Dear Editor:
The February 2018 unemployment rate in Jefferson City metropolitan area was 3.3 percent, 2.6 percent for Columbia and 4.0 percent statewide.
If you can't find a job here perhaps you need to move. We did that four times during our working life, as I changed jobs to increase our income potential. There are 137 "metropolitan statistical areas" in the U.S. with unemployment rates below 4 percent and 28 with unemployment rates below 3 percent. It's 1.9 percent in Ames, Iowa, only 300 miles from Jefferson City. It's 2.5 percent in Iowa City, 250 miles from Jefferson City. If you want to go west, unemployment in Manhattan, Kansas, less than 300 miles from Jefferson City, is 2.9 percent. If you want to go east you may need to go as far as Columbus, Indiana, 400 miles from Jefferson City, where unemployment is 2.9 percent; or Nashville, Tennessee, where the rate is 2.7 percent. Fayetteville, Arkansas, less than 300 miles southwest of Jefferson City, has a 3 percent rate.
Do a Google search for "labor shortage Midwest" and you will find numerous stories about companies that can't find workers. Why are there so many in poverty in Missouri when there are a plethora of jobs available within 500 miles of Jefferson City?
PS If you don't want to work at a minimum wage job then improve your job skills and go get a better job. My brother in Michigan will pay you $12/hour and teach you how to place and finish concrete. All you have to do is pass a drug test, show up on time, be willing to work and be teachable. As you gain skills you become more valuable to him, and to others in the concrete business. Unemployment in his county is 4.9 percent and he can't find people who will work for $12/hour. I suspect there are Central Missouri contractors who would do the same.