November's jobs posting makes it the 23rd consecutive monthly jobs decline for Wicomico County. It also reveals that Wicomico County has recorded negative jobs growth in 29 of the past 35 months. The last time Wicomico reported a positive jobs number was in December of 2012. Folks, we are not making this stuff-up. As local municipal operating budgets are being adopted and departmental heads are vying for increases - Wicomico's 2nd largest revenues source - jobs - continues to diminish.
Reader's Note - it has been less than a year since Wicomico County finance Director Andy Mackel sought to readjust the employment base estimates for Wicomico County's operating budget. During last February's Wicomico County Council meeting the County wrote down 3.47 million dollars trying to realign the local employment numbers to what actually transpired in our County's economy.
| Labor Force Data By County, Not Seasonally Adjusted | |||||||
| 06-2011 through 11-2014 | |||||||
| Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics | |||||||
| Unemploy. | Change over prior | ||||||
| County | Period | Labor Force | Employed | Unemployed | Rate % | years 2011 - 2014 | |
| Wicomico | 11-Jun | 54190 | 49160 | 5030 | 9.3 | ||
| Wicomico | 11-Jul | 53873 | 48862 | 5011 | 9.3 | ||
| Wicomico | 11-Aug | 53146 | 48132 | 5014 | 9.4 | ||
| Wicomico | 11-Sep | 53850 | 48976 | 4874 | 9.1 | ||
| Wicomico | 11-Oct | 53011 | 48201 | 4810 | 9.1 | ||
| Wicomico | 11-Nov | 52599 | 47690 | 4909 | 9.3 | ||
| Wicomico | 11-Dec | 52369 | 47451 | 4918 | 9.4 | ||
| Wicomico | 12-Jan | 51936 | 46758 | 5178 | 10 | -295 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Feb | 52809 | 47651 | 5158 | 9.8 | -172 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Mar | 52995 | 48202 | 4793 | 9 | -606 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Apr | 52548 | 48193 | 4355 | 8.3 | -711 | |
| Wicomico | 12-May | 53647 | 49171 | 4476 | 8.3 | -31 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Jun | 54344 | 49585 | 4759 | 8.8 | 154 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Jul | 55112 | 50369 | 4743 | 8.6 | 1239 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Aug | 53792 | 49262 | 4530 | 8.4 | 646 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Sep | 53529 | 49208 | 4321 | 8.1 | -321 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Oct | 53333 | 48876 | 4457 | 8.4 | 322 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Nov | 52714 | 48180 | 4534 | 8.6 | 115 | |
| Wicomico | 12-Dec | 52867 | 48086 | 4781 | 9 | 498 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Jan | 51872 | 46806 | 5066 | 9.8 | -64 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Feb | 52155 | 47297 | 4858 | 9.3 | -654 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Mar | 52396 | 47872 | 4524 | 8.6 | -599 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Apr | 52204 | 48050 | 4154 | 8 | -344 | |
| Wicomico | 13-May | 53484 | 49261 | 4223 | 7.9 | -163 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Jun | 53517 | 48991 | 4526 | 8.5 | -827 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Jul | 54107 | 49843 | 4264 | 7.9 | -1005 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Aug | 53274 | 49302 | 3972 | 7.5 | -518 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Sep | 52763 | 48942 | 3821 | 7.2 | -766 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Oct | 52740 | 48814 | 3926 | 7.40% | -593 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Nov | 52563 | 48453 | 4110 | 7.80% | -151 | |
| Wicomico | 13-Dec | 52508 | 48484 | 4024 | 7.70% | -359 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Jan | 51049 | 46711 | 4338 | 8.50% | -823 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Feb | 50905 | 46757 | 4148 | 8.10% | -1250 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Mar | 51203 | 47261 | 3942 | 7.70% | -1193 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Apr | 51312 | 47729 | 3583 | 7.00% | -892 | |
| Wicomico | 14-May | 52566 | 48886 | 3680 | 7.00% | -918 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Jun | 52757 | 48811 | 3946 | 7.50% | -760 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Jul | 53498 | 49414 | 4084 | 7.60% | -609 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Aug | 52543 | 48598 | 3945 | 7.60% | -731 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Sep | 52101 | 48778 | 3323 | 6.40% | -662 | |
| Wicomico | 14-Oct | 52064 | 48629 | 3435 | 6.60% | -676 | r |
| Wicomico | 14-Nov | 51472 | 47838 | 3634 | 7.10% | -1091 | p |
| -14810 | less | ||||||
| p = preliminary. | SOURCE: BLS, LAUS | workforce | |||||
| r = revised | 30-Dec-14 | ||||||
Does not surprise me. I just got layed off from K&L and I was there for almost 20 years. They are downsizing and the outlook for the company is good.
