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Originally Posted by Hayward
It's certainly good to hear about the jobs and reuse of a former shuttered call center. It does have me scratching my head though on if Obamacare should have a mission on where they locate to help areas that need a boost in their economy and lowering unemployment.
Call centers or processing centers aren't highly skilled labor. They require simple tasks and are an opportunity for non-college educated citizens. With unemployment hovering around 8.5% in St. Louis City, it would seem to make perfect sense to locate there while also providing easy access to residents that can take transit to work. Placing it on the bleeding edge of the metro has me questioning who they are looking to hire. Just an observation but it doesn't seem like Wentzville needs the jobs quite as bad, and with St. Louis claiming to be the silicon valley of the midwest, there must be buildings wired for call centers all over the place to help make a much better social and economic impact on the area.
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I do agree that SERCO could have considered St. Louis City, but they didn't.
Ultimately, I can't blame them for their decision. Having a building that is "turnkey" i.e. already wired and equipped with furniture etc., who could beat that?
Further, who knows where these jobs would have gone had the old U.S. Fidelis headquarters not been available.
These SERCO jobs aren't exactly entry level U.S. fast food jobs either. Starting rate is $12+ per hour. Folks won't become millionaires, obviously, but these jobs could supplement households.
Also, there are a lot of minorities who live in Wentzville and St. Charles County as well as North St. Louis County, which is closer to Wentzville than St. Louis City. As long as they are willing to do the job, I don't think SERCO cares who they hire - they just need 600 people - even if they come in from Chicago. These are immediate jobs.
For the record, St. Louis has a HUGE health care industry with firms such as Megallan Healthcare, United Health Care, Wellpoint, Express Scripts, Centene Corporation,
Coventry, Conifer Health (Tenet), Kindred, Ascension Health, etc. etc. either having their corporate, regional, back offices and/or call centers based in the region. SERCO obviously went with a region they thought was a good fit to get the job done.
Wentzville just happened to be where they found a large-enough "turnkey" building in the region.
In regards to the "Silicon Valley of the Midwest" jab, St. Louis hasn't made such a claim, but people
are paying closer attention.