A headline on today’s Business page proclaims “Kia plant hires 1,000th worker.” Kia suppliers with plants in Troup County have been hiring, too. It’s very likely that no county our size has had more new jobs created in the past 12 months than has Troup.

So how come LaGrange has the highest unemployment rate in Georgia for a city of 10,000 or more? And why is Troup County’s jobless rate a disturbing 14.6 percent - well above both the state and national average?

Those are troubling, head-scratching questions - and not just for local leaders. The hundreds upon hundreds of Troup Countians who are jobless have to be wondering, too.

One simplistic answer is to blame the auto-related businesses for hiring folks from out of town.

Another overly simple explanation is to blame the work force, for being under qualified.

There’s some truth in both claims, of course. Jobs have gone to people from outside Troup County and a lot of local residents don’t have the education or work experience required for Kia or other quality jobs.

But common sense tells us the best answer is more complex.

Like much of the nation, our community has been hemorrhaging jobs. The once-dominant textile component of our economy has shrunk significantly, hitting here harder than non-textile towns. Also, businesses of all kinds, large and small, have made cutbacks - or left vacancies unfilled. The jobs lost have minimized the impact of the jobs created.

Then, there’s the timing factor. Kia took more than 43,000 applications online 18 months ago and is still hiring from that pool. Many qualified local workers who had good jobs in early 2008 didn’t put their names in Kia’s pot. When they later found themselves out of work, they were also out of luck as far as Kia goes.

Troup’s status as something of a “bedroom community” also plays a role. Workers who live here but commute to Newnan, Atlanta, Columbus or elsewhere count as local unemployed if they lose their jobs.

None of these factors, individually, can account for the dangerously high jobless rate. Cumulatively however, their influence is huge.

Still there’s no getting around the fact that Kia and other automotive employers have hired workers from across the west Georgia/east Alabama region - and beyond. No one can fault them for hiring the best qualified workers - that’s the way free enterprise employment works. But we suspect there are locals who would make perfectly good workers who have been overlooked, for a number of reasons.

And since it’s local taxpayers who are underwriting a hefty share of the incentives provided to Kia and its suppliers, we think it appropriate to urge the automakers to strengthen their commitment to hiring locally, whenever possible. It’s the right thing to do.

And it’s sad but true that some responsibility rests on the shoulders of would-be workers themselves. We have a significant percentage of high school dropouts and others whose employment record doesn’t make them attractive to Kia - or anyone else.

Almost as soon as the Kia deal was announced in March 2006, local education and business leaders started urging community members to “get prepared” for Kia jobs. Workforce development opportunities have been available, but a lot of folks ignored the message.

They didn’t get prepared - and they didn’t get the jobs.

Now, with the window of opportunity narrowing, local leaders are heightening the push with plans for an intense workforce development program. Hindsight is 20-20, and the current situation suggests the push should have come sooner.

Still, many jobs are still to be filled, and it would irresponsible of local leaders not to work as hard as humanly possible to get locals who need work matched up with employers who need workers. We support the ‘Troup Works’ initiative. It needs to move quickly.

Troup County’s unemployed, in an imaginary line, could almost reach from downtown LaGrange to the front door of the Kia plant. As the build-up to Kia start-up gathers momentum, workforce development - and hiring locally - ought to be two sides of the same coin, priorities at every level and in every corner.

The jobs are coming, but they won’t fall in our laps like manna from heaven.

Getting work IS work. And getting jobs for local folks who want them ought to be a top community priority.