or more than two centuries, Americans have continually demonstrated two tactics for surviving economic slumps: hard work and patience. Emerging from the current recession is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Impatient jackrabbits will be left for dead, exhausted at the roadside, while indefatigable tortoises waddle back toward prosperity.
Wednesday brought two tasty morsels of encouragement for the tortoises, at least on the national economic front. Applications for unemployment aid dropped by 35,000 over the previous month; the 466,000 filings were the fewest in more than a year. Second, consumer spending rose 0.7 percent in October, nothing to trigger confetti-tossing but far better than the 0.6 percent drop in September.
Many national economic experts believe the recession is, at best, over and, at worst, at least bottoming out. Green shoots of a recovery are seen. The Dow Jones industrial average has risen 19.2 percent this year and is at a 13-month high. The NASDAQ has soared by more than 37 percent this year.
But encouraging words from national gurus ring hollow here in Clark County, where a 13.7 percent jobless rate ranks as the highest in the state. If we’re looking to our neighboring counties for help, they might respond with a classic line from an old Ray Charles song: “I was just thinkin’ about callin’ on you, ’cause I’m busted!” Cowlitz County has the second-highest jobless rate in the state at 12.2 percent, and two other Southwest Washington counties — Skamania and Wahkiakum — also are in double digits. Locally and regionally, jobless woes are manifested particularly in construction, manufacturing and retail sectors, while health care remains the most reliable job generator.
How can all of this negativity be conquered? Well, conquest will first require survival, and if you’ve still got a job, cherish it and rely on those two dependable tactics: hard work and patience.
But a third tactic also is gaining value: innovation. In a recent Columbian story by Julia Anderson, this comment was reported by Regional Labor Analyst Scott Bailey: “Outside of health care, there’s some hope that, longer-term, the region will benefit from expansion of alternative energy and conservation equipment manufacturing.” That tepid but encouraging forecast ought to draw the attention of anyone looking for work. Emerging industries in the “green” fields could offer financial salvation for those who are willing to be innovative about career pursuits.
To that end, Anderson also has reported that global sales of computer semiconductor chips are starting to rebound, and with WaferTech and Linear Technology in Camas, and with Intel in Oregon, this could be a key component in local and regional recovery.
Before anyone gets too confident, however, remember that many of the worst economic pains are felt not in the private sector but in the public arena. Legislators will creep timidly — rather than march confidently — back to Olympia early next year for the next session. That’s because the state budget has been jolted with another projected deficit of $2.6 billion, as if the $9 billion deficit of the previous legislative session weren’t enough. “We have not seen a shortfall like this in 80 years,” Gov. Chris Gregoire announced in a written statement. “All options must be on the table to produce a budget that works.”
For regular folks — employed as well as jobless — the two most trusted options on the table are timeless: hard work and patience.
