Factory Migration and Disillusionment

The economy in Richmond has had its ups and downs, but the numbers have consistently been lower than the national average, and it seems that over the past few decades the trend has mostly been downward.  Rick Sabados, a 37-year-old Richmondite, has lived in the small city his entire life.  He has his own theories on the local decline of the employment rate. 

“Things started changing with NAFTA,” he said.  “When people started taking jobs out of the country, no one here could get hired anymore.”

Sabados enjoying the day outside.

The goal of NAFTA was to eliminate barriers of trade and investment between the US, Canada and Mexico.  Critics often argue its negative impact on U.S. workers in manufacturing and assembly industries who lost jobs.  Official studies state NAFTA's net effect on jobs as negligible.  However, more than 3 million manufacturing jobs in the United States have disappeared since 1998, though the Economic Policy Institute estimates 59 percent—or 1.78 million—of these jobs have been lost due to the explosion in the manufacturing trade deficit over the period.  As Richmond’s success was and is based in industry, and manufacturing plants are the highest concentration of lost jobs, it makes sense that Richmond would have a hard time under these conditions. 

“Factories here made items for the military during World War II and business prospered for a while,” said Sabados.

But, he went on to explain, factories began to build farm machinery, and machines took the place of people that had previously worked the lands around Richmond, which are still farmed today.  To make matters worse, other factories started closing.  Milso, the casket factory, went to Mexico, and Kemper, a large cabinet factory, went sour due to the economy.  As few could afford build houses or renovate, the company was getting little business.  Kemper was owned by Masterbrand Cabinets, and, according to Sabados, the workers’ union caused wages to be higher than the company cared to pay such an economic state.  The parent company decided it made more sense to simply close the factory.

Sabados, though not a factory worker, has spent much of his time going from job to job.  His specialization is in home improvement, but the market in Richmond is not very supportive of this business, and a high number of empty houses with ‘for sale’ signs can be found around the city.   Sabados did find work with one home improvement company, but had to also take on work at Mendenhall’s Hardware and Domino’s Pizza part-time in order to support himself and his children, who live with their mother.  Eventually, he quit these jobs to spend time with his kids.   

“Then I ended up being broke and my kids stopped coming around,” he said. Currently, Sabados works for the same home improvement company, which allowed him to take his job back, but many wouldn’t be so lucky.

In terms of the national unemployment rate, Sabados acts indifferent and seems disillusioned with governmental efforts to interfere with the economy and reassure the people.  “The rate goes up and down depending on whether people are hired, not wages,” he said.  “So even if someone manages to get or maintain a job, being hired says nothing for the pay rate, which is likely to be low.”  

In order to turn the highest profit possible, companies lay off some and work the people that remain as hard as possible.  Currently, the government is trying to avoid this problem, which leaves many without pay at all.  In order to combat the possible drop in profit, however, companies hire more people and lower the wages they give, knowing that people will take what they can get in order to survive.  But minimum wage leaves families making too little to support everyone, as even single people have trouble affording living expenses on such pay.

“The rates don’t mean anything for a lot of people who are still struggling.”

What Good is a Degree?

People age 18-24 tend to have problems in Richmond, (as mentioned before, they make up only 11 percent of the population), trying to find jobs and a stable economic environment. A personal interview with Luke Parker, a 25-year-old previous resident of Richmond, helps shed some light on this.

Parker graduated Earlham College in May of 2009 with a degree in psychology. “I really want to work with kids or adults in some form of counseling,” he said when questioned about his plans. But, though he’s been searching for a job since the day he left college, he is still unemployed, one year and four months later. “I’d be willing to do anything at this point – working in a restaurant, dishwashing, you name it,” he said.

Parker now relies on his parents to pay for his part of the rent and food, while his fiancée, Dana Black, picks up the rest with her low-paying job. She makes a living allowance working for Americorps, but is not actually paid by the hour, though her parents also provide her with backup funds. “I’m lucky enough to have parents that help with everything, but I hate being so dependent on them,” said Parker. “I’d be out on the street without them.”

Parker and his fiancee, Black

Parker himself has applied for “too many jobs to count” but keeps getting told that he is overqualified. This happened once with a group home in Richmond, Adept, which takes care of mentally disabled individuals. He was turned away from this job, which would have given him around $8 an hour to make food, drive people around, and help shower people and help this use a bathroom. For such low pay, most people would turn away from this job due to its up-close-and-personal-nature, but the government-funded house was not hiring Luke, despite its   shortage of workers (three had quit/been fired the week before).

Parker and Black have recently moved to Indianapolis to be near her current workplace, and Luke says he’s already had more promising interviews than he’d ever gotten in Richmond. Right now he’s applying for a volunteer position with the Emberwood Center, working with individuals dealing with addiction. This would not pay him, but would set him up in an environment that could move him more toward his desired position and a job that would look good on a resume. Parker has dealt with addiction, and feels confident that he could help people there. “My dad was an alcoholic, and I understand what these people are going through.” He hopes that the center will soon make his position more permanent. That is, if he gets the volunteer position itself.

Parker reflects on his life since college unhappily. “How things used to be, you could graduate and get a job right out of college. Things have changed.” This does not only apply to Richmond, but the small city it most definitely struggling, and people continue to be laid-off. Just this week Landis Plastics, a factory that is part of the manufacturing backbone Richmond is known for, has laid-off all part-time workers, only retaining those who work closer to 60 hours a week. A few months before, Innatech, a plastics factory, shut down, laying off 75 workers with only a week’s notice. Such tactics make those still working work harder, and those without work feel little cause to hope for a new job.

Parker is not originally from Richmond, and neither is Black, but both remained in the city after graduating from Earlham College. They decided to move in together after graduation, and found that easiest to do in Richmond, where they could be with friends and look for jobs while their parents funded their stay for a little longer. They were sharing a small $400-a-month apartment for more than a year as Parker was turned down again and again and Black scraped by as a substitute teacher. “Richmond is actually ninth in the nation for unemployment,” said Parker. “It used to be second, so I guess it’s not as bad as it could be.” He says this with a sarcastic laugh. Though I couldn’t find proof of this, Richmond’s rate is a full 2 percent higher than the current national rate, and Indiana as a whole has the eighth worst unemployment rate in the nation.

“I never wanted to leave Richmond, because I have so many friends here, and like the small-town feel. I didn’t have a choice, though. Getting a job there is impossible.” Black agreed. “If we didn’t get out now, we never would have been able to. It takes too much money to move, and our parents will support us only for so long.”

This is a perfect example of what’s happening within the United States. Graduated college students are finding job hunting impossible, despite their qualifications, and are forced to depend on already-strained parents. In a time of economic failure, businesses only take the most profitable route. Even a volunteer position is something to struggle for, as people are forced to fight each other over distasteful jobs and small amounts of money. If anything tells us that our economic system needs a change, it’s this.

Struggles of a Small City

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?