Pennsylvania's jobless rate hit 9.3 percent in July, barely below the 9.5% national average. The state Department of Labor and Industry says that's a full percentage point higher than it was in July 2009. One thousand more Pennsylvanians joined the ranks of the unemployed, bringing the total jobless number to 592,000. About seven thousand more jobs disappeared when temporary government census positions ended.
The Keystone Research Center, a liberal-leaning, public-policy group in Harrisburg, released a report right before Labor Day on employment in the Keystone State. Their chief labor economist, Mark Price, Ph.D., is a guest Thursday night. Among the report's highlights:
* In the past 12 months, Pennsylvania has gone from losing 30,000 jobs per month to adding jobs.
* Pennsylvania has lost 300,000 jobs since the start of the recession and the economy is still sluggish.
* People are not spending money, especially the middle class.
* Without some dramatic turnaround, Pennsylvania's unemployment rate will be above 7% for the next four years.
To close the "jobs deficit" within five years, Pennsylvania would have to produce 7.900 jobs a month, according to the report. That's a job-growth rate three times greater than the one after the last economic expansion. The KRC pins some of the blame on wage stagnation. The researchers say wages have not kept pace with inflation, leaving more people with less money to spend. And, since consumer spending fuels two-thirds of the economy, the stingier wages put a crimp on economic growth.
"Currently, households do not possess the buying power to drive long-term growth because an unprecedented 'wage deficit' has opened up for the bottom two-thirds wage earners over the past three decades," according to the KRC report. The KRC wants more government spending to fix the problem, specifically: subsidize state work programs, extend unemployment benefits, allow tax breaks for the wealthy to expire; and invest in infrastructure improvements and clean energy projects. President Obama's new proposal to spend $200 billion, including $50 billion on roads and infrastructure projects, is one way to jumpstart some job creation.
But the KRC's suggestions and Pres. Obama's newest stimulus spending don't seem to fly with the voters' mood right now which has been a steady message of "stop deficit spending" and "shrink government." Congressman Joe Sestak, running as Pennsylvania's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, voted for the 2009 stimulus package and argues it wasn't large enough. His GOP opponent Pat Toomey, a former congressman and former president of the anti-tax group Club for Growth, argues just the opposite and promises to vote against anything that smacks of a "bailout." So far, Toomey's leading in the polls. The cut-broadly, no-tax strategy permeates GOP Attorney General Tom Corbett's run for governor and he's outpacing his Democratic rival, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, in both money and polling. (And, so far, Corbett seems to have escaped lasting damage from his jobless-workers' gaffe earlier this summer. Expect to see those comments as fodder for an Onorato TV ad this fall.)
Gene Barr, vice president of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, joins the panel Thursday night. He wrote in an email, "Until we fix our underlying problems here in Pennsylvania (too high corporate tax rates, poor legal climate, uncompetitive unemployment compensation systems), we are simply spending taxpayer money to rent jobs. We cannot spend ourselves into prosperity." Barr added that he'd like to see Pennsylvania become a Right to Work state where employees could freely decide whether to join a union. "Putting more meaningful money into people's pockets comes from controlling things like the rise in health care costs and creating an atmosphere where people are willing to invest their own capital to start and grow a business and employ others," he noted.
Terri Kauffman, executive director of the South Central Workforce Investment Board, will weigh in with her observations on the local job market and the mood of employers as we enter the fourth quarter of 2010. James, DeBord, director of YorkCounts, rounds out our panel. He noted in an email, " ... education has to be a big part of this discussion ... in terms of making sure that as the economy rebounds we will have the highly skilled employees that we need. Local communities and employers must also work with job training programs to make sure that they are providing training in fields that are actually needed by employers in that region. There has been a disconnect on that in the past. Also we need to recognize that quality educational opportunities for our employees are just as important as making sure we have necessary suppliers and infrastructure to compete with the rest of the world." And producer Mark Wallace takes us to a local CareerLink job training site to see how folks look for and find employment in the midstate.
Share your job search story with us. Call 1-800-729-7532 on Thursday night from 8-8:30 or send us an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
