Bankers’ Lunch: Second Course
Our unemployment rate hasn’t responded the way it did in the ‘80s. We’re far more insulated to the timber industry than we were back then.
Bruner: We were so dependent on timber back then. We’re more diversified.
Cleary: The February unemployment rate was 6.9 percent.
Bruner: It’s usually about one, one and a half above California.
Cleary: Only over the last five years. Over the ‘90s, it was consistently higher than California.
One of the things that I think is there’s a coming shift in Humboldt County — not only in Humboldt County, in a lot of rural counties — the entry-level workforce is going to decline over the next couple of years. Because the number of kids coming out of school is going to decline. You have 1,600 kids right now in the 12th grade. And then you’ve got basically, in the sixth grade, 1,200 kids. A certain portion of those are going to drop out, so you’re looking at about 30 percent decline in high school graduation coming over the next six years.
In addition you have the baby boomers starting to retire. So you have a replacement workforce needed. And, you know, what you are hearing a lot more in Humboldt County, which you never used to hear, is not that there are no jobs but that there are no employees to fill the jobs. That is a profound shift in our local economy.
It’s true in a lot of rural communities. And there’s an element … a certain percent of the youth is always going to migrate to the city. The population of the United States has gone to primarily an urban population over the last hundred years. Right, Thomas?
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on the cover
Railroad!
Proposed lines ‘set rich blood a-tingling’ in early 1900s
Some Other Proposed North Coast Railroads
Choo-choo Fantasies
Exposing this east-west rail nonsense
seven-o-heaven
Undeterred Will
Will chides Andrew for lack of attention to detail and makes plans for his inevitable victory.
Recent on the cover
May 17
Ring of Fire
Sun and moon will perform a rare pas de deux in Humboldt skies on Sunday
May 10
District Soup
Racing for the top county seat in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts
May 3
A Place in the Woods
As park closure deadline nears, a scramble to save what we can
Today
44th Annual Kinetic Grand Championship Race
STAFF PICK / events, art, outdoors, sports, for kids, free / 9 a.m.-6 p.m. A 3-day, 42-mile kinetic sculpture race over land, sand, mud and water! LeMans start at the Noon Whistle on the Arcata Plaza. Follow the race through Manila, Eureka and into Ferndale on Memorial Day for the Glorious Finish. kineticgrandchampionship.com. 889-3024.
Flow 2012 Fashion Show
STAFF PICK / events / 8 p.m. Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. Student designed and produced clothing. Fundraiser for Arcata Arts Institute. $35/$25 students. artsinstitute.net. 822-1220.
Woodside Preschool's Rummage/Bake Sale
events / 8 a.m.-noon. Woodside Preschool, 900 Hodgson St, Eureka. www.woodsidepreschool.com. 445-9132.
Lanphere Dunes Restoration
STAFF PICK / outdoors / 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Meet at Pacific Union School. Help remove non-native invasives at the Lanphere Dunes Unit of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Tools and gloves provided, wear work clothes and bring water. Carpool to the protected site. 444-1397.
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