FROM BAD TO WORSE TO. . .?

February 23, 2010

By Al Doyle

Between numerous articles in the mainstream press, TV news segments, internet and blog site reports and an ever-growing pile of anecdotal evidence, it's no secret that the U.S. economy and job market are in deep trouble.

The hard part is editing the flood of bad news down to a manageable size. Here are some of the more interesting reports from the past few days.

Michael Hanley ranks among America's top commuters. The Janesville, Wisconsin resident drives 530 miles to a General Motors assembly plant in Fairfax, Kansas each Sunday and returns home on Friday.

Why does Hanley rack up over 1000 miles a week for his $28/hour job? He was laid off when GM's Janesville plant closed, and that shutdown all but destroyed any employment opportunities in the area. Because of his seniority, the 48-year old Hanley was eligible to transfer to the plant in Kansas.

Hanley shares an apartment with other GM workers in a similar situation. Hanley makes the long round trip because he needs medical benefits for his wife's leukemia treatments. Why put up with not seeing his family and 16 hours on the road each week? Why not move everyone to Kansas?

Ever the realist, Hanley doesn't expect his assembly line job to last for long. He hopes to receive a severance package from GM when he turns 50.

New York Times reporter Peter S. Goodman explored the plight of formerly middle-class residents of southern California in "The New Poor".

"Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives - potentially for years to come," he wrote.

Jean Eisen lost her job selling beauty equipment more than two years ago and has been out of work since then. Being age 57 in his economy has made Eisen's search even more difficult, and the only income she has seen has been unemployment checks that have been extended well beyond the old limit of 26 weeks.

When the possibility of working as a supermarket cashier or night clerk at a motel was brought up, Eisen declared, "There are no bad jobs now. Any job is a good job."

Janine Booth once earned over $100,000a year in electronics sales. A long resume of successful sales positions has done nothing to get Booth off the unemployment rolls. No one can accuse Booth of being lazy in her job search.

"She sends out dozens of resumes a week and rarely hears back," Goodman wrote. "She responds to on-line ads only to learn they are seeking operators for telephone sex lines or people willing to send mysterious packages from their homes."

At least 6.3 million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer, which is the highest number since 1948. Don't expect things to improve in the foreseeable future.

"An unusual constellation of forces - some embedded in modern-day economics, others unique to this wrenching recession - might make it especially difficult for those out of work to find their way back to the middle class," Goodman observed.

The state of Illinois owes billions to local school districts, state universities and vendors. Politicians are coming up with proposals to raise taxes, but very little is being said or done about cutting state spending and the size of government.

Who would have ever guessed that North Dakota would be a trendy destination? With just 644,000 residents, the cold, remote state exceeds only Vermont and Wyoming in population, but North Dakota has one feature that has caught the attention of some desperate Americans.

Thanks to oil and agriculture, North Dakota's 4.4 percent unemployment rateis by far the lowest in the nation. Some jobless refugees who migrated in a desperate attempt to find work have created a minor - but growing - homeless class ,which is unprecedented in North Dakota's rural culture.