Why do you care if it hasn't been initialized?

int[][] jobData;
try {
    jobData = getJobData(args[0]);
} catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException e) {
    System.out.println("Please provide a data file.");
    System.exit(1);
}
System.out.println(jobData[0][0]);

>>> error: variable jobData might not have been initialized
        System.out.println(jobData[0][0]);
                           ^
1 error
[Finished in 0.9s]