At a recent interim committee meeting regarding creating a work sharing program in West Virginia, concerns were raised over potential conflicts between work sharing and collective bargaining agreements. Fortunately, these concerns are easily addressed, and do not pose a hurdle for the creation of a work sharing program in West Virginia. Work sharing allows employers, in…
Income and Work
We often hear that one of the state's biggest economic problems is a skills mismatch. More specifically, we are told that manufacturing firms in the state cannot find enough qualified workers and that this is holding up our state's economic recovery. The problem with this argument, as we've pointed out before, is that it is…
Jobs Market Shows Signs of Life in October West Virginia’s jobs market showed signs of stabilizing in October, as the state added 200 jobs, after losing nearly 3,000 jobs a month for the past three months. Total nonfarm employment stood at 747,600, 12,700 jobs below the state’s pre-recession level (Figure 1). The state’s unemployment rate…
On Friday, we co-released a report with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute on the rise of income inequality in West Virginia. Most striking in the report was the average drop in incomes among the bottom 20 percent of West Virginia households since the late 1970s. While the wealthiest…
One of my favorite social scientists, Lane Kenworthy, has a remarkable essay in the latest Foreign Affairs on America's growing opportunity and income inequality gap. Most notably, Kenworthy finds that addressing these twin problems requires different strategies. For example, while investing in early childhood development may help create more economic opportunity over the long-run it…
A recent article from Governing Magazine shows that West Virginia had the largest increase in income inequality from 2010 to 2011. While West Virginia has traditionally had lower levels of income inequality compared to most states, income inequality in the Mountain State is now nearly the same as the national average. The graph below uses…
Job loss accelerates in September - West Virginia’s disappointing trend of losing jobs continued in September as the state shed 3,200 jobs, marking the eighth straight month of job loss. So far in 2012, only January has seen a monthly increase in jobs. Total nonfarm employment stood at 747,500 in September, 12,800 jobs below its pre-recession…
Job Losses Continue to Pile Up in August - August marked the seventh straight month of job losses for West Virginia, as total nonfarm employment fell by 2,300 jobs. August was also the third straight month with job losses over 2,000, which hasn’t happened since 2009. Total nonfarm employment is now 750,700, which is 9,600 jobs…
The projected decline of Central Appalchian coal production is one of the biggest challenges facing the state in the near future. While there are many reasons for the decline, some are irreversible, as much of the easy to reach coal has been mined out. This has prompted a great deal of concern in the state, chiefly regarding the…
While the state slowly recovers from the Great Recession, struggles remain. There is only one job opening for every four people looking for work, the state has the lowest workforce participation rate in the nation, and West Virginia workers earn, on average, one dollar less an hour than the national average. Raising the minimum wage,…