James Campos, Chief of Nevada Workforce Solutions Section

By Timothy Pratt

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 | 2 a.m.

James Campos made his splash on the local political scene in 2006, as the point man in the Hispanic community for Republican Jim Gibbons’ gubernatorial campaign.

Hispanic Republicans are rare in the Las Vegas Valley, and Campos took his lumps, an experience that he says taught him “to be open-minded.”

Campos went on to serve as state commissioner of consumer affairs, until recently, when he was tapped to lead a state office less than a year old called the “Workforce Solutions Section.” It’s part of the Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department. At his new job, Campos, who holds an MBA from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, will be paid $97,500 to manage as many as six staffers and help identify future jobs.

What are the first tasks in your new job?

Identifying sectors where employment will come from, including green, renewable energy; tourism; and mining. Then we create councils in each sector made up of experts who will identify training needs in each of those areas.

How long will that take?

We hope to have seven to 14 councils set up, meeting quarterly and gathering information, within a year.

Will any of that immediately help the many people who are unemployed right now?

This is planning for the future. We will try to anticipate where the economy is going — what’s going to happen with the decline in construction, for example. And, identifying training needs will help employers.

Can you give an example?

With weatherization, something for which there will be a lot of stimulus money, we will make strategic alignments of industry, education and government to help fill those jobs. That hasn’t been done before in this state.

Where do you think the most jobs will come from?

It’s hard to say. But we’re looking for weatherization and other green jobs to be the quickest to come online.

What is the biggest obstacle to getting more Nevadans back to work?

There are so many variables, it would be an injustice to pinpoint just one. Maybe the lack of tourists willing to spend money, since that’s the most important area of our economy.