"What makes this a different recession," said Rebecca Blank, an economist at the Brookings Institution, "is that it is so widespread."
Unlike the last recession, today's unemployment hot spots are all over the map. The five states with the highest unemployment rates -- Michigan, Rhode Island, South Carolina, California and Oregon -- all have something in common, though: a heightened exposure to the root causes of this downward spiral.
All states are feeling the pain, but the worst are getting hammered on multiple fronts:
-- The auto industry's pain is Michigan's above all. But it is also being felt in states like South Carolina, where German automaker BMW has cut 500 temporary workers, and in California, where many of dealerships have shut down.
The collapse of housing. The implosion of the auto industry. The meltdown of financial services. The exodus of manufacturing. |
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