Memphis is courting industries that may add more than 6,000 jobs in the region, but agencies must work to overcome disconnects between employers and job-seekers in order for the city to thrive, leaders and experts said Wednesday.

Inside a packed conference hall at Memphis's Benjamin Hooks Central Library, a jobs forum held by newly elected Mayor A C Wharton Jr. showcased tempered optimism, a host of statistics, reality checks and a desire from many to improve communication between the patchwork of agencies directly affecting the region's economy.

"We all know we are facing the most trying times in our history," James (Larry) Kerley, secretary-treasurer of the Mid-South Carpenters Council, told an audience in which elected officials sat alongside small business owners and job-seekers alike. "This type of collectiveness ought to bring us hope."

The forum came as part of ongoing efforts by the new Wharton administration to encourage and mediate dialogue on avenues to improve the city. Wharton did not unveil major plans or initiatives at the forum, but framed it instead as a transparent fact-finding mission for himself and the public alike.

“The next time we have a conference call with the White House, they'll know I'm speaking on what I've heard — not what I believe," he said.

Wharton also vowed Wednesday that the event "is not the end" and that there would be "no excuses" from his administration in relation to improving economic development and workforce readiness.

Blueprints for growth presented Wednesday showed how Memphis could emerge from a 10 percent unemployment rate stronger and more aligned with its core strengths.

Dexter Muller, the Chamber's senior vice president for community development, said the Memphis economy added 3,900 jobs in 2009. Thirty-two projects are now in the economic development "pipeline," he said, representing a possible capital investment of nearly $2.7 billion and an additional 6,505 jobs for the region.

Muller emphasized the city is in the midst of a years-long effort to grow the economy along its core strengths and established industries -- logistics and distribution; life science and health care; advanced manufacturing; and tourism, music and film.

"We have a lot of great assets, a lot of strengths," he said.

Such news gave some attendees hope. "I'm definitely an optimist in the economy today," said Gwin Scott, president of Emerge Memphis, an entrepreneurial incubator located downtown. "We need to diversify our economy."

Others highlighted how the patchwork of resources for both job-seekers and employers seeking qualified talent is in need of improvement. After several panelists at the two-hour session billed their respective programs as the city's "best-kept secret," state Rep. Barbara Cooper (D-Memphis) asked from the floor: "How do we get the ‘best-kept secret’ out to the public?"

Several panelists noted that small-business and minority-owned business growth can help lead the Memphis economy forward. “If we grow minority businesses, we’ll be able to grow jobs in this community,” said Luke Yancy, president of the Mid-South Minority Business Council.

Cedric Divine of the U.S. Department of Labor said he believes the Memphis workforce is largely "unaware of the advantages they have, and how to use them.”

“The biggest problem here is that people don't know the skills they have, and how important they are," he said.

For instance, Divine said, good, steady workers who find themselves unemployed after decades in the same position can feel completely adrift, unarmed with necessary skills in a labor market dependent on Web-based application forms.

After being alerted to opportunities, "people call me back and say, 'Mr. Divine, I can't use the Web, I don't know how to do it,' " he said.

This, Divine said, indicates nothing negative about the quality or ambition of a worker. While college-educated workers stand to earn higher salaries overall, he and others pointed to statistics that showed strong potential job growth for those on the lower end of the educational spectrum in Memphis for years to come.

"These people are hard workers if they can find a job," Divine said.

The disconnect between available workers and agencies attempting to place them seemed most apparent when Divine amicably told newly appointed director Jim Russell of the city's Workforce Investment Network (WIN) from the podium that the two "have to work on what should be a daily basis."

In part, the purpose of Wharton's forum was to allow for information to flow more easily. At times, audience questions were met by panelists pointing to available resources or programs already in place.

Panelist Allee Webb, a branch manager at the local staffing service provider Manpower, told the crowd that she, too, has lived through the economy’s ups and downs. A single mother who had lost her job and found herself harnessed to a ballooning mortgage, she prevailed by finding a job at Manpower and is now helping others find work.

“I knew enough to pull myself and land myself a job,” she said.

But others don’t — and that’s part of the problem, “recession or no recession,” she said.

The newly unemployed need to be reminded, she said, that “each one of us have values and worth.”

• Email John Hubbell at jhubbell@memphischamber.com.