Huntington Herald-Dispatch - West Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point to 4.6 in September, the lowest rate since August 2008. Read the full article. Total unemployment grew 1,200 over the month and the number of unemployed state residents dropped by 2,100 to 36,000, WorkForce West Virginia said in a statement.…
Economy
Yahoo News - An Illinois Democrat has been criticized after dismissing West Virginia’s economy as “irrelevant" to his party's key climate policy in the social spending package. Read the full article. The Clean Electricity Performance Program would reward utilities that adopt renewable energy sources rather than fossil fuels, penalizing utilities that do not make the transition. The…
Jackson Newspapers - Patricia Kelly, owner of Precious Memories Kid Care, said it's always been difficult finding childcare employees, but the pandemic has made it worse. Read the full article. COVID-19 caused several of Patricia Kelly's childcare employees to leave. For some, they quit out of caution to stay safe and healthy, others were terminated because…
Economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed in recent months, as a wave of new delta variant cases has left its mark on the job market. After adding an average of 889,000 jobs per month in May, June, and July, the nation added only 366,000 in August and only 194,000 in September, leaving the…
The Build Back Better Act, currently under consideration in Congress where West Virginia’s Senator Joe Manchin will be a deciding vote, would create bold, long-lasting change for West Virginia families, workers, and our state’s economy. The legislation contains landmark policies that will create millions of good jobs nationwide, while also addressing crucial needs in the…
Mountain State Spotlight, Beckley Register-Herald - When Gov. Jim Justice announced earlier this month that he had put hundreds of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief aid into West Virginia’s unemployment trust fund, he said it would lead to a “massive reduction” in business costs. Read the full article. But, for many West Virginia businesses,…
New York Times - So Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia will be responsible for putting together the Democratic climate plan. This is both understandable and terrifying. It’s understandable because Democrats need the vote of every one of their senators, which means doing whatever it takes to get skeptics on board. It’s terrifying because Manchin might end…
Pennsylvania Business Report - ReImagine Appalachia, an organization of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia labor leaders, policy experts and community leaders, urged U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to support President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislation in an open letter Sunday. Read the full article. Published as a full-page ad in the Charleston Gazette-Mail,…
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous challenges for West Virginia workers, from unsafe working conditions to unprecedented job losses. While some areas of West Virginia’s economy are recovering, the job market is far from pre-pandemic levels and employment gains have not been equally distributed. Further, increasing COVID-19 cases remain a threat to workers' health and…
West Virginia MetroNews - A little more than half of West Virginia residents believe the state’s economy is on the wrong track. Read the full article. That’s according to the latest MetroNews West Virginia Poll, which surveyed 400 registered voters August 20-25. Fifty-four percent of respondents said the state’s economy is headed the wrong way.…