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De-facto Unemployment

Ever since the early 1980s, residents of the Youngstown area have always been skeptical of government’s official unemployment rate. In 1982, the official unemployment rate hit 24.9% but declined to around 12% in early 1984. The Ohio governor and city officials praised the dramatic decline, but local residents knew that rate failed to account for workers who had given up looking for work, were working part-time, or had been forced into early retirement. In a report commission by the State of Ohio, the YSU Urban Studies program found that “real” unemployment rate was over 18 percent or about 1.5 times higher than the official rate.  As a result the CWCS began to post a new de-factor unemployment rate in 2008.  Full information, definitions, and additional links.

 

For more information about the de-facto unemployment rate, contact John Russo at the Center of Working-Class Studies at jbrusso@ysu.edu.

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The Mission of The Center for Working-Class Studies is Challenging Myths, Honoring Workers, Engaging Communities
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45% of Americans identify themselves as working class. Some economists say that as many as 62% of Americans are working class.
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Our online resources and teaching workshops model innovative approaches to teaching about class, race, and diversity.

Steeltown Digital Libary

The Steeltown Digital Library provides access to primary sources reflecting the history of the Mahoning Valley, including many of the sources discussed in Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown. The site also offers lesson plans for using local history in middle and high school courses.

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Worker Portraits

During the 2006-2007 academic year, Sherry Linkon and Alyssa Lenhoff coordinated a project to create an exhibit and report on how work is changing in the Mahoning Valley. "Worker Portraits: Faces of Strength" involved Youngstown State University (YSU) journalism students in writing profiles of individual workers, and CWCS affiliate Rosemary D'Apolito conducted research on demographic patterns. In April 2007, the resulting exhibit opened at the Youngstown Historical Center, featuring a dozen profiles, with beautiful photographs by Steve Cagan, and an accompanying booklet. The exhibit has been displayed at several locations around the Mahoning Valley.

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Working-Class Literature

These sites provide a wide range of resources -- bibliographies, lists of writers and works, links to texts, and collections of images, sound files, and documents.

Featured authors include Raymond Carver, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, and John Steinbeck.

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