What great news for the local orthopedic industry this week.
The Lilly Foundation grant of $7 million over three years will be headed to the Kosciusko County Community Foundation.
The foundation, in turn, is creating OrthoWorx, a consortium to nurture growth in the orthopedic industry and make our county and town more attractive to the top talent in those industries.It has been reported that fully a third of all employees of local orthopedic companies don't live in our county. They choose places like South Bend or Fort Wayne which have more to offer socially and culturally.
A certain number of those employees also prefer private schools for their children and larger areas have more choices in that regard.
Certainly, making the Orthopedic Capital of the World more attractive as a place to live is a worthy goal. That kind of improvement will be a benefit to all local industry. If a town is more attractive to top orthopedic talent, it only follows that it will be more attractive to the top talent in all other industries.
In other words, it's a win- win situation for all local industry.
Some of the initiatives will be more industry specific and aimed more directly at orthopedics. It is in those areas where local public officials and organizations like Kosciusko Development Inc. will have to redouble efforts to fill in the blanks.
Truly, orthopedics and related industries are the backbone of the local economy and kudos to them for this recent positive development.
But even orthopedic companies are not immune to economic downturns, as evidenced by recent layoffs. If OrthoWorx strengthens these industries it may help stave off future woes.
Now it's up to local officials to foster similar developments in other, unrelated industries
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Speaking of employment and jobs, an interesting survey recently was released by the Partnership for Public Service.
That's a think tank that studies the federal workforce.
You know what's been going on in the world of employment. People being laid off. Hours being cut. Companies cutting back. Outsourcing. Tough times right?
Right - unless, of course, you work for the government.
According to the PPS survey, 35 federal agencies will need to hire 273,000 new employees for "mission critical" jobs over the next four years. Those are the jobs that are called essential - the ones needed for the agency in question to complete its mission. In total, the survey says, the government will have to hire 600,000 people for all types of jobs.
"Mission critical." See, only in government do we hear such nonsense.
Doesn't this beg the question: If the other employees aren't "mission critical" - needed to complete the agency's mission - why are they needed at all?
It reminds me of the government shutdowns when lawmakers can't agree on a budget. Government agencies tell "non-essential" employees to stay home. If they're "non-essential," why are they employed in the first place.
The PPS survey notes that this would be a 41-percent increase in hiring over the level of the last three years.
Defenders of the government note that is a bulge in baby-boomer bureaucracy, lots of vets from Afghanistan and Iraq needing services, pent-up demand from agencies keeping their employment rosters low (really, because federal hiring was up 17 percent this year alone), and the government facing large, new responsibilities.
I will concede baby-boomers and veterans will create a need for more people to handle all the paperwork government programs often generate. But honestly, a 41-percent increase in hiring? Is it just me or does anybody else think that's just crazy?
Pick a company in Warsaw - any company in Warsaw - that employees 100 people. Do you seem them adding 41 people anytime soon?
And the company in Warsaw is generating the income to pay its employees. We all know who's footing the bill for all these government employees.
To me, it's just one more indication of the wealth-consuming, out-of-control growth of government.
