When Half Your Town is Out of Work

Unemployment varies from city to city and state to state.   Nationally, the rate is alarming at over ten percent unemployed.   Those who cite those who gave up looking for work or who are only working part time, put the figure at closer to 17% unemployed.   Cities like Detroit near 20% unemployed, and states like Nevada and California are well into the double digit range.

But nothing is as startling as the unemployment rates in Pembroke, Illinois where nearly half the adults are out of work.  Fifty percent unemployed.   This is almost unimaginable.    While the town has only three thousand total citizens,  it is much like many towns were employers find no attraction, no reason to establish there and where the younger citizens move away in search of employment elsewhere.

It is the story of America in flux.   On one hand it is an old and familiar story, part of our history with things closing down and moving on.  On the other, it is worrisome that thousands of people may not ever find work again.   Couple all this with the fact that the median income is half that of the rest of the state, and you get a picture of poverty on its worst level.

According to the article on CBSNews Chicago, Nestle used to have a plant in Pembroke, employing around 100 people.   There was talk of building a prison there, but the economic downturn at least temporarily but an end to that.   There is some talk of developing low income housing in the area, and that would certainly provide jobs, if even on a temporary basis.

When I read this kind of story I think of John Steinbeck and his writings on the Great Depression, the struggles of people in the dust bowl.  I think of James Agee and his depiction of the poverty in  in the coal mining regions of Appalachia.  While we hear about the economic recovery, and how well the Dow is doing, the reemergence of Wall Street, we should take a moment to reflect on Pembroke and places like it.   I don’t think it’s the image of America most of us will relish.