Trades, Factory Workers Bare Brunt of Recession

Job loss continues to batter area workers with those in construction and manufacturing bearing the worst of the pain. Nationwide, unemployment in lower-income households has reached Depression era levels, as the Wall Street banksters take another round of bonuses.

According to State officials 163,000 jobs have been lost in Wisconsin, the worst job loss since WWII. Projections are that the recession will bottom out this summer, and add jobs in the third quarter. There’s some evidence of turnaround locally in manufacturing but new construction is off the radar and over the horizon.

“We’re seen no improvement in the last year. Most trades are sitting at 20 percent unemployment or higher,” says Scott Vaughn, director of the Building and Construction Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin.

There’s still no date to break ground on a new downtown library and the Edgewater Hotel project is yet to be approved, the only two new projects promising any jobs. “We don’t see any construction at the State level – it’s just not there. It’s gonna be a tough year,” says Vaughn. “We’re out talking with owners and construction end-users at this point.”

The only thing certain is an increase in road construction in the summer, Vaughn says. “That will help some.” Approval of a high-speed rail project between Madison and Milwaukee also promises some future construction jobs – the question is when?

Recalls Slow in Manufacturing

Some laid-off workers are being called back at Sub Zero/Wolf Appliance and at other manufacturing sites, according to Tim Sullivan, business rep with Sheet Metal Workers Local 565. Layoffs last year affected about 300 at Sub Zero/Wolf, and about one hundred workers are still waiting but are expected to return.

Plants are still cutting hours, if not days, off the work week, like at dairy equipment maker Bou-Matic, and at Carnes, a heating and air conditioning manufacturer where 56 out of 120 workers have been laid off. Elsewhere layoffs are sporadic and employers are demanding concessions at the bargaining table, says Sullivan.

“Some plants are stabilizing, but others are floundering right now,” said Sullivan. “Like in construction, you hear a lot of encouraging words, that things are going to pick up in 2010 – but not much has materialized. I think it’s going to be another tough year.”

Meanwhile, furloughs are eating into the paychecks of State and municipal workers and the Madison School District is wrestling with a $30 million deficit.

The Stoughton Uniroyal plant has brought back about 40 members of United Steelworkers Local 1207 who have been laid off over the past couple of years. Uniroyal workers make Naugahyde upholstery fabrics for the auto, hospitality and health care industries.

Job Loss Devastates Milwaukee

On the downside, Metro Milwaukee is suffering the nation’s third largest decrease in employment, 48,200 jobs or 3.7 percent lost in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only Las Vegas and Detroit ranked higher. Last year, the Madison metro area lost 6,500 jobs, a decline of 1.9 percent.

In Wisconsin, more than 100,000 workers are set to lose unemployment benefits soon, unless Congress approves extensions. Under certain circumstances, dislocated workers are eligible for up to 93 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Currently, 250,000 Wisconsin workers are receiving unemployment benefits. The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate stands at 8.3 percent compared with 5.9 percent a year ago. The Obama administration estimates that the Recovery Act boosted employment in Wisconsin by 44,000 jobs through the end of 2009.

Inequality in Unemployment

Across the nation more than one out of six workers who would like a full-time job cannot get one; and 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of a job for more than six months.

Joblessness predominantly impacts low-income and blue collar workers, not the well-to-do, as recently reported by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston (see chart).

More than 30 percent of the lowest income group, $12,499 or less, were unemployed during the last quarter of 2009, a rate more than 5 points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the 1930s Great Depression. Add to that more than 20 percent in that same income group who were either underemployed or discouraged and have stopped looking for work.

The highest income group, with household incomes of $150,000 or more, however, had an unemployment rate during the same quarter of only 3.2 percent. The next highest, with incomes of $100,000 to 149,999, had an unemployment rate of 4 percent.