ReplyDeleteOne knows it is pretty bad when you see the police locking-up the panhandlers.
ReplyDeleteLast night, I saw a new group that I haven't seen before set-up near Chic-fil-a.
For the life of me I cannot understand WHY it is acceptable for the County to continue supporting SWED.
ReplyDeleteIt is going to take YEARS to rebuild Wicomico County, IF it can be done at all.
Getting a failing grade month after month, year after year is just plain stupidity. You can blame it on the economy, (because that would be easy) OR you can get someone in a new economic development department and start to rebuild.
Good Lord, what will it take to get this started? Salisbury News has been preaching this for SEVERAL years now. Just admit, the former leadership was wrong and we have been right. No big deal, just change it before its too late.
I'd like to also add, NO OTHER News Source have published these numbers, NONE.
Joe - looking at the chart it, and if the trend continues, it looks as though the next couple of months (December & January) it could get even worse as January's nos. have traditionally been the worse.
ReplyDeleteTo JOE - I agree. Seems as though they keep trying to use the same old formula hoping for a different result. Let's face it, it is high time to try something different. Anything!!
ReplyDeleteFor what Joe is talking about. SWED is Salisbury Wicomico Economic Development and the director is Dave Ryan who has been there for many years. That being said economic development has been failing for over 10 years and Wicomico County keeps throwing money at that guy. Nothing is being done and it is time for a fresh face. Wicomico County are you listening. I know one council member that is.
ReplyDeleteOf course it will get worse. The Holiday jobs have ended, hence another major spike on the surface in about two months.
ReplyDeleteWhile Jake Day and Jim Ireton take the EASY route by creating affordable housing, they are ultimately DESTROYING the future of Salisbury and Wicomico County.
Look, I offered to step in and do it right. I think Jake Day is a nice guy but let me assure you, they have absolutely NO experience in business and they are young. They have been raised to believe their way will work and I'm here to tell you they are flat out 100% wrong. It will work for the first 10 years but let me assure you, when there is NO) industry, crime is so through the roof, no one will be willing to lie here or invest here. DUH, look at what has already happened to industry here. It will get a thousand times worse.
In the mean time, developers will make a fortune off these subsidies and will be long gone when it all falls apart.
To do it right, it will take a good 20 years to see really great results but what you'll have in the end are PROPERTY OWNERS both in residential and commercial. You will see great paying jobs and it will be the right kind of growth, not a mirror of Detroit.
11:57, Thank You. I do hope more Council Members will listen and if they don't, well, they need a Short Bus and Helmets.
ReplyDeleteROCK THE BOAT! Their LIBERAL way has FAILED. It's absolute time for new blood and NO ONE can complain. They have had many years to prove they can help us and they have failed. They know what's coming and no one can complain.
Now let's just see who has the stones to maker it happen.
John Cannon is already screwing up the county. He's jonesin to be the next county executive.
