This paper was prepared for the Markle Economic Future Initiative.
Imagine a man who has worked as a welder for twenty years in Northeast Ohio.
One day, after work, he is unexpectedly laid off from his job. He goes home that day to tell his wife the news. They sit their two children down to tell them that they will have to start making big changes in how the family spends money. The next morning, he begins searching online for welding jobs in Northeast Ohio. For weeks, he sends his resume to generic human resources email inboxes. It takes him days to find any available opportunity that might work, and weeks to hear back, if he ever does at all. Meanwhile, the family’s savings dwindles and they wonder what options they have left.
This is a scenario playing out across the country, every single day.
Read the rest of the paper in the PDF.
