Category: Uncategorized

Rust Belt Employment Up in August, but Job Growth Still Lags National Trend

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Nationwide, the state with the largest unemployment increase in August was the Rust Belt state of Indiana (0.4 percentage points). California, New Jersey, Oregon and another Rust Belt state, West Virginia, each saw a 0.3 percentage point increase in unemployment. Over the last year, Indiana and West Virginia have experienced unemployment increases of 0.9 percentage […]

Blue Collar Jobs Down in Rust Belt as the Country on the Whole Continues to See Job Growth

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New York continues to see the largest losses in manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt. The latest state jobs report shows that overall employment grew strongly in 11 states and Washington, DC, while only Georgia lost a substantial number of jobs (-14,100 or -0.3 percent) in July.

Black Women’s Equal Pay Day and Differences in Pay in Driving Occupations

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Today is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day when a black woman’s pay catches up to the average white man’s 2016 pay, for those with high school degrees. This means that a black woman would have worked until nearly August 2017 in order to reach parity for 2016. This gap persists at all education […]

Note to Employers: the Construction Labor Market Not as Tight as Advertised

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Numerous recent news stories describe the labor market for construction jobs as excessively tight [1]. Construction employers struggle to find blue collar workers, these stories claim, and therefore are supposedly offering luxurious compensation packages to entice people to take jobs in the industry, or are forced to turn down work. These employers and journalists often […]

Pennsylvania and Ohio Manufacturing Job Growth Takes a Hit in First Half of 2017

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At the national level, there was an increase in the total number of blue collar jobs in June. Construction gained 15,000 jobs while mining and logging added 8,000 jobs. Manufacturing, though still seeing positive gains, only added 1,000 jobs.

The Decline of Coal is Likely to Continue

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The coal mining industry often becomes a focus in national political campaigns. The debate often hinges around whether regulations are the main reason why coal mining employment has declined versus an explanation that emphasizes increases in productivity and technology in the industry, as well as the development of cheaper sources of energy that compete with […]

Blue Collar Job Growth Weakens in May

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Trump doesn’t seem to be bringing the jobs home.

Despite What the Director of the EPA Says, We Have Not Had a Boom in Coal

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Over the weekend, EPA chief Scott Pruitt made the rounds of the Sunday shows talking up the yuge increase in coal jobs we have seen in the last few months. Problem is he was pretty far off base, claiming that there were 50,000 new coal mining jobs so far this year. Responding to a clip […]

Will President Trump Make Rust-Belt Manufacturing Great Again?

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We now have three months of state job data under President Trump. While the course of the economy is still largely the result of the policies that were put in place before Donald Trump came into office, it is reasonable to believe that we are now beginning to feel some impact of his administration’s policies.

Manufacturing Falls in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania in April

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Construction down in all rust belt states except Wisconsin