All week, the Times is running a series of news stories looking at different impacts of the national recession on the local economy. Monday's edition included a look at local unemployment rates over the past year.
No surprise, the trend has been markedly up in the past half-year. The greatest jump in Green County occurred between December 2008 and January 2009, when the unemployment rate increased from 5.5 percent to 8.1 percent. With the exception of a small drop between March and April, the rate has climbed since. It's hovering near 10 percent - something no one in Green County could have predicted a year ago.
No doubt, one of the significant factors in that precipitous climb has been the closing of the General Motors plant in Janesville. Green County workers were employed there. Green County companies worked with and relied upon GM. The plant's closing hasn't had the calamitous effect on the Green County's economy as it has on Janesville's - the town's unemployment rate reached 14.7 percent in April before dipping slightly to 14.3 percent last month. But it's had enough of an impact that Green County had more than just a passing interest in the recent efforts to bring GM production back to the Janesville plant.
Unfortunately, the news on that front last week was not good. Not good at all.
Janesville had been one of three plants in the running to produce GM's next-generation small car. Winning that sweepstakes would have returned some 1,200 workers to the production line.
But GM decided to produce the cars at its plant in Orion Township, Mich., about 40 miles north of Detroit, which has been devastated like no other place in the nation by the collapse of U.S. automakers.
The company's decision made sense, given the struggles of Michigan's economy and its place as the center of U.S. automaking. Spring Hill, Tenn., would have been a wise choice, too, given that its community was built around the creation of the auto plant there.
But Janesville would have been a good choice for GM, as well. It was the company's oldest plant until being shuttered earlier this year. And Gov. Jim Doyle said the package of incentives the state offered was significant.
That Michigan needed the work is little consolation to Janesville and the surrounding area. This may have been the last chance for the GM-Janesville relationship to continue. It's disappointing.
Our congresswoman, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold deserve our thanks for fighting on behalf of the Janesville plant. And a task force assembled by Gov. Doyle worked diligently to try to bring the jobs back.
We join our brethren at the Janesville Gazette in saying that the intense efforts at trying to get GM back in the plant should now be transferred toward a goal of bringing other companies into the plant. As the Gazette said in an editorial last week, if the state offered GM bountiful incentives, don't let them evaporate. Keep them available to Janesville to bring other employers there.
We concur.
No surprise, the trend has been markedly up in the past half-year. The greatest jump in Green County occurred between December 2008 and January 2009, when the unemployment rate increased from 5.5 percent to 8.1 percent. With the exception of a small drop between March and April, the rate has climbed since. It's hovering near 10 percent - something no one in Green County could have predicted a year ago.
No doubt, one of the significant factors in that precipitous climb has been the closing of the General Motors plant in Janesville. Green County workers were employed there. Green County companies worked with and relied upon GM. The plant's closing hasn't had the calamitous effect on the Green County's economy as it has on Janesville's - the town's unemployment rate reached 14.7 percent in April before dipping slightly to 14.3 percent last month. But it's had enough of an impact that Green County had more than just a passing interest in the recent efforts to bring GM production back to the Janesville plant.
Unfortunately, the news on that front last week was not good. Not good at all.
Janesville had been one of three plants in the running to produce GM's next-generation small car. Winning that sweepstakes would have returned some 1,200 workers to the production line.
But GM decided to produce the cars at its plant in Orion Township, Mich., about 40 miles north of Detroit, which has been devastated like no other place in the nation by the collapse of U.S. automakers.
The company's decision made sense, given the struggles of Michigan's economy and its place as the center of U.S. automaking. Spring Hill, Tenn., would have been a wise choice, too, given that its community was built around the creation of the auto plant there.
But Janesville would have been a good choice for GM, as well. It was the company's oldest plant until being shuttered earlier this year. And Gov. Jim Doyle said the package of incentives the state offered was significant.
That Michigan needed the work is little consolation to Janesville and the surrounding area. This may have been the last chance for the GM-Janesville relationship to continue. It's disappointing.
Our congresswoman, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, and Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold deserve our thanks for fighting on behalf of the Janesville plant. And a task force assembled by Gov. Doyle worked diligently to try to bring the jobs back.
We join our brethren at the Janesville Gazette in saying that the intense efforts at trying to get GM back in the plant should now be transferred toward a goal of bringing other companies into the plant. As the Gazette said in an editorial last week, if the state offered GM bountiful incentives, don't let them evaporate. Keep them available to Janesville to bring other employers there.
We concur.
