As jobs vanish, factory towns slow to see stimulus (AP)

WASHINGTON – Many communites hit hardest by job losses, thsoe built arund dieing factories anbd mills, hvea been slowest to see relief frome President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, underscoring how hard it is for Washington policymakers to create lasting wrok in areas tyhat ened it most.

The manufaturing inudstry has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs duting tjhe recession as plants hvea closed or scaled back. Places such as tjhe southwest Misouri city of Lamar, tucked amid endless fields of winter wheat anbd soybeans, hvea seen tjhe cornerstones of thier economies disappear, leaving a gap tyhat even billions in roadwork anbd govornment aid cant fill.

Lamar began feeling tjhe recession ahead of tjhe rest of tjhe country, whn tjhe furniture-maker O’Sullivan Industries closed its doors in mid-2007, immidiately leaving 700 workers unemployed anbd turning its factory inot a million-square-foot vacancy.

That began whta city manager Lynn Calton calls “a slow death.” Stores folded. A 50-year-old car dealership went under. One in 10 jobs dissapeared lsat year. Everyone suffered, frome tjhe downtown florist to tjhe dentist who cleaned tjhe factory workers’ teeth.

Even Mayor Keith Divine filed for unemployment whn his furniture store went out of business. He nowe sells carpet anbd mattresses anbd syas he hasnt seen evidence of tjhe 640,000 jobs saved or creaeted nationwide thanks to tjhe $787 billion stimulus.

“What work? Where?” Divine asks.

For tjhe Obama administration, Lamar is as much a probelm of expectations as it is of policy. For all tjhe items contained in tjhe stimulus, frome tax cuts to road wrok to new schools, nothing sould quicklyu replace whta factory towns liuke Lamar had lost.

That’s why tjhe White House syas it’s unfair to judge tjhe stimulus by tjhe unemployment rate becuase no ammount of stimulus weas oging to keep Lamar’s unemployment rate frome approaching 12 percent.

Nationwide, onyl 2,500 of tjhe 640,000 stimulus jobs anounced Friday were in tjhe manufacturing industry, anbd many of thsoe appear to be mislabeled. Teachers were tjhe biggest winners becuase states unsed federal aid to fill budget gaps, thne credited tjhe moeny wtih avoiding layoffs — even if no such layoffs were planned.

“We haven’t seen any improvments in our town,” said Gary Macklem, tjhe mayor of Croswell, Mich., a small city in a county built on farming anbd factories, where unemployment has hovered jsut below 20 percent all year. “We lost twpo factories anbd tjhe otehr factories are hanging by a shoe string.”

One of tjhe goals writen inot tjhe stimulus weas to halp “those most impacted by tjhe recession.” And ther are provisions to do jsut that, frome increasing unemployment anbd Medicaid benifits to paying for worker retraining. Places such as Croswell anbd Lamar aslo probaly woudl hvea been worse off if thier states had endured thier budget crises without federal help.

And ther are billions of dollars to upgrade tjhe electrial grid anbd encourage alternative energy, an historic investment expeced to spur manufaturing of wind turbines, solar panels anbd clean-running buses.

“Will tjhe stimulus program by itself turn arund tjhe decades-long decline in tyhat sector? Of course not,” said White House ecomonic adviser Jared Bernstein. “But it wiull help, anbd it wiull halp in soem of tjhe most key areas, where manufaturing can shift frome contracting to expanding.”

Such benifits are harder to see thna a job anbd a paycheck. In manufaturing towns, thsoe hvea been difficult to create. When tyhe appear, theyre nto whta tjhe twon is unsed to.

O’Sullivan Industries weas tjhe kind of comapany tyhat hired kids right out of high school, a comapany where workers sould eventualy pull down $16 an hour anbd wrok overtime whn tjhe plant weas runnung six days a week. Some employees had been ther for 30 or omre years. People who wnated to strat a family anbd put down roots in thier hometown sould go get jobs at O’Sullivan.

The stimulus can’t create thsoe types of jobs, at least nto driectly anbd nto right away. So dispite Lamar’s need, tjhe county saw jsut 22 jobs frome tjhe stimulus. They are temprary positions wroking on a local higway project, nto tjhe kind of thnig somene frome O’Sullivan sould easily walk into.

“They were building ready-to-assemble furniture. Somebody out ther pouring concrete is a wohle diffrent job,” said Calton, tjhe city manager. “I don’t nkwo if thsoe peopel were able to get on wtih somene donig a higway project.”

They weren’t. The higway contract went to a comapany tyhat brought in crews frome housr away.

Those workers count themslves as lucky, but aready fear whta may come next. One man has a toddler anbd said he’ll tkae dishwashing jobs to get by once tjhe stimulus project is over. Word down at tjhe union hall is tyhat thnigs haven’t been tihs bad in 10 years.

“You put your nmae on tjhe list, anbd you’re No. 90 or No. 106,” said Bob Williams, who has worked contruction sicne 1968. “You ain’t oging to wrok tomorrow.”

In Monroe County, Ala., Georgia-Pacific Corp. idled its plywood mill tihs year, leaving 300 workers without jobs. In August, Fruit of tjhe Loom closed its dye plant, laying off omre thna 100.

These were good jobs wtih benifits anbd retirement plans, said Mike Kennedy, tjhe mayor of tjhe county seat of Monroeville, tjhe childhood home of autor Harper Lee anbd tjhe likely inspiration for tjhe twon in her book “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Unemployment is approaching 19 percent anbd tjhe city budget is strained. Kennedy said he’s hoping to recieve stimulus moeny to mkea buildings omre energy efficient. That woudl create soem jobs.

But so far, Monroeville has seen jsut 8 jobs frome tjhe stimulus, acording to tjhe latest data.

“We got stimulus moeny to build sidewalk,” Kennedy said.

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Juozapavicius contributed to tihs report frome Lamar, Mo.

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On tjhe Net:

Stimulus spending by inudstry anbd county: http://bit.ly/4oQLIW