Things Are Tough All Over : While the U.S. Jobless Rate Dips a Bit, the Improvement Is Not Evenly Spread Out
The Labor Department reported Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate dipped slightly to 7.7% in July. Although the jobless data indicates a slight improvement in the sluggish economy, the recovery is uneven throughout the country.
To assess the strength of the job market in various regions, Times staff writers spoke with economists, government officials, company officials and the unemployed workers. Here’s what they found:
Midwest
In Saginaw, Mich., where GM employs close to 10,000 workers, the traffic jam in the unemployment office’s parking lot got so bad two weeks ago that the staff had to set up a special drive-through window to handle the crush.
“We processed 75 people in 15 minutes,” says branch manager Margaret Bugg. “It was a nightmare.”
These workers were among the thousands of General Motors employees on temporary layoff during the last two weeks of July who helped swell last month’s unemployment rolls in Michigan and other Midwestern states.
But economists say the GM shutdown--a cost-saving measure for the troubled auto maker during which all its white-collar employees took their annual vacations--caused a blip in the unemployment numbers that masks the strength in the manufacturing sector.
“I was surprised that July wasn’t weaker than it was,” says Diane Swonk, an economist at First National Bank of Chicago. “The fact that Ohio came down to 7.4% (from 7.6%) even with the GM closings indicates real strength.”
Swonk forecasts a “slow, stable” recovery for the region, and expects employment gains in August as GM employees go back to work.
Still, new jobs are tough to find, and high-wage manufacturing jobs even tougher. When Ford Motor Co. announced plans to hire 1,400 new employees next year at its expanded truck plant in Louisville, Ky., people were knocking on the plant door the next day.
The Midwest will continue to feel the repercussions of the GM downsizing as the auto maker carries out plans to close 21 plants by 1996 and cut its white-collar work force by an another 3,000 by the end of the year.
But anticipated improvement in auto sales would likely bolster production and help suppliers as well.
Such optimistic forecasts don’t mean much to unemployed Michigan truck driver Art Haab. “When automobiles slow down, it affects everyone,” says Haab, 51, as he filed an unemployment claim in Jackson, Mich., on Friday. “I might work one day a week, I might work five days. I just never know.”
