County jobless rate at 25-year high
Highest level since 1983; numbers likely to worsenBy LARRY RINGLER / Tribune Chronicle
Article Photos
Trumbull County's jobless rate rocketed to 14.7 percent in January, matching its worst level since August 1983, as the economic recession continued to hammer the county's manufacturing base.
The jump more than doubled the 7.1 percent rate in January 2008 and was a sizeable increase from 9.8 percent in December, according to Tuesday's report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The January number is preliminary and subject to revision.
The last time the county's unemployment rate was so high came as the nation was trying to dig out of the 1981-82 recession, then the worst economic stretch since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Niles resident Gina Tibbs knows she's entering a difficult job market, even armed with an associate's degree from Trumbull Business College as a legal assistant.
''I'm worried about finding something,'' she said as she waited in line at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Service Center in Warren.
The 26-year-old mother of two said she wants to stay in the area but is willing to broaden her job search to Cleveland or Akron area ''if the money was right.''
Frank Flaminio, supervisor at the One-Stop work force development service in Warren, said his department saw 3,857 jobseekers in the first two months this year compared to 2,479 in the same period of 2008. Of this year's total, 709 were first-timers, a number he said is ''dramatically higher.''
The county's jobless rate peaked at 24.5 percent in November 1982. It improved to 4.2 percent in October 2000.
What's more, layoffs since January are expected to drive the rate higher, the latest being 82 at the General Electric's Ohio Lamp plant in Warren.
The biggest hits have come from the General Motors Corp. Lordstown Complex, where 1,990 workers were furloughed as the factory slashes production of its Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 small cars due to weak sales. Up to 800 more workers are scheduled to be idled April 6.
Auto factories' layoffs have led to hundreds of furloughs for many area auto parts companies, including Delphi Packard Electric, Lear Corp. and others.
The area's largest steelmaker, OAO Severstal Warren, also has idled roughly 1,000 workers of its 1,200 staff as demand for steel has plunged.
The county's latest jobless number rank it 12th among the state's 88 counties for highest unemployment. Huron County, located just south of Erie County in north central Ohio, had the highest jobless rate at 18.3 percent.
Youngstown's jobless rate of 14.4 percent was the worst among the state's largest cities, edging Toledo at 14.3 percent.
Unemployment in surrounding counties was 13.4 percent in Mahoning and Ashtabula, 12.8 percent in Columbiana, 10.2 percent in Portage and 6.5 percent in Geauga, second best only to Delaware's 6.1 percent rate.
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Micky1
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03-05-09 6:33 PM
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Seems to me that Jimmy Carter put us at the last high unemployment rate. Trumbull and Mahoning counties are controlled by democrats. Then again, the republican's haven't done crap either! MY POINT: What do the politician's care about our existence? Most of them were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Those that weren't, are a very small minority and carry no weight in Washington. Do any of you out their have millions to spend on a campaign? I have respect for those who went throught the depression and fought in World War II. They made the ultimate sacrifice, so greedy, bonehead politician's could ruin this country in a relatively short period of time. God Bless those who lived through the depression and WWII and those who have served our country since.
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GMRetireeSuckingItDry
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03-05-09 11:20 AM
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Time to hit the links. :-)
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hulkhogan
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03-05-09 10:36 AM
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Also, retrain for what? High skilled jobs are leaving just as fast because we "unskilled" folks dont have the money or jobs to buy what the "skilled" have designed! Not all of us can afford to take 2-4yrs off to be a "legal-assistant" or a nurse. The bills need to be paid! You old ***** are so lucky to have lived in a time when there were other jobs to turn to. But now you are sucking the system dry because you all retired young and people like oldman grump wont DIE!!!
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hulkhogan
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03-05-09 10:30 AM
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Nothing is wrong with working at a christian call center, just one thing you have to be a born again christian to qualify-sherlock. And some of those call centers working for those blood suckers like Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts are sick!!! Asking poor old people for money so these fakes can continue to fly in a private jet and live in their southern mansions! So yes i guess working their is wrong-EVIL IN FACT!!!
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pahootaman
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03-05-09 9:54 AM
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Mexico is running into the same problem. Companies are packing up and going to eastern Europe.
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UneducatedDrone
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03-04-09 6:58 PM
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lol Joe, that's what I've been saying; the uneducated hillbillies in this country just simply aren't qualified. That's why one after another corporations are moving oversees, to find a qualified, productive, and an all around superior workforce.
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JoeCool
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03-04-09 5:56 PM
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CORRECTION - the OLDER generations have less competition for jobs (i.e. The youth have no work ethic and can't stand up to the older generations).
