Drilling into the jobless data

As I reported in this week's Business Notebook, unemployment rates throughout Missouri — including here in Cape Girardeau County — increased slightly last month

Although it's hard to be precise, the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reports there were 56,581 Missourians who were considered to be "unemployed" in May, based on the latest unemployment benefits case files.

Men accounted for just over 52% of the state's unemployed population (meaning, of course, nearly 48% were women). More than 30,000 jobless workers listed their race as white, while close to 16,000 were categorized as Black or African American. Race information was not available for about 9,000 unemployed Missourians. The balance was comprised of a few hundred Asians, American Indians, Alaska Natives and Pacific Islanders.

Roughly one out of every four unemployed Missourians (25%) are in the 25- to 34-year-old-age group, while 24% are age 35 to 44.

Listed by industry, those who were formerly employed in the manufacturing sector comprise the largest single group of jobless workers (13,278), followed by those who worked in hospitality and food services (6,954), health care and social assistance (6,421), administration and support services (6,265), and retail trade (5,627). Unemployed construction workers numbered just over 3,600 in the latest demographic report.

Study examines impact of refugees

Are refugees good or bad for a host nation's economy, infrastructure and society as a whole?

That question has been debated for many years, most recently with regard to the influx of refugees from Mexico and Central America who have been crossing the southern border into the United States.

Many politicians and business leaders have expressed concern about the economic burden they believe refugees cause. However, a new study has found that may not be the case and that refugees who are accepted by employers can actually boost the economies of their host communities, states and nations.

According to research released earlier this month by a management professor at the University of Missouri, refugees can contribute to their new communities. John Schaubroeck's study found refugees benefit from workplaces that value diversity and avoids stigmatizing people who are new to their communities.

"The idea is that if you are in a favorable work environment, you will feel less 'othered,'" explained Schaubroeck. "However, there are factors that can amplify or mitigate that effect."

While most previous research has shown refugees who are employed improve their chances of assimilating into society, Schaubroeck says he wanted to understand what it was about their work environments that made refugees feel more included and accepted.

"It's not just about being employed," he said. "It's the extent to which one perceives one really belongs in that organization that really matters. Do they see themselves as real members (of a group of employees)? Our findings suggest that's the first step to feeling like a member of the society in which they have relocated."

Schaubroeck's findings also suggest when people are "different" from others, such as with refugees, believing one's leaders and the organization overall strive to treat all employees fairly and respectfully goes a long way toward making refugee employees feel included.

It all comes back to diversity, Schaubroeck said.

"While there's not much the organization can do about an internal belief or stigma in a society, our research showed that having a favorable diversity climate, at all levels, renders that belief much less relevant," he said.

The study's researchers sampled 389 Syrian refugees working at 88 different organizations. The refugees were asked to take 30 minutes off from their jobs to complete a survey and were given three questionnaires over a two-month period to measure their feelings of acceptance and what promoted their feelings. Only those refugees who were employed were included in the study.

Refugees are becoming increasingly relevant in the U.S. For instance, last month the U.S. saw its number of "accepted" refugees more than triple from the months prior, admitting 915 compared to only 272 in February.

Schaubroeck believes his findings about refugee acceptance can help businesses adjust their environments to be more accommodating to refugees and help them learn to contribute to their host society.

Improved quality of employment will not only benefit the refugees, he said, but also the communities they settle in.

The results of Schaubroeck's study will be published by the Academy of Management in the coming months.

Pivotal week for West Park Mall

This is the week West Park Mall (or at least all of it except the J.C. Penney property) will be auctioned to the highest bidder.

The online auction starts today and continues into Wednesday.

The mall's current owner, LNR Partners LLC of Miami Beach, Florida, is working with the property management firm Newmark in New York City to sell the Cape Girardeau shopping center.

Tom Dobrowski, vice chairman of capital markets with Newmark, tells me we'll be able to monitor the auction online, at www.ten-x.com, and check the bids as they come in from prospective buyers.

By the way, the minimum bid for the property has dropped from $1.5 million earlier this month to $1.3 million when I checked Saturday ... just in case you're interested.

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