Guest post by Jed Eckert
Sound the trumpets, roll out the red carpet and pop open the champagne!
Ohio’s long nightmare of unemployment is over!
Put on your Sunday’s best, shine your shoes because for the 6th straight month Ohio’s unemployment rate has dropped to a totally awesome 10.0% and Ohio actually shed 17,000 jobs in one month!
Wait, what?
Yup. As the overall unemployment rate dropped , the report indicated a harsher reality than the sticker price on the press release: Behind the numbers, there are 17,000 fewer employed Ohioans and 6,000 less in the workforce.
There is zero good news in the latest jobs report.
While the Strickland campaign is busy preparing a hastily written press release touting the “6TH STRAIGHT MONTH OF DROPPING UNEMPLOYMENT ” their praise of this report not only makes them look out of touch with the reality of the state, but also ignorant of the numbers behind the headlines.
Surely embedded in their press release will be the obligatory quote from Lis Smith that goes a little something like this, “Governor Strickland sees hope in the new jobs report as unemployment has dropped for the 6th straight month. But the Governor will not be happy until each and every Ohioan has meaningful work.”
Unfortunately, cookie cutter lines won’t cut it with this electorate anymore. As they praise the report, they’ll look even more out of touch, even more insensitive to the situation on the ground.
But please, send that press release for the fun of it.