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JoeCool
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03-04-09 5:54 PM
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Somthing wrong with the Christian call center? You saying those folks don't have jobs? What are you sayin', exactly? Don't wait for the steel mills to come back. Go get the education you need to get a better job. It will pay off. That's why we won't get through the economic woes this time. In the 30's, and even the 80's, people did what they needed to to survive. Today, we (generally speaking) look to someone else to pull our boot straps up and even walk for us. Future generation? Nothing but a bunch of mobile art museums and pin cushions. I'd hire none of them - they disgust me. A lot of employers feel that way. They are unemployable, which means the young generation has little competition for jobs.
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OGI812
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03-04-09 3:59 PM
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Wait a minute! I thought this was the worst economy since the great depression?How can it be then that the unemployment is the worst it's been in 25 years when the Great depression happened over 60 years ago?? The 80's were a little fuzzy-what with drugs and alcohol and all-but I don't think THAT was when the Great depression was......was it? In 6 weeks Obama has already proposed more spending than the combined total from the founding of our country until innaguration day 2009. Folks we ain't seen nuthin' yet!! Once inflation takes off we'll pray for 4 more years of Carter!
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Judyann
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03-04-09 1:14 PM
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Just something I wish to point out: The insurance companies are alot of the problems too. They dictate to the medical field how to code their billing that gives more to the insurance companies than to the doctors. It is corporate greed, but it also all of us, we Americans, who kept looking the other way, some putting their apples all in the same cart, others buying "stuff" and still others buying and spending so much with no hope of repaying their debt. Hulk: You are correct, Nafta did start before Clinton, he signed it yes, but didn't have the twins to stand up to the Repubs. We can all play blame game, but it is on all of us, from corps. down to the average Jo and beyond.
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pahootaman
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03-04-09 12:07 PM
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I'm unable to read the paper edition, there's a pole dancer job in the classifieds? wow, seems like there's always a market for that kind of racket.
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reader
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03-04-09 11:07 AM
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18 jobs in today's paper --one pole dancer, one avon lady, 3 Trib carriers, 2 child care jobs. So we are actually down to 11 jobs. There are a couple driver jobs and medical jobs for which you need a specific license. There really is not much here.
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hulkhogan
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03-04-09 9:57 AM
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NAFTA and WTO will not leave because for some reason Democrats and Republicans are doing nothing to stop free trade. This unfair practice was started well before Clinton and will continue well past Obama. -Joe- when i left Delphi in 2006 the classifieds were significantly larger, extremely larger than today. There were atleast 4 to 5 pages of jobs on a Sunday compared to 1 to 2 now. But if you think working at a CHRISTIAN CALL CENTER OR BEING A PAPER BOY FOR THE TRIBUNE IS A JOB THEN GO APPLY!
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taxpayer
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03-04-09 9:19 AM
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I agree Grump, Bill Clinton's NAFTA is wrong and needs to be abolished. I also think unions will continue to take even more concessions. That will not be enough to turn this economy around. If every worker in USA worked for minimum wage it would not be enough to turn this economy around. Corporate Greed is the cancer that is killing our country. Common to all industries today is that wealth more and more rises to the top away from the working class. This is class warfare. It is centuries old class warfare, nothing new, nothing complicated, very simple.
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MD1533USMC
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03-04-09 9:04 AM
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There you go again Grumpy! You think you know what caused this problem then why don't you get off your duff and fix it for America...you would be a millionair if you could but we all dought that your that smart...just an obnoxious old man, grumpy!
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SINGLEMOM5628
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03-04-09 7:57 AM
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there not even jobs in middlefield either,some people hard to get job when we are over 50,not even a mcdonald job,it is geting worse then geting better.now welfare thinks there are job out there (BUT WHERE)not around here.
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SINGLEMOM5628
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03-04-09 7:52 AM
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that right joecool
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Thinker
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03-04-09 7:05 AM
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OMG: Let's not leave out Mr. G.W. Bush. He sent the U.S. to war based on lies and mis-information, costing over 4000 lives and hundreds, if not thousands of billions of dollars. I'm afraid that Obama will pick another Mid-East country (Iran?) under similar BS circumstances, which will really put the last nail in our financial coffin.
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JoeCool
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03-04-09 7:02 AM
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If there are no jobs, then why does the Trib continue to tease us with a classified section for open jobs? Oh...I know why...because there ARE jobs!
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pahootaman
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03-04-09 6:41 AM
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Well, at least Tim Ryan got a hospital a new MRI machine with his share of the stimulus.
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OldManGrump2
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03-04-09 6:25 AM
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14.7% in January will be topped in February, even topped more in March. The local economy has just fallen apart. GE's Ohio Lamp & Mahoning Glass are just the latest in the round of permanent layoffs. I think we all know to thank Bill Clinton's NAFTA & the greedy Unions who caused businesses to seek NAFTA for the Mahoning Valley unemployment troubles. There is plenty of blame to go around.
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Patt
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03-04-09 12:44 AM
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Well it is higher, since its based on Jobless claims not on how many are really unemployed!!!
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