Tri-Cities region loses 439 jobs in first quarter

The Tri-Cities has never really recovered from the massive downturns of 2001-2005. Government, minimum wage services, and contruction dominated by illegal alien labor have been the big gains. Good paying private sector jobs continue to disappear. "Kingsport lost 174 of those jobs, and its unemployment rate grew 10.18 percent to 4.83 percent. Bristol lost 94 jobs in the first quarter, while its unemployment rate rose 6.95 percent to 4.86 percent. And Johnson City gained 32 jobs, but its unemployment rate climbed a whopping 19.10 percent to 5.19 percent in the quarter."

ETSU economist Steb Hipple (faculty.etsu.edu/hipples): said the region's employment trends shifted during the period. Job gains were reported in education and health (paid for by govvernment for the most part), construction, leisure and hospitality, finance, and information services.

"Job losses were reported in durable and nondurable manufacturing, professional and business services, wholesale trade, government, and transport and utilities." My comment: this is across the economic spectrum. In the past government has been a major job engine in this region while manufacturing continues to tumble.

"And job levels remained stable in retail trade, mining and other services." My comment: retail is also low-paying. "Nationwide, job levels remained virtually unchanged in the first quarter vs. the same period of 2007, following 21 consecutive quarters of job growth. Meanwhile, the nation's unemployment rate jumped 10.2 percent to 5.28 percent, representing the first double-digit increase since the 2001 recession."

Comments:

Wayne 2008-05-08 had this to say of Mr. Hipple:

The Fed has been desperately trying to prop up a broken system. The interest rate cuts have only been used to shore up balance sheets of financial institutions. Interest rates that are paid by consumers have actually risen during the time of these rate cuts. In other words, things are much more desperate for our economy than it seems to most people. But Mr Hipple never met a Republican policy he didn't like. I never have understood why he is considered such an authority. Jobs in this region have dried up, and if you find one it is a low paying one without benefits. Don't believe me? Just browse the classifieds in any regional newspaper. Compare it to the same paper from a few years ago. The numbers are telling. Just my opinion.

Joe 2008-05-08:

You can define a recession any way you want but if you're unemployed and can't afford to drive around to look for work because gas it almost $4 a gallon, then I'd say you might be in one.

Ref. 05/07/2008 Kingsport Times-News

• The Truth about Unemployment
• VCEDA Labor Statistics and Commentary The one they pulled from the web.
• Job losses rock Bristol April 2009: 20,000 jobs gone

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Virginia Department of Transportation is informing about 600 workers that they're losing their jobs. VDOT is notifying the employees Monday of the layoffs, part of the agency's overall plan to cut 1,000 full-time employees and 450 part-time staff to address a $2.6 billion revenue shortfall. July 27, 2009

And in Johnson City TN according to the Kingsport Times-News:

Alemite Inc., which manufactures lubrication tools, equipment and systems for industrial use, told its employees a couple of weeks ago it would phase out production at its 167 Roweland Drive facility. The company currently employs about 150 people, and around 50 will keep jobs in distribution, warehousing and sourcing...some work had been shifted overseas - the worker thought to China and India - over the past couple of years.

July 23rd, 2009: Unemployment rates continued increasing in Kingsport, Bristol, Johnson City and Morristown during the month of June with all but one of Northeast Tennessee's largest cities in double digits. According to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, June's seasonally unadjusted rates for the four Tennessee cities with 25,000 or more population were:

Morristown - 19.4 percent, up from 18.5 percent last month.
Kingsport - 12.7 percent, up from 12.6 percent last month.
Bristol - 11.6 percent, up from 10.6 percent last month.
Johnson City - 9.1 percent, up from 8.4 percent last month.

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