Potential Jobs for Austin

In the editorial section of the Austin American Statesman Monday, there was an article titled Perry Helps State Secure More Jobs.  It is an article describing the benefits and potential downfalls of the company EA Sports opening a branch here in Austin.  The article states that by EA Sports coming to Austin it could potentially open 300 more jobs for the people of Austin.  Of those 300 jobs they would be split evenly into the form of jobs actually with EA Sports and the rest as contracting positions.  Rick Perry was a huge supporter of EA Sports coming to Austin and it is speculated that without his efforts, EA Sports would not be opening a branch here in our beloved city. 

At the time being optimism is very high but it could turn out that EA Sports won’t really have that many jobs for local workers.  With a company such as EA Sports that demands a lot of technical and creative brain power to work there, the possibility for Austinites to work there could diminish in the future.  Although Perry was a major factor in getting EA Sports here, he also was a big leader in the educational budget cuts that lowered the budget for public schools four billion dollars and higher education another billion on top of that.  The author of the article makes a very strong point at the end where they state, “For now, Texas has enough creative and educated workers to meet demands of Electronic Arts and other companies. But that might not be the case in the future if the state continues to go cheap on education. Then it will be in the position of importing most of its talent rather than growing it.