ReplyDeleteJohn cannon = all about rental $,
DeleteThe local employment scene is UNSUSTAINABLE!!! Beacon, SWED, let's face it - it isn't happening. Every semester - (twice a year) - and every spring (once a year) - another high school class graduates. So the local employment numbers should be exponentially increasing. That is definitely not happening here in Wicomico. What are our people doing? Where are they going? Have that many Wicomico residents decided to throw in the towel and give up? The employment scenario cannot continue - quite simply it is an unsustainable condition. Where in the heck are all of the other news medias? Where is The Daily Times, WBOC, WMDT, The Independent, The Coast Dispatch? Where - might I ask? This is front page news!!!
ReplyDeleteMy two cents worth 12:28, this information should be sent right to the desk of Bill O'Reilly/Megyn Kelly and I suggest that a live prime time TV interview be done on the condition of Wicomico County. Although there may be portions of our country fairing better, my bet is that the rest of the nation is doing similar to Wicomico.
ReplyDeleteIf Wicomico County was just business friendly, we would quit with the job loss - but no, we can't do that. Dumbest town on Delmarva. How do you expect people to get jobs when there are no businesses here to employ people?????
ReplyDeleteThank your great idiot obama loving anti business mayor you had your chance with joe.
DeleteIt's sad they took the Filtronic Comtek plant and turned it into an unemployment office.
ReplyDeleteIf Chuck Cook didn't rig the election, YOU would be MAYOR Joe and FIXING this mess.
ReplyDelete1:25
ReplyDeleteThey?? Who is they? Filtronic left of their own accord-moved to CA. Former One-stop Jobs location is now a drugstore. The empty Filtronic building is thus in use again.
We have already experienced negative job numbers for almost 3 straight years, how much more of a trouble signal do our officials need before they change their path.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that almost every employer seems to be sub-contracting their business out. Even Comcast does not send out company men anymore. The other day a guy pulls up in a white pick-up and said he is sub to sub.
It seems as though the educational system has been running businesses out of here. With so many students and supportive taxing authorities, its no wonder that most all of the businesses have hi-tailed it out of here. Between the schools, college town atmosphere, there is no room now for new businesses. They have become targets, (ducks on a pond).
ReplyDeletePart of the blame - Obamacare. More incentive now to go out of business instead of trying to stay in business.
ReplyDeleteReally 3 big reasons.
ReplyDeleteUnaffordable care act
Raising the minimum wage
Businesses and local government do not buy local, so local business has no need for employees.
All this promoting the county and city. It should be required all construction, any contracts, food, equipment, printing, everything, should be bought in the county, not across the bay or even other states in many cases. How can business survive when the local gover. won't support us.
The only expanding in this county are the non_profits such as the Universities, Dove Point, Mac Center, the hospital, and subsidized housing. None of these properites are taxed other than employees who work there.
ReplyDeletePolitians know nothing but raise taxes. They pushed this Middle school to be built on land that is one step above marsh and has been for 50+ years and is and will be breaking the budgets subsidized by more grants and rise in taxes. they donate to non-profits and tax exempt organizations instead of helping the economy. Wicomico County should go through a forensic audit and make results public.
ReplyDeleteSWED director Dave Ryan is a great guy, a fantastic tennis player, but not an economic development guru, obviously he is a failure and doesn't have a clue.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the audacity with which many of the "suits" in county positions have is astounding. They are drastically overpaid under qualified posers for the most part.
There was mention of the one stop job market, now there is a money sucker for ya!
Politician's aren't business people. Hire business people as your next politicians and see how things change.
ReplyDeleteRegarding 1:25 Poster that said
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that Filtronic plant turned into unemployment office.
My response: I agree. It seems as though all of the expansion is the government itself. And who feeds these monsters, the taxpayers. The equation looks like this:
Govt. Expands + more bldgs = higher & more taxes
Higher taxes - less businesses = stressed economies
Bottom line - economically speaking things are out of whack.
Scanning the nos. although the number of unemployed are dropping so is the workforce. Either the people are moving away from here or they have decided to just give up trying to find a job.
ReplyDeleteI am making half of what I used to make over ten years ago when I had a good job at a local manufacturing plant. I am paying over three times the taxes I used to pay over ten years ago and I really don't know how I am going pay this years taxes, which went up an additional 500 dollars.
