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 ...
Right at this momen, he has a job. It is running on defense contracts. You can see where that is going.
I’m not saying that we can’t make it. We will make it. I have a covenant with Our Lord and we will make it.
I’m just looking at the people on this thread who have the, “sell the house and move attitude”, that they are totally clueless as to how it is up here. The housing bubble busted a while ago. People were abandoning houses that they were in for a year (no equity) and banks are now selling those for NOTHING. My house has all the equity of my parents (30 years) and my hubby (5 years) and us (10 years) We are losing everything and like I said, FEMA isn’t helping us.
Here in Southwest Arkansas, there is definitely work for welders and equipment maintenance workers. If a hi-lo driver is a forklift, then maybe. Press operator, don't know. Sanitation worker probably not.
“you would think the populace could figure it out.”
I agree, however I have conversations with the dolts every day and they simply continue to blame Bush. The idiocy is rampant in SE MI.
What, are you making too much money??? I'm certainly not...
Again, here in SW Arkansas, there's not a big pool of people who want to work but cannot. In fact, the unemployment rates in the fall and winter are inflated by the presence of seasonal workers (loggers, construction) who draw unemployment during hunting season.
Ah - Michigan - home of Granholm - because she has screwed up Michigan so bad - she gets to help Hussein Obama screw up the country.
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday. - John Wayne
>>Exactly what to do know is a really a tough choice. I guess I’ll have to figure out at what point I’ll lose the house anyway, and stop paying the mortgage and save up the cash six months from that...
I’m not going to wait until my savings accounts and cash are all zero to move - I figure it is best to go on a job-hunting vacation to some of these other wonderful states and just abandon the house and leave with some cash in my pocket and what I can carry in the two vehicles...<<
That is exactly where we are at.
Couple it with a husband who is flat out delusional about all of this. He told me last summer when I started saying, “If Obama is elected you will be out of a job, let’s make some plans” than I was a “downer”. Oh Great.
His boss is telling him not to worry for a year. By that time, the state will have fallen. Personally, I’m stocking away as much money as I can. We’re doing Christmas but slimming on food. And Christmas is pretty lean too.
I have no problem with working at McDonalds or Walmart. When we board up the house and bring in the AC so it isn’t stolen, I pray that someday we can sell it for SOMETHING. I don’t even need to make the money back that we paid, but everything being gone is tough. We’ll do it, we’ll make it, but I don’t want to hear from FReepers that it’s my fault for voting Dem (I didn’t) and Oh well if your life sucks (as they sit in a much better situation). All I’m looking for is silence from those who are totally uninformed.
We in MI are from good stock. Most of us (all the MI FReepers for sure) are hard workers and dedicated people. We’ll make it. One or two, “My heart goes out to you” posts would go a long way.
I’ve had a couple FReepers offer my hubby a job. I can’t tell you how nice it was, even if it didn’t pan out. I am eternally grateful for that few moments of, we’re going to move. It was heartwarming.
It would be terrible to sell the house here at a huge loss, move down there and buy a house then lose the job again and be stuck down south. Wayne is 62 or 63 years old........
People don’t get it.
My hubby says the same thing. If we move, what guarantees us that we will have a job in a year?
Living elsewhere is not going to be too hard for us. We’ve got a Hybrid Trailer so our rent will be minimal. I’m going to get a Pod and put the belongings in there. But people think that this is all just cake. It’s not. And it’s not a few people here. It’s many of us.
Bet they’ll all be happy as clams to have us invade on their state. Lots of Michiganders are going to suck their states dry when we can’t find work. I’m not, but many will.
They need to watch out for what they wish for.
“I will likely be among the unemployed before Christmas.”
I’m sorry to hear that FRiend. You will be in my thoughts and prayers over this rough time.
Thank you. I’ve never been in a situation like this before.
And here I always thought that one appeal for MI was that there were no hurricanes, earthquakes or tsunamis. Turns out that Jenny from da Bloc is all three wrapped in one!
It is definitely not something to take lightly. My Brother in law just sold his house in Clarkston and took an $80k loss on it so he could move to Ohio and another field of work. The good news is that he has a background that allows him to move around. The bad news is that his eldest daughter just started at Eastern Michigan.
I was raised on and off in Texas and if I lost my job here in Grand Rapids, I would be down there so fast - the highway would be blistered. I’m 52 but am an optimistic person so feel i can always start again anytime anywhere. Its scary, not fun, and emotionally hard but it can be done. I started in Grand Rapids 12 years ago from the south Pacific where I had been for 14 years. Its just a job......
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday. - John Wayne
LOL! Ya got that right!
Wow! He actually sold? Fantastic!
We have a house four doors down that was up for 225,000.
They dropped the price over and over until the couple moved back from FL because they couldn’t sell it at 125,000.
And let me tell you, the place is beautiful. New carpet, new windows, beautiful landscaping, the whole nine yards.
This thread is making me sick to my stomach...
Your suggestions illustrate just how little you understand the situation in Michigan, but have no fear...what our Governor has done to the mitten, so 0bama will do to the other 49. You're going to understand it firsthand.
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