Unemployment in Milwaukee
Hey, but at least Milwaukee has a nice museum.
Among the 50 largest U.S. cities, only Detroit had a higher unemployment rate than Milwaukee in August, according to a new study at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
[...]
Based on household surveys, 8% of Milwaukee’s residents working or seeking work said they couldn’t find a job in August. Only Detroit, at 15.1% unemployment, was worse off. And all but 10 of the 50 cities had unemployment rates of less than 6% in August.
The August unemployment rate is the narrowest snapshot Levine uses to compare employment conditions among the cities. Milwaukee also ranks in the bottom fourth in terms of employment growth in the last 12 months, the last 36 months and the last 84 months.
Levine said employment has been growing in Milwaukee. The number of Milwaukee residents who said they were working in August reached the highest point since August 2002, when the city’s unemployment rate was 8.4%.
Don’t worry, if Scott has his way with Socialized Health Care, mimicking other countries, we can fix this…
For example, let’s look at NHS…
http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/2004/08/10/25041/facing-nhs-problems-head-on.html
The National Health Service employs 1.3m people - the third largest workforce in the world after the Chinese Red Army and the Indian Railway. Employee numbers are increasing by 60,000 year-on-year and there is an annual training budget of around £4bn at his disposal.
That’s about 1 in 46 working just for the NHS system. What would that equate to in the US? 6.5 million employees. Indian Railway has 1.6 million… Chinese Army has an estimated 2.25 million active members. Hmmm… almost three times as large.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 17, 2007 at 2355 hrs
Yikes! From a recent report aothored by Levine.
Our chief finding is that Milwaukee’s 30-year trend of near-linear growth in black male joblessness peaked in the city in 2003 at 51.3 percent and declined to 44.1 percent by 2005.
Talk about a bleak future.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 0559 hrs
“Milwaukee has a nice museum”
Should read:
“Soon, Milwaukee will BECOME a nice museum.”
Posted by dad29 on October 18, 2007 at 0629 hrs
Maybe this is all part of Mayor Barrett’s job creation plan?
Nice job boys… How about we raise taxes now.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 0834 hrs
I guess someone saw this coming:
Nov. 11th 2006
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=529932
Milwaukee is adrift with inadequate economic leadership in an age of raw global competition and rapid industrial change, according to a think-tank report that echoes complaints of some civic-minded business leaders.
The city focuses far too much attention on buildings and streetscapes and far too little on modern job-creating business strategies, according to “Growing Up,” a blistering, 28-page critique that the Public Policy Forum will release Monday.
The city has no economic development plan, nor is it clear who in City Hall is accountable for economic policy, it says. The city haphazardly doles out more than $100 million in crucial funding each year in “disjointed” efforts without the “reporting, tracking and accountability” necessary to monitor its investments, the report says.
As a result, most of the city’s scarce resources end up being channeled into shopping centers, street beautification and housing, making the city “a real-estate development machine, not a job development machine,” according to the researchers.
“The city has largely neglected expenditures for business and work force development that aim to bolster personal incomes, create jobs and grow a skilled labor pool,” the researchers say. “Despite a continually eroding jobs base in the city, relatively little money is spent to create, retain and expand the city’s job opportunities.”
“We could not find evidence of any previous attempt to quantify economic development priorities at the city,” said the study’s author, Ryan Horton. “We asked the city point-blank if they have an economic plan and they said ‘no.’ It’s all ad hoc.”
This leaves me all confused. Mayor Barrett said “Milwaukee is open for business????”
I guess it takes more than a cheerleader….
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 0854 hrs
Levine said. “And we have all sorts of other structural impediments for central city residents to get access to the jobs that are being created.”
And before the Common Council early this year he said the #1 thing we could do to correct the problem was to build a Light Rail System. But you don’t want to hear that now do you?
#1 It would immediately put many people to work in construction (there was a slight dip in black jobless rate recently he attributes that to the Marquette interchange)
#2 The suburbs have something like 40,000 open low skilled jobs that go unfilled everyday. (his reserach shows this)
#3 Inner city residents can not afford to get to these jobs currently
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 0935 hrs
#3 Inner city residents can not afford to get to these jobs currently
I don’t buy this excuse. Not for one second.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1000 hrs
Is the bus too expensive and is the train going to be cheapper?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1003 hrs
Is the bus too expensive and is the train going to be cheapper?
I suppose that new train is going to provide door to door service also.
When they make a train that kicks people’s lazy ass off the couch, gets them cleaned up, dressed, and to a job on time then perhaps the train will have merits.
People who have no motivation (but a government check coming in every month) will have no motivation to do anything.
People could get to those jobs. They choose NOT to.
Hell, they don’t even need to make excuses for themselves anymore… There is a whole segment of the population willing to make excuses for them. Right Daver?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1053 hrs
Is the bus too expensive and is the train going to be cheapper?
If we must have a train, let’s be smart about it, and not re-invent the wheel that is stuck to the track.
We already have light rail in Milwaukee County. All we have to do is extend the existing track from the zoo, and point it toward downtown.
I’ve always enjoyed riding that little train, and it would be a hoot to ride and toot my way to work.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1129 hrs
I don’t live in Milwaukee and hadn’t visited for years (mostly) until recently. What the hell is happening up there? Is it as bad as everyone says? Seems like we have another Detroit on our hands.
Posted by Moron Pundit on October 18, 2007 at 1201 hrs
We already have light rail in Milwaukee County. All we have to do is extend the existing track from the zoo, and point it toward downtown.
I’ve always enjoyed riding that little train, and it would be a hoot to ride and toot my way to work.ROTFLMAO
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1226 hrs
So Milwaukee’s poor is somehow more lazy than most other cities?
xxpilot> the cost of owning a car runs in the thousands each year.. Sorry when you are hoping to get a minimum wage job 1k-4k matters.
