Editorial: Celebrating the American worker on Labor Day
Posted September 05, 2016 in Selected Press
Labor Day celebrates the virtue of hard work and recognizes the sacrifices and achievements of the American worker.
This holiday, working Ohioans find themselves at a crossroads. Unemployment remains low. The unadjusted rate for July was an encouraging 4.8 percent. Many sectors have recovered from the Great Recession. The total number of jobs in 2015 was 5.5 million. And for the first time in several years wages climbed — to $16.61 an hour for the median Ohio worker.
These figures are part of an annual labor report card from the think tank Policy Matters Ohio. The report, "Still Struggling: The State of Working Ohio 2016" reveals other trends that are more unsettling, however.
Last year, workforce participation in Ohio dropped to a 36-year low. The numbers of jobs is still below the 5.62 million that existed before the recession of the early 2000s. And wages, when adjusted for inflation, remain below where they were in 1979.
Worse, the report shows that nine of the 13 most common occupations pay less than $30,000 annually and that the wage gap between the top 1 percent of wage earners and the bottom 99 percent remains massive. Gaps is pay also exist among genders and races.
The report is a sobering assessment of how much work needs to be done to bring about broader economic prosperity.
Lawmakers can take several steps to bring positive changes. In its report, Policy Matters Ohio recommends investing in education and infrastructure, keeping interest rates low and protecting struggling families by defending unemployment compensation and bolstering critical tax credits.
No such changes will come about without bipartisan efforts both on the state and federal levels. Breaking the gridlock in Washington must be a first step.
Despite this mixed bag of economic data, we feel bullish about our local economy's future. Challenges remain, no doubt. But we see an economy that's strengthening through small business development and upticks in manufacturing. The depressed oil and gas industry will rebound, and major construction projects, like the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village, are on the horizon. And were confident in federal lawmakers from both political parties when they say they'll invest heavily in infrastructure projects.
What gives us the most hope, though, is our local workforce — the hard-working men and women who take to the kitchens, classrooms, police cruisers, fire trucks and factories every day to make our community a better place. It's their resiliency, ingenuity and industriousness that we celebrate today.
Original Article: http://www.cantonrep.com/opinion/20160905/editoria...