West Virginians have had no shortage of economic challenges over the past few years. Jobs have grown scarce, health care costs have risen, and financial insecurity has grown. One economic challenge, however, stretches back for decades, slow income growth for middle class families. For the first half of the 20th century, the middle class grew…
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Howard Swint's recent commentary in the Charleston Gazette rails against government spending in the wake of the greatest recession since the Great Depression. There's really no shortage of targets for Swint's ire: the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that created the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), Bush's infamous tax cuts, supposedly mismanaged pension plans. To…
Hoppy Kercheval's commentary today about how politicians are "raiding Social Security" illustrates his long confusion with the program and his desire to privatize or gut the program. Hoppy seems to be getting his inspiration from this Wall Street Journal article. As we've illustrated here and here, Social Security is a basic means of survival for many of our elderly. Not to…
As of June 2010, there are five people competing for every available job in America. There are about three million job openings while there are approximately 15 million people unemployed. The data for the national estimates were provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Due to small sampling size, there is no federal or…
A few blogs posts ago, I showed a chart that illustrated the historical decline in coal employment and production in West Virginia. In 1975, the coal industry directly employed 55,000 workers and accounted for about 20 percent of our state's economy (GrossState Product). Today, the coal industry directly employs 19,000 workers and makes up just six…
Economic projections play an important role in the budget process in West Virginia. Each year, the West Virginia State Budget Office publishes the Executive Budget, which includes an economic forecast. The economic forecast projects employment numbers, population growth, the unemployment rate and many other important economic indicators for the next several years. These projections help…
As one of her reasons for voting against The Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act (a.k.a. jobs bill), Congresswomen Capito stated in the Gazette this morning that "this bill add to our already bloated deficit." Leaving aside for a moment that Capito bears significant responsibility for our large budget deficits, the assertion that the jobs bill adds to the deficit is unsubstantiated and…
Here is an opinion piece in the State Journal discussing the business personal property tax that makes many of the same mistakes others make when arguing for business tax cuts. West Virginia taxes business personal property which includes manufacturing equipment and machinery. While West Virginia isn't the only state with the tax, several states do not.…
Most agree that the Great Recession began in late 2007, but we're a little behind in West Virginia. When it comes to jobs, the recession began to affect West Virginia in October of 2008. Between October 2008 and January 2010, West Virginia's economy lost 32,400 jobs. Since then, the state has slowly added 11,600 jobs.…
According to the national Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , many of West Virginia's elderly would be living in poverty, if not for Social Security. According our recent report, about 30 percent of West Virginia seniors rely solely on Social Security in retirement. What's particularly surprising is the significant number of children who receive…