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 ...
My first laugh of the day, thanks.
Where did the cash come from?
>>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.<<
Truth be told!
People don’t get the idea that MI has been in a recession for years. We can’t “sell” anything. I’ve put things up on Craigslist. Nothing is selling. I’m moving onto ebay and praying that the clothes I sell there will buy the new ones that will fit in the Spring.
No one is going to hire my 10 and 8 year olds for squat. Even the girls at my church that used to pay for extras with babysitting are finding no work. Go to any movie theater on a weeknight. No one is there.
One day when the proud ego puffers on this thread, who think that we are so stupid that we haven’t thought of “selling the house and moving” are sitting in our situation, I will chuckle and not say, “Told you so.”
I’m just hoping that the lovely Dem mayor of our city will follow Ann Arbor’s lead and let us keep chickens in the backyard. Otherwise my kids will be living on peanut butter for their protein.
You folks have any snow over on your side yet? All we’ve had is cold
Hey-we are dealing with this in Ohio too. My husband will be out of work for a month just before Christmas-who knows if there will be a job at the end of this-during downtime, management used to get paid we don’t know if this will be so now. My kids are driven to school or walk the two miles to school. My town can’t afford busing since Packard and Adelphi left. We have no electives in our schools. Next years, there will be no gym, music or foreign language programs.
These bozo’s (not all of you) who post about ‘moving on to another state’ are clueless. You can’t move if you have no money. If you leave a house behind, the bank will come after you and garnish whatever wages you manage to make. The fact is what is happening in Michigan and Ohio is a glimpse of what will come to all Americans in the future.
You think Bush really wants to socialize the banks? He may not be a Reagan conservative, but these bailout are not characteristic of Pres. Bush. He is desperate because the crisis is so severe. Those of you who bash Michigan. I’ve seen plenty of that are losers who no longer understand what it means to be an American. We help our own, and we don’t ask them who they voted for first.
I guess the GOP will become a regional Southern Party if this sort of attitude prevails. Is this what anyone really wants? Is it good for our country?
When we visit, it almost seems like visiting another planet. The first time I went, I was planning our departure time, wanting to get on the road early, before "rush hour." When I said that, my relatives looked at me like I was crazy. There was no rush hour.
The difference between MI and a place with a vibrant growing economy, like ATL's, was stark.
Yep, I haven’t had a lot. The biggest dump was around 6 inches but it was really only around 3 due to the warm ground. But, 10 min. north and south of me got hammered. A friend in Saugatuck has over 15 inches of snow already. And more to come today. Oh, and its cold too. Maybe I’ll invest in a plow for my Grand Cherokee and make some side money.
I can understand his frustration, but these two ladies (one of whom has since died) are living off of bequeathments--nothing else. No social security, nothing.
BTW...getting screamed at by a big, angry guy wielding a shovel? Really scary.
I should say this is Nyconse. I see I forgot to sign in under my own name. I have not posted in a while it’s too depressing-have read many threads.
My family is in Ohio. I was born there.
The day after the election, I spoke with my niece in Canton. She has a two year old, her hubby is a sheriff and she works the opposite shift at a photo studio.
He was losing his job, she was hysterical. They were going to lose their house for sure. She had called the bank and was trying to arrange for some way to get out of it without totally ruining them. The bank was actually very kind about it and were seeing how they could do it.
They are leaving and going to TX, already in debt, baby in tow.
Yeah, this is all cake.
Thank you!
People don’t get it.
Oh that is scary!
I sure hope you're wrong, we all do.
I lost my job 11/28/06 and it really sucked for a while but at least I was able to start drawing a pension a year later.
My year long job search was futile so I can't offer you much advice other than to start networking amongst your business contacts, your family members and friends.
Manpower companies such as Kelly Svcs. seem to be the direction companies are headed towards if they are in need of professional staffing. A friend of mine who is a tool and diemaker worked for a company called Trialon two years ago until he was laid off again. Fortunately another contracting company hired him and he's been steadily employed ever since.
Check out this site: Trialon.com
Good luck......
Back in the late 1980’s I met a man at an RV park in Washington state. He had been laid off at an auto plant in Detroit. He said he figured things would only get worse there so he moved to Washington — where he immediately found work.
In the Great Depression it was Okey’s (Oklahoma) and Arky’s (Arkansas) moving to other places. In this one maybe it will be Michies (Michigan) and Cali’s (California).
Thanks for the note. I have a marketing/branding/communications strategy job now and would like to stay in that field- though I am pretty darn dangerous in IT vision planning and business process simplification. Kinda a Jane of all. I’m only 39 so a pension isn’t an option for me, though totally grabbing my 401k is looking like an option, especially in this crazy market.
I wish your niece the best. Here’s hoping for much success.
Educate me. Typical family on your street. Do they own a house, do both parents work and what do they do? What other jobs are there (what is in the help wanted section of newspaper)?
Perhaps the gentleman could try developing a little initiative.
A little reading comprehension on your part would have gone a long way in your discussion with me. Reread my posts, s l o w l y.
Additionally, don’t ASSUME that everyone of us in the N.O. metro area got trailers or handouts, you’d be wrong. There were nearly 2 million of us who did evacuate and returned to damaged homes. I am not representative of the inner cities. The people I refer to are not “refugees” and recovered almost entirely without govt. assistance through insurance and their own hard work. Many moved to Texas and were welcomed not mistreated as others feared earlier in this thread.
Better to heed you’re own last line of advice than to open your mouth about a metropolitan area and a people you obviously know nothing about except through propaganda from the MSM.
Where’s your evidence besides assumption and one anecdote here or there?
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