The focus of this election from the people's perspective is going to be JOBS. That is all anyone is talking about in the state of Ohio.
During the Portman/Taft/Voinovich/Bush years there was a jobless recovery which means the rich got richer and the middle class lost their jobs.
Stocks rose along with unemployment as companies moved more easily overseas and paid their workers less. It helped the portfolios of Wall Street while destroying the portfolios of Main street all across Ohio and the United States.
The Casino issue passed after being voted down several times previously. The difference this time is that the residents of Ohio found themselves willing to vote for anything that would create jobs. When the Fraternal Order of Police gets behind a casino campaign because it will create jobs....you know things are bad.
According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services 2009 Economic Analysis:
Ohio median income-
2001- 49693
2008- 47988
Ohio GDP increased ~11% since 1997 as compared to the national GDP increase of 33%.
We lost jobs in manufactuing so no big surprise. The only growth industries are in medicine and services. For those of you who look for data and charts:
Executive Summary
Ohio is not keeping pace with other states, either in Gross Domestic Output or percapita income.
Employment growth has lagged the national trend since the mid-1990s. Ohio employment never fully recovered from the 2001 recession.
The current recession is hitting Ohio hard. Employment is declining farther in Ohio than in the nation as a whole.
The employment situation varies widely. From 2000 to 2008, employment grew in the Akron, Cincinnati-Middletown, and Columbus metropolitan areas, but declined in the Canton-Massillon, Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metro areas.
Since 2000, employment in goods-producing industries has declined farther and employment in service-providing industries has increased more slowly in Ohio than nationally.
Employment in all goods-producing sectors has declined since 2000. Among service-providing industries, education and health services, business and professional services, and leisure and hospitality grew, but other sectors declined.
Because Ohio has higher-than-average employment concentrations in
manufacturing industries, job losses in this sector have had a disproportionately severe effect.
Declines in Ohio manufacturing employment may be attributed to changing product demand, foreign competition, off-shoring, outsourcing, facility consolidation, noncompetitive cost structures, and increased productivity.
In period 2006 t0 2016, employment in goods-producing industries is expected to fall 11.2 percent and service-providing industries to grow 9.4 percent. The fastest growing occupations will be in healthcare support and community and social services.
Ohio is ranked 24th out of the 50 states and District of Columbia in the proportion of adults with a high school diploma. Low levels of educational attainment could act as a constraint on Ohio employment growth.
Suggested workforce development strategies include measures with an immediate effect (e.g. unemployment compensation), bridging the current economic crisis (e.g. short-term high prospect training options), and building infrastructure (e.g. broadbase educational reform).
Here is the graph of the last Bush year and the first Obama year.
You can find this graph at the blog on the speaker's website as well:
This says it all nationally. The second graph is on page 13 (of the following pdf document) of job growth or lack thereof in Ohio as compared to nationally.
http://www.scribd.com/...
The graphs in the document and the ones that will follow do a great job in illustrating what has happened to wealth and prosperity in Ohio.
There are other excellent graphs in this document and will be referring to this document in subsequent diaries. This is what happened to us in Ohio as a result. The more we look at the data the clearer it becomes that Ohio has not recovered from the recession of 2001. Tax cuts and trade agreements have NOT helped the economy of Ohio and have not resulted in the private sector creating more jobs. Ohio has been so reliant on manufacturing jobs that it hasn’t looked into any other sector to replace the jobs that have been lost.
In Ohio, we have 3 major universities with university hospitals, law schools. and medical schools. There is fresh water in Ohio, something other regions in the country don't have. There is an increase in biomedical research and "green tech" which may lead to some kind of job creation. We need someone forward thinking and experienced in fixing problems, not someone who is reluctant to take any stand, or will only stand up for those with money.
Because of this, I am in the bag for Jennifer Brunner. She has proven herself to be a fixer with her experience in fixing our all but destroyed election process. She has proven to be a fighter and won the JFK Profiles in Courage award because of it. She is a worker who is not relying on campaign donations and connections for her votes. Instead, she is engaging voters so that she may best represent them.
I have no official connection with the Brunner campaign. I will be sending them a copy of this report along with the rest of this series so they may use it if they wish. I care about Ohio and have chosen to get involved now. I believe that Jennifer Brunner is the BEST choice for U. S. Senate.
Her campaign website: http://www.jenniferbrunner.com
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