ReplyDeleteThey tax and spend without thinking about how this is going to impact the people who still live here and are struggling just to make ends meet. Something has to give! Spending has to be controlled!
5:23 - you are absolutely right! Too many of the county department heads are over their heads. Do poor work at a slow pace and think they are geniuses. Culver - you were elected to fix it. Holidays are over. Let's see some action! YOU WERE ELECTED TO FIX THIS - NOW DO IT!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm confused about Dave Ryan. Is it true that the business community (other than the Gillis/Gilkerson boys) have had no seat at the table under Pollitt and his administration? Is the problem Dave Ryan or as someone else called them "the county suits" who have had a strangle hold on our county. What is the truth? It certainly seems that the young turks are running the show and not the true entrepreneurs and business owners who have put in the hard work to be successful. Can someone with FACTS enlighten me?
ReplyDeleteTo 1:34 Poster that said John Cannon is all about rental money.
ReplyDeleteResponding to post - But even the renters have to work to pay their rents. So where are they working. Maybe they are not and are leaching off the system too.
12:28 - I believe there are a lot of other local media reporters that are reading this article. Watch Monday or Tuesday and they will be reporting it verbatim.
ReplyDeleteI believe the local jobs scene has gone way beyond the cautionary yellow light. It has now reached a crisis. Something has to give or we are going to end up like Baltimore & Detroit.
ReplyDeleteWe already are like Baltimore. Open your eyes
ReplyDelete5:56 is right on.When you have lawmakers all over wanting to change the government we now have to a unified type they could care less about small business and growth in small areas like this.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteJohn Cannon is already screwing up the county. He's jonesin to be the next county executive.
January 3, 2015 at 12:07 PM
You can bet he is up to something. I was told he was asking future council members the night of the election to vote for him for for council president. Cannon hadn't even gotten enough votes yet and he was campaigning to be the president.
Joe you keep saying Jake Day is a nice guy. Quit saying that crap we all know Jake Day is a lying liberal Democrat.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf Wicomico County was just business friendly, we would quit with the job loss - but no, we can't do that. Dumbest town on Delmarva. How do you expect people to get jobs when there are no businesses here to employ people?????
January 3, 2015 at 1:17 PM
Excuse me, but Wicomico County is not a town.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteJohn cannon = all about rental $,
January 3, 2015 at 1:34 PM
One of the biggest Slumlords in Wicomico County. A prime example of one of John Cannon's rental properties is that gray 2 story dump on the corner of Naylor Street and the entrance to the post office near Rt. 50. That run down property is an embarrassment to Wicomico County. That is what the visitors see when they pass threw.
Let's get behind our mayor and support lowers taxes for the citizens
ReplyDeleteSoon we will have another whole category of taxes. That's right. Very soon - you'll see. A Maryland House Bill already provides legalization for the new tax. Just like the flush tax doubled, soon we will have a local services tax. SBYnews published this just a few days ago and cited an example as to how the new tax bill will look.
ReplyDeleteBob Culver just recently saved taxpayers between 5k and 6k a month. I am sure here after the holidays he is gonna sink his talons in and save us alot more!
ReplyDeleteExcuse me for my miss calculations above more like 10 to 11k a month.
ReplyDeleteBut remember what our President and his democratic followers have said;
ReplyDelete'We are in the midst of an economic recovery'
I swear - Pinocchio's nose is getting longer and longer by the minute.
Cannon is part of the Strasberg/Mackes group. Don't be fooled by him. He wants to continue the crap that has been going on for years. What a mistake to elect him and how dumb to make him President. Yes, he was working everyone to get the post. Hope the likes of JHolloway and Kilmer can talk sense to Dodd. Hall is another RINO with MHolloway. It is going to be a tough 4 years unless the RINOs can be shamed into doing the right thing. I'm worried. The turncoats needed to be exposed for what they are. Only public opinion can get to some of them.
ReplyDelete