Greensboro News Record August 25, 2013, Employment very bad, Middle class people who have never been out of work find themselves chronically unemployed and slipping into poverty

“North Carolina’s unemployment rate fell for the fourth consecutive month in May to 8.8 percent, but the slight drop was largely due to a shrinking labor force rather than the creation of new jobs, economists said.”…Raleigh News Observer June 21, 2013
“Middle-class people who have never been out of work find themselves chronically unemployed and slipping into poverty.”…Greensboro News Record August 25, 2013

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

Good news.

The Greensboro News Record, which has recently been reticent to report the dismal jobs situation in the Triad and NC, has produced a realistic report and placed it on the front page.

From the Greensboro News Record August 25, 2013.

“Recession may be over in the Triad, but not for those who need jobs”

“Unemployment in this region, however you measure it, is very bad.

Middle-class people who have never been out of work find themselves chronically unemployed and slipping into poverty. In the recession’s wake, 20 percent of Greensboro residents are poor, according to 2011 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the Greensboro-High Point metro area, which covers Guilford, Rockingham and Randolph counties, the June unemployment rate was 9.7 percent. The seasonally adjusted rate was 9.3 percent. That’s a slight improvement from a year ago, amounting to a net increase of 4,500 jobs compared with June 2012.

But pull back that lens and look at the state-designated Piedmont Triad Partnership region: an area that encompasses Guilford, Forsyth and 10 surrounding counties.

Since Jan. 1, 2008, the number of unemployed people in the region has grown from 45,000 to 78,000.”

“At 8.9 percent, North Carolina’s unemployment rate is 0.7 percentage points lower than a year ago. But the national rate is 7.4 percent.

Several employment segments are a drag on the Triad economy, according to a monthly analysis of the region’s economy produced by UNCG and called the Dixon Hughes Goodman Triad Business Index. The index defines the Triad as Guilford, Forsyth and four adjoining counties.

Manufacturing employment, the region’s staple industry, dropped by 1.7 percent in June compared with June 2012.

The number of education and health care jobs dropped by 3.3 percent, and that’s a segment that had been considered stable.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/local_news/article_0b20f308-0cf1-11e3-94de-0019bb30f31a.html

This is a good report.

However, why not add what was reported here a few days ago.

Now for the real news.