D.C. unemployment reached 12.1 percent in December

La disoccupazione balza al 12,1% in dicembre nel Distretto di Columbia (Washington Capitale)




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012203538.html
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Qualche passo estratto dall'articolo(in blu):
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The District's 12.1 percent jobless rate is the highest since the government began collecting the data in 1976...
Unemployment is particularly high for the District's black residents, whose rate is three times the level of whites.
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"Right now I will wash bathrooms and do anything because I have a family that I am trying to support," said Charles Nurse, 54, who was among 10 people sitting in the lobby of an unemployment office in Northeast Washington on Friday. They were waiting to enter the area where dozens were searching for jobs at computer terminals.
Fin qui niente di strano, sennonché Charles Nurse è un ingegnere civile-meccanico:
Nurse, who has a civil engineering degree and is a certified auto mechanic, added that some potential employers "say I am overqualified. It is kind of depressing, but I am not going to let that hold me down."
Sovra-qualificato, per le attuali necessità del mercato dell'offerta, gli dicono certi potenziali datori di lavoro...
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Automotive-parts maker Intermet closed plants in Lynchburg and Radford, Va., putting more than 300 people out of work. The company had been weakened by foreign competition, as the Detroit Three automakers began buying more parts overseas. In August 2008, the Fort Worth-based Intermet filed for bankruptcy protection, liquidating plants in Georgia and Minnesota.
Then the company was hit by the recession: Consumer demand plunged, and the government forced General Motors and Chrysler to reorganize in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
"It became not profitable to operate," said Walter Vrobel, a human resources manager who was laid off but is working on a contract to finalize closure of the facilities. "The prices of the scrap iron we needed increased dramatically over the years. Foreign competition, a depressed automotive economy and the GM and Chrysler bankruptcy had a ripple effect through the auto supplies" sector.
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