In Henderson, Texas, there is a tiny storefront that doesn’t appear to be much from the outside on South Main Street. There isn’t any eye-catching signage or a queue of patrons overflowing onto the sidewalk. Located at 1424 S. Main St., this small office is open Monday through Friday and typically closes at six o’clock in the evening. However, once you’re inside, you can see that the structure is heavier than it looks.
This is the Henderson Workforce Center, which is a part of the Workforce Solutions East Texas network. It quietly does a lot of heavy lifting for a county that doesn’t often receive much attention outside of Friday night football and the Heritage Syrup Festival. People arrive in search of employment. Sometimes they take much more with them when they depart.
Henderson is one of the fourteen counties that Workforce Solutions East Texas serves, spanning from Anderson to Wood. It has a large, primarily rural footprint, which is one of the reasons mobile units—vans with computers and meeting space that travel to towns too small or too far away to warrant a permanent office—even exist. Although Henderson has a fully staffed center that is open every day, residents in the surrounding county who are unable to travel can still receive assistance by calling 1-844-ETWORKS or using these traveling outposts.
When focusing solely on phone numbers and hours, it’s simple to overlook what truly occurs when someone enters the building. Resume assistance, practice interviews, child care support, training reimbursements, and advice on unemployment benefits are all available, providing the useful support people require when life throws them a curveball. It’s not a glamorous job. It’s not meant to be.
The regional office shared Tahyua Crowder’s story earlier this year, which illustrates why this type of office is more important than its square footage would imply. Unsure of where to begin after leaving a domestic abuse situation, she traveled to East Texas and used the CHOICES program to find a Workforce Solutions office. She took notes. Prioritize her own deadlines over the actual ones. She eventually received an offer to work as a staff member for the same team that had assisted her. Later, following a reorganization, she returned through those same doors as a client before landing a position at LHH. In the context of regional economic data, it’s a minor detail, but unemployment statistics don’t reveal this kind of information.
Additionally, the figures appear to be fairly stable for what they are worth. East Texas has a labor force of about 425,000, a median annual income of about $67,700, and a regional unemployment rate of about 3.9%. According to the Commission’s own report, Texas as a whole added more than 17,000 jobs in May; this growth was modest rather than explosive. Although local hiring events indicate that employers are still actively searching, it’s difficult to determine how much of that specifically affects a town like Henderson.
The way the state discusses child care, which is more important to working parents than headlines typically indicate, has also changed. In response to legislation passed during the previous session, the Texas Workforce Commission recently launched a new Child Care Resources page for employers with the goal of assisting companies in determining how to truly support employees with children. It remains to be seen if Henderson’s small employers take advantage of it. These initiatives typically take a while to gain traction in smaller markets.
The practical answer appears to be yes for anyone in Henderson considering whether going downtown is worthwhile, even if it’s just to ask questions. 903-657-9553 is the office number. In a county where not everyone lives within a short drive of Main Street, the majority of services that previously required an in-person visit can now be completed over the phone. It’s not an ostentatious system. However, according to those who have used it, it appears to be effective when it matters.
