BRAC Region Job Gems

By Tim Moore, Workforce Program Manager

Buried in the pages of the BRAC Regional Task Force’s Comprehensive Regional Growth Plan recommendations are some real job gems. 

While the upcoming Defense and Homeland Security industry cluster report promises much more such ‘workforce’ information later this summer, interested parties can get a jump on things by perusing this initial publication, plus other information available at the BRAC Regional Task Force Web site: www.bracrtf.com, or by simply by reading ahead. The Workforce and Higher Education chapter contains the mother lode of job information, as does the even newer Top 100 jobs list.

While 95 percent of the CRGP report concerns physical infrastructure impacts of BRAC growth in our 11-county region – such as schools and roads – the pages and paragraphs discussed here concern human infrastructure, namely coming employment opportunities.  This should be of great interest to separating service members, area residents, job-seekers, students, and training and education providers alike.

By now, you should all know that there are and will continue to be good local jobs in construction (skilled trades, etc.), education (teachers in all grades), and healthcare (nurses at all levels).  The retail and hospitality (accommodations and food) fields will also see increased jobs. 

But some of the regional career opportunities will be in sectors and with employers that are not even here yet. These include FORSCOM (U.S. Army Forces Command), USARC (U.S. Army Reserve Command), and private defense contractors of all types. There will also be many more homeland security and technology jobs coming. 

For instance, in the CRGP you will find a bulleted list of the regional economic impacts regarding employment.  First, just shy of an additional 19,200 new jobs will be created by the military growth at Fort Bragg. A big part of that number is almost 2,000 military civilian jobs that will be relocating here along with FORSCOM and USARC.

Based on the experiences of previous BRAC realignments elsewhere, it is projected that only about 25 to 30 percent of the personnel currently in those positions will relocate here from Atlanta.  That means around 1,300 jobs up for grabs. A lot of those jobs, especially the higher level ones, will go to military civilians already in the ‘system’ world-wide that may seek a promotion or transfer within or even to Fort Bragg.

But there should be a number of jobs in the GS-4 to -7 series available for local hires. And, by the way, the hiring for these openings will start as early as the summer of 2010 – just 18 months away! This may seem like a short time frame, but it is long enough to get the needed training and education and/or experience (KSAs – Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities) to hopefully help nail one of these jobs. But be sure your background and credit history and social networking pages such as Facebook are squeaky clean so you can get needed security clearance(s).

Also in the report is a section entitled “Army Civilian Jobs Relocating to Fort Bragg”. You will find a list of the 10 most in demand occupational series including brief job descriptions and estimated wages for 1,300 actual job slots. These job titles and duties range from administrative/management and accounting ($55-102K), to logistics management and intelligence work ($44-102K), to training instruction, security administration, and program advising/analysis ($35-88K), to IT or personnel management and budget analysis ($26 – 90K). 

If you are interested in a private contractor job instead, the report includes a list of the largest Fort McPherson contractors. The top four in contract dollar amounts are Eagle Group International (recently acquired by Lockheed Martin), International Consultants, Inc., Anteon Corporation, and Stanley Associates. Interested readers should do some due diligence research on those and the others such as Booz Allen Hamilton to see what kind of employees they hire. 
One would think that exiting service members would have the best shot at these kinds of jobs (i.e., consultants, etc.) but a strong college grad candidate – maybe with a business/program management or science or language degree – could probably join on too.  The on-going defense and homeland security cluster study mentioned above will further identify these emerging occupations by this summer.

It is estimated that up to 1,000 of these kinds of jobs will be created here by 2013 through such defense contractors, and this does not even include any new start-up businesses. So add these to the roughly several hundred good military-civilian jobs that could be open locally, and you have a considerable number of new and meaningful defense-related careers to explore. These include program managers and all kinds of IT specialists and every type of engineer imaginable. Soft skills and security clearances will probably be needed to land these jobs. Firms such as Tactronics, American Growler, The Logistics Company, Applied Research, K-3 Enterprises, RLM Communications, Boeing, Gryphon Group, US Logistics, Lockheed Martin, Saab Barracuda, and Patriot Performance Materials are already operating in our region and many more are expected to come and set up shop over the next two to five years and beyond.

And the good jobs data does not end there. Nearly 4,000 jobs are actually open at any given time across our region and more will be available the closer we get to the June 2011 arrival of FORSCOM, USARC and supportive service and product employers. One challenge is that while we may have the jobs and the labor, there is often a skills and education mismatch for many that must be solved. For instance, many of these jobs (some 14,000) will be in the health care and social service sector, followed next by jobs in professional and technical services (4,000). But these jobs require technical and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills that too many in our current regional labor force lack.

To help get at this, the BRAC RTF together with Training Development Associates (TDA), Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), the NC ESC Labor Market Information Division, our four regional Workforce Development Boards (Pee Dee, Cumberland, Lumber River and Mid-Carolina) and Futures, Inc. have just finished compiling a list of the Top 100 Jobs in our 11-county region between now and 2016. Again, please see our www.bracrtf.com Web site for the full list which is primarily based on projected high demand, skills, and relative pay. We are now analyzing the skill sets and education needed, and developing career ladders and lattices involved in each occupation. This will all be shared with regional education and training providers in order to inventory related courses and programs and either add, improve or expand offerings to prepare folks for these jobs. Some of the jobs listed will be needed by both military and civilian employers.

Finally, all of this information will be included in and actually drive a new, regional career exploration and talent acquisition platform that the BRAC RTF and our partners and stakeholders are currently developing. This customized and transformational Web-based tool will include self-assessment, career exploration (especially of the 100 top regional jobs), links to our eight regional community and five four-year college and university programs and course offerings (to help close skills/education gaps), and last, but certainly not least, actual job listings. By the way, the top 100 jobs include those requiring all levels of education, training and experience – with pay increasing commensurately – and span the alphabet from A (Accountant) to V (Veterinary Tech.). This new and exciting virtual platform will be up and running by Labor Day, a fitting time to begin the connection of regional residents to job opportunities.

Having these two Army commands relocate to Fort Bragg is the equivalent of having two Fortune 500 companies move to the middle of our region. There will be something for just about every one – including new entrepreneurial and contracting opportunities – but especially for those who begin to position themselves for the careers and businesses this BRAC growth action will bring to the All American Defense Corridor including our 11 counties.

Prepare now to make your ‘fortune’ from this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Tim Moore may be contacted at tmoore@bracrtf.com.