BLS has released March unemployment for states, and they are bad. Really bad. The 10% club has a new member: Indiana. And five other states will are close to joining the club: Florida (9.7%), Kentucky (9.8%),Mississippi (9.4%), Ohio(9.7%), and Tennessee (9.6%).
With the exception of Florida, it's clear what is driving up unemployment in these states. It's hard times in the auto industry.
In addition to its finding that a bankruptcy-related shutdown of the U.S. motor vehicle industry could cost up to 3.3 million U.S. jobs, this study finds:
• The 900,000 to 3.3 million jobs lost nationwide would be distributed among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the biggest losers, in numeric terms: Michigan (112,500 to 407,300 jobs lost), California (84,500 to 305,900 jobs), Ohio (60,500 to 219,100 jobs), Texas (55,200 to 200,000), Illinois (42,800 to 154,900), Indiana (40,700 to 147,300), and New York (39,900 to 144,600) (Table 2a).
• The hardest-hit states, as a share of total state employment, are: Michigan (up to 407,300 jobs, 8.9% of state employment), Indiana (up to 147,300 jobs, 5.0% of employment), Kentucky (up to 75,000 jobs, 4.2% of employment),
Alabama (up to 76,100 jobs, 4.0% of employment), Tennessee (up to 106,400, 4.0% of employment), and Ohio (up to 219,100 jobs, 4.0% of employment) (Table 2b).
Oregon
Oregon doesn't have large manufacturing or an auto industry. So, I don't quite get why Oregon's unemployment is so high. MI/IN/NC I do.
I do note that the Western states with the super high unemployment rates are also "illegal alien land", but that doesn't make any sense whatsoever in showing up in the unemployment statistics, unless those states are counting illegals from construction in their stats.
Housing construction is assuredly down in those 3 states but those jobs have been so dominated by illegal labor, this just isn't making much sense.
If you could break down the occupation data in job losses maybe we can get a clearer picture.
Could be the entire housing bubble industry as well in those states....it wasn't just construction but real estate people, bank loans, etc. industry, maybe this is where it's coming from.
I'd have to double check BLS stats
but I think that Oregon basically has a high tech economy in Portland scabbed onto an older, primary goods (timber, minerals, ag products) based economy. And I imagine the the dip in the housing market cut a lot of the demand for building supplies. Also there are a few RV manufacturers in the state.
Want to really be freaked out?
That's industrial capacity utilization. It fell off a cliff. This is where the government needs to be spending money, but instead we're pissing it away on the financial sector to feed the elite.
The auto industry is never going to be the same, but we need a market conforming industrial policy where the government looks at industrial capacity not being used, and finds profitable uses for it. The wind energy sector is an obvious target for former auto plants. Many of the skills and tools are transferable, so there isn't a macroeconomic collapse.
Same thing with housing. Building starts are down, but money spent on increasing residential energy efficiency keeps building trades guys on the job.
And both allow us to limit our energy imports improving our balance of trade with the rest of the world.
China and energy imports are honestly about the same level.
We need people in power with a plan, not Bambi.
high tech - OR
Yes, it does have some, but it's no where near WA or CA.
We need to push up manufacturing policy, the insanity of bad trade deals etc.
I agree, they are busy feeding their zombie bank pals and they act like manufacturing is a dirty word.
I tried to warn during the primaries and it's almost like discrimination the attitude of team Obama towards manufacturing.
It's class
Think about it. There's a reason that the attitude towards manufacturing is so negative. There's an insidious belief in this country that education makes you a better person, so that a lack of education (or the type of education that you get at these prestigious schools, which is basically credentialing) makes you a worse person.
Enter the education aristocracy, complete with the relevant titles.
We need skills training, not credentialing. But that means calling a lot of very powerful people out for the bullshit they've perpetrated.
Consider the way that
Consider the way that auto/metal/wood shop and tech school training has been marginalized by the mainstream "teacher's union" education establishment. It has long been viewed that learning a trade--like machining--was too "blue collar," and even now many of the mechanical folks entering M.I.T. have had to learn their trade skills offsite from public/private schools. So, yes, just like the top managements of Auto, Print News (and the other failing U.S. industries), the education establishment is not without blame in 'facilitating' the offshoring of U.S. manufacturing.
