JEFFERSON

Antonio Economic Development Foundation — whose executive committee includes USAA and H-E-B representatives, real estate developers, bankers, and the heads of CPS Energy and SAWS — has joined the effort to “stabilize” small employers.

“We’re still working with small businesses to stop the bleeding,” said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, the foundation’s president and CEO.

EDF staffers are providing information on Gov. Greg Abbott’s reopening orders and coordinating with organizations that are helping businesses access government bailout money.

Retaining local employers is part of EDF’s mission. But what it’s known for is selling San Antonio to out-of-town corporations that are looking to relocate or expand here. In its early years,

the 44-year-old foundation did that by underscoring the city’s status as a low-wage town where labor unions had barely made a footprint.

Saucedo-Herrera says the organization’s aim now is in the opposite direction: to push for more and better job training and to attract corporations with a more highly skilled workforce.

It’s too soon to say how that’ll work out. But it’s the right moment for that approach because the new jobs aren’t going to be for the low-skilled.

Surprisingly, given the economic conditions, EDF has been working with about 15 prospects since early April.

They provide some clues about San Antonio’s likely sources of job growth in the near term.

The prospects include cybersecurity firms; companies looking to build data centers (voracious power consumers that CPS Energy must love, but that bring only a handful of jobs); and manufacturers.

The first two categories make sense in light of the pandemic. The homebound are working, shopping and socializing online to a degree they haven’t before. Many of these new routines will harden into habits when the public health crisis is over. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and their ilk are doing great right now, and smaller tech companies are seizing opportunities.

In fact, tech is one of the few industries with a relatively sunny outlook.

Growing reliance on digital networks heightens the need to keep them safe from cyberattacks. The bigger demand also means companies need more server farms to super-charge their online operations.

Among cities vying for these firms, San Antonio has a small head start: a nucleus of cybersecurity companies — Denim Group, JungleDisk and others — and at least 10 operating data centers, according to Datacenter map.com.

Manufacturing is harder to explain. After all, the latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas showed that Texas manufacturing activity cratered in April, and companies cut jobs and wages. And this is poised to be a growth industry?

Maybe.

The huge disruption of Asian supply chains early in the outbreak sparked a lot of talk among American manufacturers about “on-shoring” — bringing suppliers back to the United States, closer to the mother ships. Some of the early interest in San Antonio is coming from food and beverage makers, according to Saucedo-Herrera.

Unemployed service workers are in a quandary. Many of them aren’t ready to fill the jobs that may be in the offing. And as Saucedo-Herrera said of layoffs in their industry, “Many of those jobs won’t come back.”

Looking at it that way, Bexar County commissioners’ decision last week to pour $35 million of the county’s federal bailout money into training programs for 5,000 unemployed workers, including a $450 weekly stipend for living expenses — well, it doesn’t sound crazy.

City officials are expected to follow up with a larger workforce development plan, drawing on bailout funds totaling $270 million.

Devil, meet details.

What’s certain is that only a big cash infusion from the federal government, or maybe two or three powerhouse philanthropists, can begin to close a skills gap with roots as deep as San Antonio’s.