TERRE HAUTE —
The unemployment rate grabs headlines and Americans’ attention on a national level, for the most part.
Month after month in 2012, that percentage of the U.S. population without jobs creates a new barometer in the race for the presidency. If it rises, Republican challenger Mitt Romney gains momentum. If it drops, President Obama picks up support. When the economic figures appear murky, both sides hunt for an advantage within the statistics. That parsing process revved up again on Friday, when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its July figures showing mixed results — the national unemployment rate ticked upward, slightly, from 8.22 percent to 8.25, while the economy added a better-than-expected 163,000 new jobs.
Romney sees it as more languishing. Obama sees hints of progress.
Average Joes and Janes can watch that debate, but the employment picture matters most in their own communities and states. Those local and regional barometers also warrant regular scrutiny.
The Wabash Valley finds itself in an uncomfortable spot in the latest unemployment numbers. The Terre Haute metropolitan statistical area (which includes Vigo, Clay, Sullivan and Vermillion counties) holds the only double-digit jobless rate among the state’s 12 metros. In June, 10.3 percent of the Terre Haute labor force was unemployed, up from 9.6 percent in May.
The report from the Bureau of Labor contained some bright spots. In particular, Terre Haute added 100 jobs in the manufacturing sector in June. That was not enough to offset an overall loss of 1,029 local jobs during the month. Nine-hundred of those jobs were listed as government positions. State officials have questioned the bureau’s figures on lost government jobs, but Paul LaPorte, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Midwest office in Chicago said such June decreases follow patterns from previous years. Government job losses totaled 600 in June 2011, 1,200 in June 2010, and 800 in June 2009, LaPorte said. Most involve teachers who may be out of one position after May and then fill another in August, he explained.
Regardless, Terre Haute needs to climb, compared with other towns on both a statewide and national level. Within Indiana, its jobless rate ranked below (in order, from the top) Columbus, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis-Carmel, Lafayette, Bloomington, Elkhart-Goshen, Kokomo, South Bend-Mishawaka, Anderson, Michigan City-LaPorte and Muncie. In terms of growth from June 2011 to June 2012, payrolls in the Elkhart-Goshen metro added 9,200 employees. In that same one-year period, the Terre Haute area grew by 1,000 jobs, the bureau reported.
Nationally, Terre Haute’s unemployment rate in June ranked near the bottom — 321st out of 372 American cities.
This quest for good-paying, steady jobs is never-ending for numerous entities here, including city and county governments, economic development organizations, job-training services, Ivy Tech Community College and work force development services.
But Terre Haute’s slip to the wrong end of the state and national jobless rankings can also serve as a healthy jolt to the rest of community. It signals an opportunity to detect weaknesses in that network of job-growth agencies. It’s important to tout our local assets, yet it’s just as crucial to examine and remedy the areas which are lacking.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Terre Haute lags behind
Jobless rate carries disturbing messages
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The celebration season
Spring has been a bit elusive at times in 2013, which is its nature.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: MVC tourney an event worth having
It’s been a long time since the Missouri Valley Conference chose Indiana State University to host its post-season baseball tournament, but Terre Haute had never been more prepared for an event such as this.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
Good-paying jobs. -
MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
Noteworthy in the news
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