I started writing this blog for an independent study in journalism, but I was allowed to pick my own topic. I decided on unemployment, and I plan to focus on my own hometown, Richmond, Indiana, a place of startlingly high unemployment rates. I hope to see how the current economic problems are affecting those who live here, and write a little bit about those problems and what is being done, if anything, to alleviate them.
The subject of unemployment can be heard on every news channel and radio station because of the recession, but little is heard about how small cities like Richmond are holding up. Close-ups during such situations can brings stark statistics into clarity, and as a resident of Richmond, I can’t help but be concerned for the welfare of those who have been recently laid off or have searched for jobs for so long that they can no longer see any point in doing so.
As a city, Richmond is not exactly up-and-coming. It was previously more productive, however, and might have even been considered thriving at one time. In 1970, Wayne County, of which Richmond is a part, had a higher per-capita personal income as a percentage of the U.S. average than Indiana as a collective state – about 97 percent of the national average. Richmond’s economy has begun to disintegrate over time, however. The county incomes have lowered steadily, and more recently hit about 75 percent of the U.S. average. Richmond’s economy has been based in the manufacturing industry since it grew to a city in the mid-1800s, and, as factories close, Richmond as a whole suffers.
During my time here, I’ve seen the slow decay of the city. It's not just the current economic problems that face Richmond, but a “flight” of the educated. One friend who also grew up in the area once said to me, “Richmond is where people wait to leave or come to die.” This struck me with its truth. In 2000, only 11 percent of Richmond’s population was between 18-24 years, though below 18 years and 44 years and above were both closer to 24 percent. As people grow, most of them want to get out of Richmond. Good jobs are impossible to get here. Stores are closing all over city, and entertainment is hard to come by. The only real economic strength Richmond has is the desire of older people to retire in a small, quiet city.
An online web site, Sperling's Best Places to Live, had nothing good to say about the city, and after reciting some abysmal statistics, led to a single comment. Adam, a blogger who lives in Richmond, said about the city in 2009, “It's too damned hard to get a job at 18, and if you do, you had better hold onto it with your dear life, because it'll be the last one you'll have. If anyone often gets on here (the web site), take my advice and turn the opposite direction if you're planning on moving to Richmond.”
This conveys the general feeling of the hopelessness this small city faces. Ask pretty much any youth about the prospect of staying in Richmond, and most will look at you as if you should be sent to a mental institution. Almost no employment options exist for a person determined to stay – though housing is rather cheap. Richmond has become a place to escape from.
The unemployment rate in Richmond has steadily remained higher than that of the U.S. as a whole, and has been pushed down even harder by the recession. The current unemployment rate in Richmond is 11.6 percent, as the U.S. rate has risen to 9.6 percent. In 1960, Richmond held over 44,149 people, but as of 2010 held only approximately 36,686. As the unemployment rate is slated to get worse before it gets better, this does not spell good times for Richmond. And, as the market goes, when fewer jobs are available, people must be more willing to take on distasteful jobs for less payment. This is common in Richmond, and even dangerous factory work is hard to get and does not pay well.
Frank Langfitt, an NPR correspondent, put the current recession in these terms,
“Most of the lost jobs were through no fault of the people who lost them. This was a man-made recession. It started with that reckless mortgage lending that we spent a lot of time talking about in 2007, the crazy risks that were taken on Wall Street. And a lot of people out there have been unemployed for a long time. They're really frustrated. They can't find work. And we're seeing that in some of the numbers.
For instance, you know, the economy has actually grown for a whole year. But at the same time, the number of discouraged workers - these are people who are no longer looking for work because they don't think there's anything out there for them - has actually gone up nearly 400,000. So even as the economy grows, more people are actually losing hope.”
So how can a small city, steadily becoming obsolete even before the recession, bring back its hope? Or can it?
