And it's not a good thing.
As reported by several newspapers and news stations, Connecticut's unemployment has hit 9.1 percent and Waterbury has the highest unemployment at 13.4 percent (the national unemployment rate is 9.7 percent).
While we don't have the highest unemployment rate in the nation, we're not all that far behind Detroit, which used to be at 15.3 percent and has dropped to 14.8 percent.
During campaign time last year, I was very unhappy when I heard Mayor Jarjura state that Waterbury is in excellent economic condition. At that point, our unemployment rate was the second worst in the state. Now it's the worst. If Jarjura ever does decide to run for Governor, how will he explain that Waterbury's unemployment rate has gone from bad to the worst while he's been Mayor?
Come to think of it, what about the assorted economic developers in Waterbury? What are their responses to the latest unemployment figures? Wait, let me guess--it's not their fault, it's very complicated, there are external factors that can't be controlled.
Waterbury's unemployment rate has been among the highest in the state for at least a decade. There are no excuses for it getting worse. Whatever our economic developers have been doing obviously doesn't work. It's past time to try something new.
No comments:
Post a Comment