Voters worry about work
By Jessica VanderKolk, jvanderkolk@altoonamirror.comArticle Photos
Fact Box
Job plans
-- Republican John McCain: Build 45 new nuclear plants by 2030 to create 700,000 jobs; engage in more free trade agreements to encourage jobs in the export sector; advance clean coal to revitalize coal mining and jobs; keep taxes low to encourage entrepreneurs; overhaul unemployment insurance.
-- Democrat Barack Obama: Create a national fund to invest in advanced manufacturing; spend $150 billion over 10 years on energy initiatives to create 5 million green jobs; increase funding for federal job training programs; spend $60 over 10 years on transportation infrastructure, creating 2 million jobs; expand the Family and Medical Leave Act.
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» Mirror's voter guide to presidential issuesAs Pennsylvania's unemployment rate rises - from 5.4 percent to 5.8 percent between July and August - Brandon Long looks to expand his small business, selling beef jerky to college campuses.
Others are not so lucky, as the number of people looking for work increased by 38,000 people, also from July to August.
While most job sectors have faced losses, construction remained stable, natural resources and mining saw a 0.9 percent increase and education and health services saw a 0.4 percent increase, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
The presidential candidates often have discussed their plans to create new jobs, particularly as problems with the nation's financial system continue.
One of John McCain's plans is to keep taxes low for entrepreneurs like Long, whom McCain calls the ''heart of American innovation, growth and prosperity'' and the ''ultimate job security.''
University Jerky LLC, established in 2006, started as a joke while Long was a student at Juniata College in Huntingdon. He started school with intentions to pursue a career in the sciences, but he changed his major to entrepreneurship after deciding to do something more creative.
''I had just gotten a food dehydrator and started making beef jerky and brought it into class,'' he said.
The business took off from there for Long and co-owner and fellow Juniata student Julia Williams.
The two don't employ anyone else, choosing instead to outsource the jerky manufacturing to a Pennsylvania plant already in existence.
While Long said the plant wished not to be named, the company keeps it busy.
''They actually increased their employees,'' he said. ''One of the goals in the not-to-distant future that we'd have is to start our own manufacturing plant.''
They also use a small, local advertising agency.
''We wanted to keep it small and benefit the people working here in Pennsylvania,'' Long said. ''We pretty much keep everything local. It keeps costs down, too.''
For now, Long and Williams sell their two flavors of jerky - Enfuego and Hala-Kahiki - at Juniata College and, for a year now, have sold the jerky at Penn State's University Park campus. Within the next semester, Long hopes they will expand to other college campuses. They also sell the jerky online at www.university jerky.com.
Long and Williams started the business with $5,000 in help from the Juniata College Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Nick Felice, executive director, said JCEL has helped start-up businesses with financing, business planning and locations.
Felice has worked in economic development in west-central Pennsylvania for about a dozen years. He said the needs of manufacturing businesses are the same as in 1996, but technology has changed.
''Companies need fewer workers to maintain the same level of output,'' he said. ''For our work force, that means retooling their skill sets to make themselves more marketable to companies competing in the world economy.''
Felice said as a ''traditionally strong manufacturing region,'' west-central Pennsylvania finds that transition more painful.
Jim Meade of Wellsboro, Tioga County, who grew up near Clearfield, said the loss of jobs is central to the overall economic problems facing the state and nation, noting the loss in manufacturing.
''Pittsburgh is waiting for the steel to come back,'' he said. ''We're waiting for the forgery plant to come back. We haven't moved into the service economy that's coming. We need to do that.''
Felice said manufacturing jobs still are available, although ''not nearly'' the number available 20 years ago.
''Simple assembly-type positions, not requiring much skill, have left our shores,'' he said. ''The key to moving ahead is accepting the changing nature of the economy and educating yourself in a manner that enhances your skill sets, making you marketable to those jobs available in your area.''
