Over at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Sara Jerving writes about nearby Rock County’s economy following the departure of GM from Janesville, Wisconsin. In Rock County Feeling Increasing Ripples from GM Departure,” Jerving describes the impact on the area:
More than a year after GM closed its plant in Janesville after three waves of layoffs affecting 2,800 employees, Rock County is showing increasing signs of distress, exacerbated by the recession:
– Home foreclosures in the county have skyrocketed from 55 homes in 2008 to 421 last year – a nearly eight-fold increase, according to Realty Trac Inc. This year is on pace to be even worse: In the first five months of 2010, 283 homes were repossessed in Rock County.
– The average hourly wage for private sector Janesville employees dropped from $23.27 in 2007 to $18.82 last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
– Reports of child abuse and neglect – while on the decline elsewhere in the state – rose 30 percent from 2007 to 2009, from 1,205 to 1,568, according to Rock County Child Protective Services.
– Rock County’s unemployment rate is 10.8 percent as of July – one of the worst in Wisconsin. Beloit, the county’s second-largest city, is the hardest-hit in the state with a 16.5 percent jobless rate.
Even worse off are roughly 2,170 people who worked at companies that supplied GM, such as Lear Corp. and Logistics Services Inc., who also lost their jobs but without the benefits GM workers got.
“When GM closed there was a ripple effect across the entire community. Hotels needed less staff, restaurants needed fewer servers, it was an economic multiplier,” said Robert Borremans, executive director of the Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board.
Sobering, all of it.