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White-Collar Unemployment

12 May 2009 One Comment

A sad story about Toledo in Sunday’s Washington Post.

The article describes how the downturn in the economy is hitting white-collar workers- hard. (I should know, I’m one of them!)

“In this corner of Ohio, the workforce is contracting at an alarming speed, with unemployment climbing to rates more typical of counties in Appalachia,” the article states. “In March, unemployment in Toledo reached 12.6 percent, an increase of more than 50 percent over March 2008.”

It continues, “More than 1,200 people attended a Toledo Zoo job fair to fill about 200 minimum-wage summer jobs running the carousel or selling hot dogs. Another 500 dropped off résumés.”

Unemployed workers are taking lower-paying jobs, leaving town, or in the case of one man, just continuing to go into the office despite no longer getting a paycheck.

Thanks to Rust Wire reader Alex M. Parker for bringing this article to our attention.

-KG

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  • schmange

    I was born in Toledo. But my family moved away when I was two.
    Then, I got a job at the newspaper there about a year ago and moved back. I got laid off about four months ago.
    I was talking to my dad about Toledo and he said 25 years ago when he was working in the city, every time there was a recession the pressure would really be on. (He was in sales.)
    Because Toledo is so closely tied to the auto industry and big purchases like cars are the first thing people forego during hard times, hard times come early and really sting in Toledo.
    I don’t think that’s changed.
    After I got laid off, I thought my job prospects in the city were pretty grim. There was about 13 percent unemployment then.
    Here in Cleveland, which is supposedly so depressed, unemployment is still less than 10 percent. Plus there’s just a bigger employment pool to draw from.
    I worry about my friends that are still in Toledo.