Although healthcare industry is growing fast in RGV, many of its jobs are low paying – Rio Grande Guardian

EDINBURG, Texas – The healthcare industry is growing fast in Hidalgo County but many of the jobs are not high paying, according to an economist at South Texas College.

Jose Olivares, chair of the department of business administration at STC, provided his analysis to a subcommittee of the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force.

The subcommittee, comprising economic development leaders and academics, met in Edinburg this past week to consider which industries Hidalgo County should focus its recruitment efforts on.

The task force was set up by Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez to fight poverty. Moderating the discussion was Mario Reyna, the former dean of business at South Texas College.

Olivares gave an exclusive interview to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service immediately following the subcommittee meeting. Asked if any of the data that he submitted to the subcommittee was surprising, Olivares said:

“One particular area where there is a lot of talk about in this region is the growth of healthcare. Once you start really diving into the data and you start separating all the disciplines in healthcare, you start seeing that there’s a lot of growth in areas with low wages,” Olivares said.

Olivares noted that the task force is trying to recruit companies with high-paying jobs,

“So, as part of the Prosperity Task Force, what we’re trying to do is create high earning jobs for the citizens here. So, some of the strategies that we were going over today was to try to go after the industries that are going to give a better bang for buck per se, to offer a high volume of jobs but at the same time creating better opportunities financially speaking to workers here in the area.

“So, we were we were able to look at some of these industries and identify some of them that might lead us into that direction.”

Olivares was one of three economists to present data at the subcommittee meeting. There were others from Texas A&M University and UT-Rio Grande Valley. Olivares explained the purpose of his presentation.

“What I tried to do was create a kind of like an overview of the RGV industry landscape. Getting data on some of the growing areas in our region, specifically Hidalgo County, projected growth for the future, and kind of try to pair them up to the salaries that we can expect in those areas.”

One of the livelier discussions centered on artificial intelligence, Olivares said. This occurred following a presentation from Dr. Salvador Contreras, an economist with UTRGV.

“We are a little bit isolated from that risk of AI or automation taking some of our jobs. And we had a lively discussion with members of the committee here, talking about whether it’s a risk that we should worry about or not. I think it’s something that should be in the back of our minds as we start bringing industries into the area, to start looking at whether or not some industries would, create jobs for a long period of time,” Olivares said.

“So, as we start discussing these different types of industries, something that we have to keep in mind… obviously we don’t have to sound the alarms yet. We are doing very well here in the region in terms of a lot of our jobs are not highly automatable yet, but it’s something to keep in the back of our minds as we move forward.”

Asked why it is important for economic development leaders to be working with educators, as they are within the task force, Olivares said:

“Well, I can speak for myself and the data team that we assembled here. We have representatives from three major institutions here in the Valley, UTRGV, STC and Texas A&M. We spend our days studying this information, so I think it’s important to put those two elements together, what we study on the theoretical side and what we see in the numbers and what they (economic development organizations) are seeing in the real world. And like I mentioned, we had some lively discussions here. I think it’s important to have those discussions in the general sense so we can pair the theory and the practical use of the information that’s out there.”

Asked if he had any other comments to make, Olivares said: “I’m just privileged to be part of this task force. I was given the opportunity to join the team, specifically in gathering economic data. And, as a local boy, growing up in Hidalgo, I just feel very proud of the work that we’re doing and hopefully our work can lead us in the right direction to help the region.”