San Antonio Standard

The City of San Antonio hopes a $75 million job training program will help 10,000 residents find work over the next year. 

This comes as the number of jobs lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pile up across the state.  For example, San Antonio had a record-low unemployment rate of 3.1% in February, but that number jumped to 12.7% in May. 

Keith Phillips, assistant vice president and senior economist for the San Antonio branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said the job decline in the city during the pandemic grew sharply from the middle of June to the middle of July. Overall, unemployment in San Antonio is 5.6% compared to Houston's 7.8% and Austin's 5.9%. Given the fact that San Antonio is a tourism city, Phillips said it's surprising the city isn't doing worse. 

"It's clear that this pandemic has had major negative impacts across the state and across the nation, I mean that part is clear," Phillips said on Texas Public Radio's The Source.

Because of the negative economic impact of the pandemic resulting in job losses, the city recently partnered with Workforce Solutions Alamo, Alamo Colleges, Project Quest, and other workforce development agencies to offer free training for prospective workers. The program hopes to particularly assist those in the industries hit hardest, which include hospitality, food service and retail.

Juan Solis, chairman of Workforce Solutions Alamo, called it a "great program." Solis said the city is joining Bexar County, which has a similar goal for those who live outside of San Antonio. 

"Both programs, Bexar County Strong as well as the City of San Antonio Recovery and Resilience Program, are all about allowing us to work with people and connect them to meaningful job opportunities that may exist today," Solis said.

He said they're also offering wraparound support services to help people succeed in their jobs. Those wishing to be connected can be assessed through their Act Now program by first calling 210-272-3260. 

Solis said most people don't realize the skill set they already have could transfer over to another career.

"Now is the time we encourage people to look over the horizon and get back to work," he said on the live program.

Michele Boggs is the executive vice president of business development at the San Antonio Economic Development Foundations. Boggs said their job is to connect displaced workers to training organizations and then companies looking to hire. 

"We really feel like we have an opportunity here to come out better than we were before," Boggs told Texas Public Radio. "This is an opportunity to upskill thousands of workers and we really feel like we'll come out of this better."