Industrial arts
Veblen called it at the turn of the last century, and it's still spot on now.
This is part of the reason that manufacturing is in a funk.
And we've exported our machine tools industry, so we have to pay the Europeans and Japanese for machines that make industrial products.
I have to disagree
I absolutely agree that vocational training has been marginalized in the american public school system. However, I don't know what you mean by mainstream "teacher's union" education establishment. Shop teacher's are union members just like English teacher's. Do you seriously think they wanted to eliminate their own positions or that their union wanted to lose them?
I am not an expert on the history or evolution of education in America, I admit that. I know that shop was part of high school when I attended in the 60s and I remember asking my counselor if I could take a couple of wood shop electives as a senior. He discouraged it because I was in an "academic" curriculum. I've never forgiven him.
I would bet $$$ to donuts that federal funding restrictions have almost everything to do with the demise of votech in our present system. And as manfrommiddletown mentioned, the pursuit of creating an education aristocracy at the local level, just hastened the process.
We're not just talking about
We're not just talking about shop teachers and their self-interest. The Educational establishments, which include the teacher's unions, have some [not all] responsibility in the cutting of industrial arts programs. Look at where the priorities have been...CAD (Computer Assisted Design), not machining. Japan and Germany still retain their manufacturing base. We don't.
No argument about priorities
A lot of us feel we are living in an "Orwellian Moment" these days. But thinking about education, I can't resist the urge to re-read Kurt Vonnegut's early novel, "Player Piano". Remember MS degrees to pump gas, stupid presidents elected from tv shows, etc, etc? And he wrote that back in the early 50s I believe.
One of the greatest novels
ever written. Vonnegut was prophetic, except on the account that it isn't machines that are doing the doing, it's the transfer of jobs overseas where labor is cheaper.
Oregon has the lumber industry
Lumber industry is taking a hit from the housing sector.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
possible
I think the unemployment rates in rural areas in OR have hit the roof so maybe this is it.
High Tech, Low Tech, Take your Pick
On the high tech side- it's the auto industry and the fact that they're a consumer of computer chips, and the financial industry, which consumes information technology.
On the low tech side, it's a combination of natural resources tariffs and the highest minimum wage in the United States, combined with the drop in building supplies sales.
Add to all that high illegal immigration- the loss of what little auto manufacturing we did have (mainly semi trucks and RVs), and H-1b American replacement, it's easy to see why Oregon is so high.
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Executive compensation is inversely proportional to morality and ethics.
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Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.
I was diggin out writing samples from blog posts I did over at
Daily Kos, and I came across when DkMich linked to a graphic I did here at the beginning of December on the effects of an auto industry collapse on unemployment. I'm feeling sort of like Cassandra here.
Hmmm. Compare this to the March unemployment numbers.....
these maps to me imply
that the auto industry is highly connected in Oregon. Gotta be 3rd parties, dealerships, etc.
RVs
yes.
But it's probably lumber mills and associated products.
A lot of a modern building arrives manufactured to the site.
For example trusses, and engineered floor beams.
The fact remains
if even GM falls, what we would essentially have is two countries tied inside of one national border, but with one being an almost economic basket case. The Midwest, where I'm from, is going to take a hit no matter what. The question becomes how bad? The West, particularly California, will take a hit because a lot of tech goes to heavy industry from things like chips found in cars to computers in R&D. The South, well something tells me that in light of the economic tornado that would be a collapse of GM ( and I would say Chrysler), would give the Southern governors the leeway to insure that unions don't take hold down there. Newt Gingrich said on Fox News that he had talked to some governors and ideas of free trade zones like you see in China were mentioned. It wouldn't surprise me if that happened in places like Chattanooga.
You won't get the trade barriers that have been mentioned on this site. Not so long as retailers are tied to the hip to Asian distributors. Something is going to happen, I can't put my finger on it, but it's going to be big and dare say destructive. Either the consumer stops spending on foreign made goods, or the availability drops or the price becomes prohibitive.