ASARCO: Boom or Bust?
by Erik Pavia
February 17, 2009
Asarco has up and closed. After much discourse and disagreement, it has been decided that the American Smelting and Refining Company is to cease activity in its copper smelter in El Paso, Texas. Asarco stated that the economic downturn caused them to cease activity, while activists feel their actions were the real reason. The cessation of Asarco’s activities in El Paso may be as hotly debated as the closure itself. Whatever the case, there seems to be an air of relief and accomplishment around the UTEP campus. An event celebrating Asarco’s closure has already been scheduled on campus to promote various ideas as to what to do with the now ex-smelter site. But, as always, there are two sides to each coin.
It is no news that the economy has slowed. Unemployment is on the rise. Although El Paso has yet to see thousands laid off, the city is not unaffected by the crisis. Many people have already lost their jobs and others anticipate losing their jobs in the near future. Is it really proper to celebrate the departure of what could have been more jobs for El Pasoan’s that are already feeling the crunch?
Speaking solely on the potential Asarco had to create jobs, it may not be inappropriate to celebrate at all.
According to the Asarco website, Asarco “could provide 300 well-paying hourly jobs and approximately 80 salaried positions” here in El Paso. Imagining a fantastical situation where EPA standards did not exist and Asarco was allowed to continue its operations as usual, 380 jobs would hardly put a dent in the current level of unemployment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminarily placed El Paso’s unemployed at 21,138 in December of 2008. It would not be a stretch to assume that the number has only risen since. Had Asarco continued operations, it would only employ about 1.8% of El Paso’s unemployed, a relatively small percentage when taken in context of the recession as a whole. Again referencing the BLS, El Paso’s workforce consists of about 302,000 people. To put the numbers in another perspective, Asarco would have only been directly responsible for .13% of El Paso’s entire labor force.
Aside from the individuals Asarco would directly employ, it was projected by an independent contractor that Asarco would indirectly create about 1,800 jobs, a much less meager figure than 380 employed. Again, there are two sides to everything. A January 2009 report by the BLS stated that “Manufacturing employment fell by 207,000 in January, the largest 1-month decline since October 1982. In January, durable goods manufacturing lost 157,000 jobs, with notable decreases in fabricated metal products (-37,000), motor vehicles and parts (-31,000), and machinery (-22,000). Employment in nondurable goods manufacturing declined by 50,000 over the month.” A national decrease in employment in fabricated metal products would have likely affected employment at El Paso’s Asarco. Even the most optimistic figures would have seen a decline in today’s market. For all the jobs that the company may have created, it would not have helped the city’s current plight as much as many may think.
Historically, Asarco wielded a great amount of economical influence over the city. It seems though, that given the peculiarity of present times, Asarco would have been less of a powerhouse had it continued operations as usual. After the smelter discontinued operations in 1999, there was not a sharp increase in unemployment. It must have been hard for some families, but El Paso as a whole was not consumed in flame and swallowed into the ground. If the smelter reopened, the contrary would probably not occur either.
For all the what-ifs and the maybes, one thing remains true as of February 2009. Asarco is gone. Hate it or love it, things in town have changed. All the city can do is look forward and vie with the present troubles. What will happen to the undoubtedly historic site? That’s another conversation best saved for another day.
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