Independent Economist George Zeller takes the long view in local data he released this morning on 90.3’s call-in program, The Sound of Ideas. He looked at job losses in Northeast Ohio over the last decade. And, Zeller says Ohio has never recovered from its recession at the start of the new millennium. Since 2000, Cuyahoga County has lost more than 14% of its jobs, about 116,000 people.
ZELLER: That’s more than we could fit in Browns Stadium. In fact, we’d fill up the Q with that number in addition to Browns Stadium with some left over to go over to Progressive Field.
In the same period, Lorain County lost 12% of its jobs. Even Medina County which had been one of the few bright spots in the region, started to slip last year.
Manufacturing has, of course, been particularly hard hit here for years, but the recession has only exacerbated that problem. Roger, a West Sider who called the Sound of Ideas this morning, said that everything was going well for him before the recession: savings, retirement account, and a good job working at the Brookpark auto plant. Now he says, he’s losing his job and has two homes in foreclosure.
ROGER: What people call the American Dream isn’t there anymore. So, we’re going to sell everything we’ve got. And, we’re going to buy a camper and move to Florida. And, that’s where we’re going to live.
What’s really new though is that white collar workers now are making Northeast Ohio’s unemployment lines bulge. Zeller calls it a double whammy.
ZELLER: We went three consecutive quarters last year in Cuyahoga County where we lost more jobs in finance and insurance than we lost in manufacturing.
So, what’s the solution? Many point to job retraining programs, but another guest on the Sound of Ideas, Northeastern University labor economist Andrew Sum, says most retraining programs have a lousy track record. About the only type that really helps, he says, is when the training is directly connected to an employer: like on-the-job apprenticeships. Sum says the government should provide incentives directly to companies to train talented workers.
SUM: In other words, if you retrain me, we will help subsidize my wage for the first 6-9 months of my employment so that training is taking place in a jobs setting. We can reduce income losses by working while being trained, and help these firms pick up part of the excess costs of providing this kind of training.
Sum says many of the current retraining programs are just preparing people for jobs that don’t exist.