Hillsdale ranks 12th for unemployment in state
Marieke van der Vaart
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: News
Hillsdale County cannot claim the worst unemployment rate in nation - or even in Michigan for that matter. However, an updated Community Action Agency report on poverty in the area doesn't paint the future of jobs in the area brightly either.
Michigan recorded the highest unemployment rate in the United States in 2008. On a state level, Michigan leads the country's unemployment rate at 15.3 percent, 2 percent higher than the next state's rates.
In Michigan, Hillsdale County ranks 12th, with a 17.2 percent unemployment rate. Hillsdale leads the five counties neighboring it by a margin of one to seven percentage points.
But what the statistics don't show, Jill Pavka, director the St. Peter's Episcopal Church's free medical clinic, is what living day to day with unemployment looks like, especially this far into a recession.
Unemployment numbers from August only tell one aspect of unemployment in Michigan, she said. As the recession drags on and unemployed people don't find jobs, they lose their unemployment benefits.
"Now they're not able to afford anything," Pavka said. "So many of them have absolutely no income."
Pavka heads up a team of physicians and community members who run a free clinic every week. Forty-one weeks into the fall and the clinic has served as many patients as they saw all of last year.
"Our numbers are up 50 percent from the same period last year. We've already seen as many patients as the entire year last year," Pavka said. "We've had more new patients this year than the entire year last year."
And the 2,352 visits featured some of the worst medical conditions the clinic has yet seen. Pavka blames that on the economy too.
"People put off healthcare or try to cut back on medications," she said. "Not only are we seeing more patients that they're sicker than we've ever seen."
Maxine Vanlerberg, Hillsdale County director at the Community Action Agency, said she esti-mates the flow of people coming through the agency's doors for assistance has risen some 34 to 40 percent.
Michigan recorded the highest unemployment rate in the United States in 2008. On a state level, Michigan leads the country's unemployment rate at 15.3 percent, 2 percent higher than the next state's rates.
In Michigan, Hillsdale County ranks 12th, with a 17.2 percent unemployment rate. Hillsdale leads the five counties neighboring it by a margin of one to seven percentage points.
But what the statistics don't show, Jill Pavka, director the St. Peter's Episcopal Church's free medical clinic, is what living day to day with unemployment looks like, especially this far into a recession.
Unemployment numbers from August only tell one aspect of unemployment in Michigan, she said. As the recession drags on and unemployed people don't find jobs, they lose their unemployment benefits.
"Now they're not able to afford anything," Pavka said. "So many of them have absolutely no income."
Pavka heads up a team of physicians and community members who run a free clinic every week. Forty-one weeks into the fall and the clinic has served as many patients as they saw all of last year.
"Our numbers are up 50 percent from the same period last year. We've already seen as many patients as the entire year last year," Pavka said. "We've had more new patients this year than the entire year last year."
And the 2,352 visits featured some of the worst medical conditions the clinic has yet seen. Pavka blames that on the economy too.
"People put off healthcare or try to cut back on medications," she said. "Not only are we seeing more patients that they're sicker than we've ever seen."
Maxine Vanlerberg, Hillsdale County director at the Community Action Agency, said she esti-mates the flow of people coming through the agency's doors for assistance has risen some 34 to 40 percent.
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