Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Brutal Numbers


Central Ohio warmed up today. It was eight degrees above zero, but the wind chill made it feel like -8 degrees.  It was still better than the previous day's wind chill of between -30 and -40 degrees.

*  Cleveland, Ohio, appears to be suffering heavy job losses under Ohio Gov. John Kasich. 

Cleveland:

.....For the seventh straight month, the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metro area lost more jobs than any big city metro area in the country, based on year over year comparisons. The local metro area had 8,100 fewer jobs, or a 0.8 percent dip in employment, in November 2013 vs. November 2012. And yet again, Greater Cleveland was the only one of 37 large metros - those with employment levels above 750,000 - to post a decrease in jobs. The report looked at 372 metro areas of varying sizes.....

....George Zeller of Cleveland, an economic research analyst, was among the local experts cringing Tuesday morning.....

.....Although the metro area unemployment figure is limited to Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Medina and Lorain counties, Zeller said it points to how Ohio's labor market is struggling. For example, in November, Ohio lost 12,000 jobs, leading the nation in job loss, according to Labor Department figures. The 0.2 percent decrease meant Ohio led the nation in number and percentage of jobs lost. Ohio's November jobless figure, at 7.4 percent, was higher than the U.S. unemployment rate that was 7.0 percent.....

Yet Gov. John Kasich calls the Ohio economy a "miracle"????  I just hope that the people of Ohio remember how Kasich has failed to deliver the jobs that he promised.