Posted on 11/22/2008 7:53:40 PM PST by mathwhizz
“You just sit and you worry,” said Pat Weber, a construction administrator in Fennville who was laid off more than a year ago. “In the last year, I’ve put in for more than 100 jobs. I stopped counting after 110. It’s just so defeating.”
All around Fennville and its neighbors here in southwest Michigan, front lawns are peppered with for-sale signs and merchants complain about slow days. But while this remains a beautiful place with none of the obvious blight of Detroit on the other side of the state, residents say the hardship beneath the surface is very real.
It is the same story in other parts of Michigan, as the state’s already entrenched recession — in at least its fifth year, according to economic experts — digs deeper as a result of the recent global financial crisis.
New data show the state’s unemployment rate crept up to 9.3 percent, almost three times what it was in 2000, and, along with Rhode Island, the highest in the country. Just last week, Herman Miller Inc., an office furniture company based in Zeeland, Mich., announced that it would eliminate or lay off 400 to 650 workers, many of them in western Michigan. SKD Automotive, an auto parts manufacturer in Jonesville, Mich., where it is the largest employer, indicated it would eliminate 300 jobs.
As a result of the steady job losses that began in the summer of 2000, 1.82 million Michigan residents, or close to 20 percent of the population, are now on some form of public assistance, including food stamps and home heating credits, a record for the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Unions, socialism, environmental regulations, Islam, ...
The future of the USA is Michigan!
Shall I be the first ...
BUSH’S FAULT!!!
I nominate Jenny Granholm for depression Czar of the Obamanation.
Her only claim to fame is sleeping with Bo from the Dukes of Hazzard.
How about looking for work in another state? Hm?
(Posted from a blue state)
Michigan voters drank the liberals’kool-aid when they voted for them and are now paying the price for their irresponsible decisions. Payback is a b*tch ain’t it?
9.3% unemployment rate would skyrocket to 20% if GM, F or Chrysler goes under. Then it could be called a depression.
Then again, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
5.56mm
Elections have consequences.
Sam really got a lot of people thinking the obvious. RIP.
A damn shame, as the folks in the western part of the state are relatively sane. I was shocked by the margins by which Macomb and Oakland Counties went for Obama. You would think they would have enough of socialism.
...and what money, pray tell,will these unemployed persons use to move and work in another state? For the most part FR is full of heartless jerks these days.
I wouldn't wish a layoff, pulling of benefits, foreclosure, or bankruptcy on my worst enemy...yet people do it here on a minute-by-minute basis. Be careful what you wish for.
Cutting government spending? Cutting the gold plated salaries, benefits and pensions of government employees? Laying off government employees? Reducing regulations?
Take note that the states in the worst financial shape are dominated by democrats in their government and are represented by democrats in the US congress.
Why do they keep getting a vote of confidence when the hole keeps getting deeper?
....we’ve been living in the twilight of the great post World War Two industrial America...people can’t believe it’s ending....there’s a mass denial going on....this week at the cafe I was eating lunch with a buddy....I said “are you worried about your Mom’s pension from GM?”....he said “hell no, that pension check is guaranteed!”...I didn’t say anything back to him....but I know with GM trading around $3.00/share nothing of theirs is ‘guaranteed’
What a shame. She is not even cute. But I have a crush on Sarah Palin since August.
***...and what money, pray tell,will these unemployed persons use to move and work in another state? ****
When I was a child my dad sold everything we had to get to a state where there were jobs. It worked!several times!
When I had a family I had to do the same thing, sell about everything I had to go to a state where jobs were plentiful.
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