CAPITAL REGION Jobless rate goes back up to 7%; state figure reaches 26-year high BY AMEERAH CETAWAYO Gazette Reporter
The unemployment rate in the Capital Region showed more volatility in December, bouncing back up to 7 percent for the third time in 2009. “This shows that businesses are still nervous and that they’re afraid to hire,” said state Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith. Unemployment rates for November and October were 6.7 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Jobless rates in the region peaked last February at 7.6 percent. Since December 2008, the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area has lost 9,300 nonfarm jobs, a 2.1 percent drop. The number of private sector jobs fell 1.6 percent, or 5,500. “The job counts are continuing to deteriorate and the unemployment rate is remaining stubbornly high,” said Jim Ross, state labor analyst. “But really, until we get the job creation going, the unemployment rates aren’t going to come down.” January and February are typically the points in the year when job counts are lowest, which means next month could prove to be worse, according to Ross. The state’s unemployment rate hit a 26-year high in December, 9 percent, as 868,600 New Yorkers were without jobs. Thursday’s grim news came down from the state Department of Labor even as it tried to place focus on the parts of the region’s economy that are growing. “The Capital Region is doing well in the recession,” said Smith. At a news conference at Espey Manufacturing in Saratoga Springs, Smith said she not only wanted to give an example of a company that is growing, but also wanted to show that there are services out there that will save them money and help them focus on growing and hiring again instead of cutting costs. Espey Chairman and CEO Howard Pinsley said the company is looking to fill a half dozen positions, mostly welders, solderers and laminators...............>>>>....................>>>>...............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01103&AppName=1
Schenectady should have some wonderful shovel ready projects like these in order to get stimulus money to create new jobs. By: Susan Ferrechio Chief Congressional Correspondent
The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went:
- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.
- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
- $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.
- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.
- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.
- $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota.
- $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.
- $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.
- $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio.
- $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.
- $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.
- $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.
- $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine.
- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri
- $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state.
- $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.
- $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency.
- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles
With all the phony baloney about "renaissance" Schenectady County has the highest unemployment rate in the Capital District. Higher than both Saratoga and Albany Counties without Metrograft, without the Metrograft tax, without $100 Million dumped downtown on one block. A jobless, useless movie set with nice fronts and nuthin in the back.
This has got to be the biggest scam ever on the american people!!! Our government officials should be ashamed of themselves, but more than that, WE should be ashamed of ourselves for voting these idiots into office, not only once, but in some cases multiple time!!! OMG!
Kick all of their a$$e$ out in the next election cycle. Will their replacements be any better? Perhaps not all of them. But WE, the electorate, will have made a statement that if they don't comply with 'we the people', we'll kick their a$$e$ out too!!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Logged
Everything Metrograft Ray says is "shovel ready".
