SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : A SPECIAL REPORT ON EMPLOYMENT TRENDS : INDUSTRIES & OCCUPATIONS : TRADE : INCREASE IN EXPORTS WILL CREATE MORE EMPLOYMENT

Few people could have known sooner than Tom Teofilo that the tide has begun to turn in favor of U.S. exports--and with it new jobs in foreign trade. Teofilo’s job is to try to keep the six freighters operated by Korean Shipping, the freighter line he represents in Long Beach, as full as possible--outbound as well as inbound.

“We’re about two-thirds inbound and one-third outbound,” Teofilo said.

The nation’s trade deficit, which for the first seven months of the year is running at an annual rate of $168.7 billion, up from $156.2 billion last year, is mirrored in the current job market, said Laurie Hunter, government relations specialist with the International Business Assn. of Southern California. Consequently, most Southland trade jobs today involve imports, not exports.

“You can see it in the full containers coming in and the empty containers going out,” Hunter said. As the trade balance shifts and more of Teofilo’s ships head out full, new jobs will continue to be created. But, as the trade figures indicate, imports also are growing, suggesting a continuing demand for jobs in both importing and--increasingly--exporting.

Last year, 110 million tons of cargo flowed through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, most of it inbound, and California itself represents the world’s seventh-largest trading nation, said Charles Nevil, president of Meridian Group, an export management company and a member of the California State World Trade Commission.

“The numbers are not distinct,” Nevil said, “but something like one out of every five or 10 jobs in the state relates to trade, but that trade has basically been import trade.”

Nonetheless, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce already counts 225,000 jobs as directly related to international trade, chief economist Jack Kyser said. These include jobs like Teofilo’s, moving ships in and out of the ports, plus all the related work--loading, unloading and servicing freighters and transporting cargo to them, inspecting incoming freight for customs, and documenting and forwarding shipments. There will also be an increased need for brokers, bankers, lawyers and other such “facilitators” who can match producers in one country with distributors in another.

“We had very rapid growth in trade employment in 1984 and 1985 as shipping volume surged,” Kyser said. “Then, in 1986, there was a definite slowdown (in trade) but an increase of 7,000 jobs. This year we are running 6% ahead of a year ago, and export volume is starting to build.

“It’s hard to say yet what that will mean in terms of employment,” he said, “but in export you need intermediaries and others familiar with the overseas markets, especially for smaller shippers.”

Nevil predicted that export-trade employment alone will increase as much as 20% over the next decade, adding that both exports and imports should grow.

Exporters equally skilled in importation are a rare breed, Nevil said. “I haven’t met anyone in 26 years in this business who is equally good at both. What I know how to do is ship things out , and if I were to shift to import I would have to hire some different specialists. The mentality is really different.”

In addition, said Joan Rollins, whose Long Beach firm, Rollins & Associates, fills international trade and transportation jobs from the entry level to the executive suite, it takes time to master the intricacies of exportation.

“The knowledge a company needs to begin exporting can be frightening at first,” she explained, “so there has been no immediate turnaround because of the change in (currency) exchange rates. A successful U.S. company will not necessarily be skilled abroad. It may also lack top people in that field and have to hire consultants or management with that experience.”

Obviously, language skills are valuable, but over the last decade Rollins has seen a shift away from a need for Spanish, stemming from the warfare, political unrest and debt problems that has caused trade with Central and Latin America to decline (although a limited comeback has taken place in a few countries over the past two years, she said).

On the other hand, trade with the Far East has greatly increased, and for the foreseeable future, at least, Rollins expects Mandarin Chinese and Japanese to continue to command top priority as second languages. “Our trade partners have great respect for anyone who has taken the time and effort to use their language,” she said.

(Yet, Nevil noted, “there are only 200 U.S. businessmen based in Japan who can speak Japanese. Have you ever seen a Japanese businessman in this country who doesn’t speak English?” he asked.)

A second language is valuable not only in itself but for what it teaches about another culture, Rollins said. Knowledge of a foreign society’s ways--knowing about such taboos as not crossing legs or showing a shoe bottom--can be crucial to success in business abroad.

Besides communications and typical business skills, companies engaged in international trade need workers who understand the multitude of details critical to shipping goods abroad. Teofilo recalled that a load of “beautiful fresh green California asparagus” was rejected by a West German buyer who had specified white asparagus.

Consequently, international trade is a demanding field, he said.

“People overseas are accustomed to dealing with experts in various fields, so you have to have your act together,” he explained. “You can’t just say, ‘I don’t know, but I’ll get back to you.’ They haven’t got time for that anymore.”

Formal preparation for a career in international trade remains as limited as U.S. experience in the field, Nevil said. “We will need finer talents,” he said, “but so far it’s the school of hard knocks that teaches you.”

But, Rollins noted, USC’s International Business Education and Research Institute offers an intense practical program at the MBA level. UCLA’s John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management offers an interdisciplinary program leading to an MBA with specialization in international management. UCLA also offers courses and seminars in international trade and transportation, mostly taught by practitioners, through its extended education program. In addition, the Thunderbird campus of the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz., emphasizes practical training in its international trade program.

Long Beach State so far offers only a certificate in international education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, said Wendell McCulloch, a professor of international business. “We need to do a lot more,” he said, “but we are encouraging the students to take languages and to get into the international business courses as well as international economics.”

On the community college level, Rollins said, Harbor College offers a course in international trade; Golden West College in Huntington Beach conducts certificate (but not degree) programs in domestic and international transportation, as does Mt. San Antonio College.

In Teofilo’s view, that’s where the future lies. From his office window, he can look out on the site of the new Los Angeles Area World Trade Center now rising in Long Beach. Eventually, the clump of towers will contain 2.2 million square feet, doubling the city’s present inventory of commercial office space.

To qualify for membership in the World Trade Center Assn., the New York-based trade association begun in 1968 and now comprising 55 centers worldwide linked by computer networks, Long Beach will have to lease at least 51% of that space--more than 1.1 million square feet--to firms engaged in international trade: language institutes, trading companies, exposition areas--”every facet to support trade will be taking place there.”

“This,” he predicted, “is going to be the nucleus for international business in this area.”