This isn't like any recession I've ever seen.
Locally, trucking is a major industry here, and several have gone out of business or into receivership because of high fuel prices.
We have had some layoffs in manufacturing, but we have new companies moving here, attracted by geography and low real-estate prices.
With regular back below $1.30 now, employment agencies report they can't find enough truck drivers, among other types of labor.
The agricultural sector is beset by the worst recession in more than a decade, owing to low crop prices and, yes, high fuel costs. And after a horrid drought last year, we've had too much rain this year, leading to disease and fungus in some fields.
On the positive side, just about anyone with job skills and a stable work history can find work. It might not be your "dream" job (few are), but the softness in some industries is being absorbed by others.
Unemployment here is still below 4 percent.
In a word, amazing.
Now, in fairness, we do have our fair share of "underemployed," people who used to make more money than they do now, or lost their day job somewhere and are now working on the third shift somewhere else.
So it isn't all peaches and cream. But all of us have been through times that were a lot worse than this.
PB |