Felice said the Huntingdon area maintains a stable work force because of less-vulnerable major employers, including state government, the college and a hospital.
''For higher-skill individuals, I would say opportunities have been and will continue to be available,'' he said.
Some high school students can find job security in the military. Jason Huth, a Navy representative working at the Armed Forces Career Center in the DuBois Mall, said security is a selling point, particularly with today's job market.
''It's 20 years and you retire,'' he said. ''I retire in six years, and I'll be 38 years old. It's stable.''
Still, Huth said the Navy picks enlistees carefully, requiring certain test scores, high school graduation or equivalency and requiring enlistees to be drug- and alcohol-free.
Tony Demarchi, also a Navy representative, said most enlistees can earn a bachelor's degree while working in the Navy, and the most often sought jobs vary.
''A couple months ago, it was construction,'' he said. ''We have over 150 jobs, and every job we have, you can excel in and be marketable out in the real world when you're done.''
McCain's plans to keep Americans marketable also include his often promoted goal of building 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030, which he says would create 700,000 jobs.
He also wants to engage in more free trade agreements, encouraging jobs in America's export sector and giving the U.S. more access to selling goods and services abroad. He plans to spend $2 billion each year to advance clean coal technologies to revitalize coal mining and create more jobs.
He also wants to overhaul unemployment insurance, helping to retrain and relocate those who lose their jobs.
Barack Obama's plans include creating a national fund to invest in advanced manufacturing, based on a Michigan initiative which has awarded more than $125 million to businesses with the best ideas to create new products and jobs.
He also often promotes a plan to spend $150 billion during 10 years on energy initiatives he says will create 5 million green jobs, including advancement of biofuels, plug-in hybrid vehicles and low-emission coal plants. He also wants to increase funding for federal job training programs to include green technologies training.
With a focus on federal transportation infrastructure, Obama wants to create a fund to expand current spending by $60 billion during 10 years, which he says could create up to 2 million jobs.
He also wants to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act to include employees of smaller businesses, and to cover more purposes, such as elder care.
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56F100
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10-12-08 9:18 PM
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Look at Michigan & Ohio for the prime examples of what happens when Dems run things for years. Ohio has 4 of the fastest dying cities in the US & Michigan has 2. Sadly Pennsylvania only has 1 city that made the list, but if you keep voting for the dems I'm sure Pennsylvania can be #1.
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KlausVR
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10-12-08 8:08 PM
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"OBOZO will restart the WPA" Well, I have known a few WPAers and ALL of them blessed FDR for the program ... it saved them and their families from hunger, losing their homes, etc. It brought electricity to much of rural America. It built many public facilities around the nation; including in Altoona. Was it perfect? NO. But it helped a lot of people at the time and brought hope to a nation. Hoover's answer to the financial crisis? "It'll work out in the long run." Fine, unless your family is hungry and struggling to make house payments. Andrew Mellon was Treasury Secretary at the beginning of the Depression. His answer? "Root, Hog, or Die!" Usual Republican response.
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TimmyH
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10-12-08 3:01 PM
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Don't confuse 166 with facts. He doesn't like them. He told me that in another thread.
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guttertroll
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10-12-08 11:47 AM
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His plans are REALLY WORKING in Michigan: Barack Obama's plans include creating a national fund to invest in advanced manufacturing, based ON A MICHIGAN INITIATIVE WHICH HAS AWARDED MORE THAN $125 MILLION TO BUSINESSES with the best ideas to create new products and jobs. MICHIGANS UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: MAR 2008 7.2% AUG 2008 8.9%
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guttertroll
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10-12-08 7:38 AM
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No OBOZO will restart the WPA. I'm safe, I'm retired!
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redfox666
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10-12-08 1:23 AM
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DONT WORRY THE NEW PRESIDENT IS GONNA GET ALL OF US BRAND NEW JOBS,,,AINT THAT RIGHT MS. ALASKA????HE HE HE HA HA.
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