“People could get to those jobs. They choose NOT to.” So again the poor in Milwaukee choose “NOT” to at a higher rate than in other cities? hmmm
Moron Pundit> Milwaukee is not Detroit, yes the northwest side has become very poor but the downtown, eastside, third ward, hell walkers point and bayview are on the rise.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1259 hrs
Well, to be fair, Detroit isn’t even Detroit. What I AM saying is that Milwaukee’s murder rates are out of control and there is no similar unemployment or downturn in the rest of Southeastern Wisconsin.
I just wonder what in detail is causing the problem. Kenosha has never been nicer. Even Racine is looking nice. Waukesha seems nice enough. What’s going wrong in Milwaukee?
Posted by Moron Pundit on October 18, 2007 at 1512 hrs
Daver - I am still curious how the train will get the poor folks to these jobs in the burbs better than the bus system.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1529 hrs
Xx, there’s nifty little ride ‘em trains in Marshall and Fond du Lac, too. I think we have the beginnings of a new regional transportation system!
Posted by John Foust on October 18, 2007 at 1633 hrs
Joe.
Well that’s actually pretty easy. Because development historical and even today follows rail lines. (not buses). For evidence just look what is happening in Charlotte, NC or Portland, OR 2 very different cities but with the same results.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1701 hrs
Sorry Daver you don’t get to change the debate now. In post number 6 you argued that a low income people can’t get to already exisiting jobs and that the train would fix this. I then asked how the train would do better than the bus system. You don’t get to change the debate in the middle and tell me why the train would be great for reasons other than getting poor people to already existing jobs.
Do you have an answer?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1804 hrs
Joe>
First a train can help this, nothing can completely fix it. But I don’t know mayb ereliabilty, on timeness, frequency, dedicated right-away avoiding traffic/congestion and max capacity. It’s not like buses take you door to door either…Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 1843 hrs
Further Joe, it isn’t a question of bus vs rail anyhow. They are both parts of a transit system. i.e. each mode makes the other more usable and valuable.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 2103 hrs
No, Moron, you must have missed the annual report on the crime rate in the city, just a couple of weeks ago. You could look it up.
Milwaukee’s murder rate is down 15 percent from last year.
You may be getting misled by millionaire businessmen who denounce Milwaukee’s crime rate but really really want Milwaukee to come up with the money to move his business to the city—but then claim to be victims of crime but also give the criminal a couple of beers—but then claim they don’t know how to dial 911—and don’t report crime to the police but do call the mayor, have an assistant call the media for an exclusive interview—and then leave the country but prove entirely capable of calling from London to Sykes for an exclusive radio interview, too—and then return weeks later to say, uh, nevuhmind. . . .
So, yeh, there’s something out of control in Milwaukee, but the city is working fine for folks who know how to call 911. Not that I’ve ever needed to do so, even living here for years. But after hearing of the horrors of this incapability to call 911, I’ve been practicing. And I am so ready for a criminal to come to my door! No, wait—I’m outa beer.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 2317 hrs
xxpilot> the cost of owning a car runs in the thousands each year..
Yeah, especially with those nice shinny spinners.
Give me a break. Carpool with a friend, Ride the Bus, last time I checked Waukesha had a bus system too.Yeah, it would take a little thought, a little planning… Might even take a little looking and a little cooperation with a friend (meaning he’d have to get his lazy ass of the couch, forgo the government paycheck too) You might have to go to more than one company. Might have to find a company that has multiple openings (shouldn’t be hard)
Dave you’ve got an excuse for everything. You’re an enabler. Always ready to tell someone why then can’t do something. Always ready to find a way out of accomplishing something.
Sorry when you are hoping to get a minimum wage job 1k-4k matters.
Minimum wage my ass. Last time Bucyrus needed welders they COULDN’T FIND ANY and they were willing to SEND them to school to be trained. You know what those jobs pay!!!!
IIRC $30 to $60 an hour!!! Minimum wage… thanks for the chuckle…
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 18, 2007 at 2318 hrs
Last time Bucyrus needed welders they COULDN’T FIND ANY and they were willing to SEND them to school to be trained.
Back to square one.
You have to be competent in reading and math to be able to get through welding school these days. Seems we talked about the schools not doing a very good job of accomplishing that competency a few weeks ago.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 19, 2007 at 0042 hrs
Yes it is a question of bus versus rail. It is my question and that is precisely the question I asked. I want to know how the imaginary train is going to get people to the already existing jobs in the suburbs better than the buses we already have.
Also you list of why trains are cool really doesn’t answer this question at all.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 19, 2007 at 0750 hrs
xxpilot> the jobs i was talking about were basically min wage. you know the 40k
First joe I answered (just cause you didn’t like the answer doesn’t mean it isn’t true), basically 1 reason why we need rail AND then tried to explain that it is not bus (only right winger try to make this argument) vs rail… it is one system but I guess that’s a little complicated.
Maybe travel outside of Wisconsin and maybe experience a real transit system….
Thanks again please don’t! drive through… hahaha
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 19, 2007 at 0804 hrs
xxpilot> the jobs i was talking about were basically min wage. you know the 40k
Anyone who can’t live and live WELL off of 40K needs their head examined.
No, you can’t drive an new escalade with spree’s and hit all the clubs and drink Cris all night, but you can have a reliable car, clean apartment in a safe neighborhood or even a small house.
Daver, you have no point. Or you fail to make a coherent one. You reach into your grab bag of excuses and toss one out there. Lame.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on October 19, 2007 at 0934 hrs
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