The View on the Ground

Posted by scapozzola on 01/22/2010

President Obama is visiting Lorain, Ohio today and what he'll see won't likely be fun.  Ohio has been exceptionally hard hit by manufacturing loss, and the signs of unemployment, closed factories, and shuttered stores are omnipresent.  In fact, Ohio has lost roughly 300,000 manufacturing jobs in the past decade. The Washington Post says Northeast Ohio's prospects aren't looking good in the near turn:
When candidate Obama visited Lorain County, the jobless rate here was 6.9 percent. By the time he took office, it was up to 7.9 percent. It reached a high of 11.5 percent last summer, before retreating to the current level of 9.5 percent. The high jobless rate is hurting many businesses that have never recovered from the relentless wave of plant closures, feeding into a downward cycle.
Ohio is a prime example of what happens when manufacturing jobs leave.  Let's hope the President's visit will renew his own calls to revitalize American industry.

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Rachel wrote 3 years 16 weeks ago

I remember growing up in

I remember growing up in Lorain how busy we were. Stacks were smoking, workers were spending and our marinas were full of boats. Now it's like a ghost town with many people skipping town to find jobs. My high school was turned into a middle school and then tore down because they just don't need that many schools for a shrinking population.

A good indication of times getting tough was when Revco was replaced with Dollar General and IGA was replaced with Save-a-Lot. The Buckeyes in my family need help, that empty Ford plant should be filled with start-ups. Lorain has the skilled workers, put them to work President Obama!

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