Ohio, Montgomery Co. ‘under siege’ as jobs disappear. (Dayton Daily News, 4/17/2011)
Excerpt: Montgomery County endured the steepest slide in payroll earnings among all metro counties in Ohio during the past decade, a Dayton Daily News examination shows.
Annual private payrolls dropped about $3 billion — from $11.4 billion in 2000 when adjusted for inflation to $8.3 billion by 2010 — according to data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. That 27 percent slide is the biggest percentage decline among Ohio’s six large metro counties, all of which lost to some degree.
Since 2000, Ohio’s total annual private payroll dropped by $22 billion, the examination found, a devastating economic implosion that hit every aspect of Ohio’s economy — from grocery stores, restaurants and retail to government budgets and beyond. As one telling indicator, the Ohio Department of Education said the proportion of youngsters receiving federally subsidized school lunches has reached a record high of four for every 10 students.
“It’s not a bright picture right now,” said Roger Blair who lost his manufacturing job, as did his wife Cheryl, when Siemens Energy & Automation closed plants in Urbana and Bellefontaine in 2009 and exported the jobs to Mexico.
Roger is working again, but the Logan County family’s income has been cut in half and will drop further when Cheryl’s unemployment benefits run out.
“I don’t have any benefits,” said Roger of his job working as a contractor. “I don’t have insurance, no type of future benefits, either.”
The vanishing wages that the Blairs and countless other Ohio families are experiencing come as legions of manufacturing and other higher wage jobs disappear amid accelerating global trade and enormous international trade deficits. Those deficits punished Ohio, where manufacturing has long undergirded the state’s economic might and provided entry to the middle class.
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