It's the Stupid Economy

NEW HAMPSHIRE JOBS

Three Issues usually dominate presidential elections: the economy...jobs...and the economy. Election day results usually reflect how people feel about their job security and personal financial situation.

As New Hampshire voters prepare for their first-in-the nation presidential primary, our series, "The People's Voice, continues with this report from WBUR's Bruce Gellerman, who tried to gauge how some residents of Derry, New Hampshire feel about their economic futures.

Back in 1991, as presidential hopefuls trudged through New Hampshire snow, the state and the nation were in the grips of the deepest recession in 70 years. New Hampshire's unemployment rate peaked at 7.2 percent, but since than New Hampshire's economy has bounced back. Today, the state's unemployment rate has been cut almost in half and New Hampshire is adding jobs as fast as it was during the booming 1980's. Interest rates are moderate and inflation, by some measures, is the lowest in 30 years.

Still, Russell Thibeault, president of Applied Economic Research in Laconia, New Hampshire says it's no longer "the economy stupid;" it's the stupid economy. Something just doesn't feel right.

We have a lot of economic indicators that look very good and point to a very healthy economy. But sometimes I think we're measuring the wrong things. It's as if we're driving down the highway looking at the gas gauge, but the car's running out of oil.

Thibeault says underneath the veneer of strong economic performance is the fact that today times are actually tougher for a lot of New Hampshire residents.

There's a disparity between the quantity of jobs we're adding in this recovery and the quality of those jobs. About ninety percent of the jobs we lost were high-paying jobs in the manufacturing and construction industries. And about eighty or ninety percent of the jobs, an equal amount, in this recovery are in low-wage industries, primarily in the retail and service sectors.

Those new service sector jobs pay on average 200 dollars a week less than the manufacturing jobs that were lost in New Hampshire in the last recession. Workers are now traveling further to work and working longer hours, paying the price as companies re-engineer, downsize, merge, and automate in pursuit of greater productivity.

The dramatic restructuring of the economy by corporations has created fear and uncertainty among workers. A WBUR poll of Derry, New Hampshire residents found 60 percent are moderately or strongly worried about losing jobs they now hold and nearly 60 percent say they're not making enough money. Economist Russell Thibeault:

Job security isn't what it used to be. And the longstanding contract between employer and employee has really been invalidated by a lot of the activities corporations have gone through in an effort to increase bottom-line profits. There is an underlying apprehension.

That apprehension was readily apparent among 6 Derry, New Hampshire residents who met last week in a focus group organized by WBUR, The Boston Globe and WABU-TV.

John Coulter lost his job with a defense contractor 2 years ago.

The future? There is no future for middle management in this country.

These days Coulter does some part-time consulting, but he's still looking for a full-time job. A middle aged, middle-manager, Coulter says for him, retraining isn't an option.

If I wanted to to back and be retrained for anything, first off, I have a degree in physics, so I'm not retrainable. I'm computer illiterate, so I don't need computer skills. So they sit back and say, "Well, what are we going to train you to do?"
It's like companies don't have any loyalty to employees anymore. They don't care.

Marjorie Melisi is a veteran of corporate downsizing and economic re-trenching. She was laid off when Wang Laboratories went bankrupt, found another job as a customer service representative, which she loved, but lost that job too a few weeks ago.

I have arthritis in my spine, and I took a couple of months off for medical leave. And they laid me off, when my doctor said I could go back to work. And I feel they laid me off because they look at me as a liability to their company. So it gives me a really bad taste about giving any kind of loyalty to an employer anymore.
I don't think the companies out there are loyal at all. The bottom line is the bottom line.

Frank Radzwill works as a plumbing installation foreman. A high school graduate who learned his trade under the GI Bill, Radzwill says corporations today just don't care about people.

If the stockholders say, "gee, we want a draw, we want some profit," they'll let a hundred employees go.
It's a supply and demand kind of situation, in this particular field.

Joellen Cumpata feels secure in her job as a speech language pathologist. She has no trouble finding work because of government mandated school programs in her field.

But my experience with people in related fields, primarily business, is that there is no long-term loyalty.

For others, loyalty isn't part of the equation. For Bobbi Sue Lauder work is simply a matter of survival. She has an 11 month old son and recently graduated from a GED high school program for teen mothers. She works full time, earning the minimum wage. Half her pay goes for child care but she's afraid to ask her boss for a raise.

If I went up to him and said, you know, "I'd like to have a little bit more money," he'd probably fire me right then, you know? Because he could find someone else to come in and work for that.
That's the risk of capitalism, isn't it? It's not all good, I'm not saying it's all good.

Bruce Manke is an unemployed business executive. He recently returned from Poland and Russia where he worked for years as a senior management for a U.S. multi-national firm. Manke says financially he doesn't have to work, but wants a job. He's a Republican who plans to vote for Lamar Alexander in the upcoming primary.

We have a government that this last week has shown, no matter what party you're in, it's just ineffective.

Manke says the government should not play a role in creating jobs and ironically, despite the deep frustration many in this group express towards their companies and job situations, there's almost unanimous agreement.

The best thing they could do right now is get a balanced budget. You get a balanced budget, watch how quick the economy changes. Because investors will then spend more money because they think the government is sort of under control, or semi under control.

Speech pathologist Joellen Cumpata, a Clinton Democrat was the only person at the table to disagree.

I may be idealistic but I think the American people and the American governmental system have a responsibility to provide an opportunity for every person who wants and needs to work, to work.

A plumber worries about not being able to afford retirement, a teen mother fears she'll lose her job and won't be able to feed her child, a laid off service worker is concerned about finding another job with medical benefits, an unemployed high tech worker doesn't know how he's going to pay for his oldest child to attend college next year, a senior executive doesn't want to pay for a government bureaucracy he feels is out of control, and a health care worker wonders if programs to help the needy will be cut. Yet, all agree the stress and strains of the modern workplace are effecting their lives, families and communities. Joellen Cumpata:

I think so many of society's other problems, like crime, and child abuse, and violence, and everything else, are related to employment issues. If people can't simply work and earn a decent living for their family, what is there?

Today, amid relatively good economic times fear is apparent. Still fresh in memories are the wounds of the last recession. Those feelings combined with a growing distrust in government and corporations, shrinking personal wages, and uncertainty about the future have created an electorate at least at this small table in Derry, New Hampshire, largely looking inward for answers.

For WBUR this is Bruce Gellerman.