represents Arkansas’ Fourth Congressional District, which includes Southwest Arkansas, Hope, and Texarkana, Ark.

He also is a registered professional engineer and forester.

“The forests will be in worse shape than when we found the forests,” he said.

Westerman recently introduced the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017. The bill, originally introduced in 2015, has a goal to protect the national forests by implementing proactive management standards intended to lessen the threat of wildfires, according to a statement Westerman made in a news release.

“For far too long, our nation’s forests have been fighting a battle for survival. The conflict is not with logging but with the effects of reactive versus proactive management which has resulted in costly confrontations with wildfire, disease, and insects. In 2015, a record 10.1 million acres burned due to wildfires,” Westerman said. “This bill would utilize tools already available to the U.S. Forest Service and provide protection to America’s forests by reducing the risks of wildfires through proper management techniques.”