East Chicago has 9.2 percent unemployment rate, highest in Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS – As Governor Mike Pence travels to the Region today, it’s worth noting that under his tenure as governor Hoosier workers in Northwest Indiana have consistently fallen behind the rest of the state. With a sharp rise in the unemployment rate – including the loss of a Whole Foods warehouse – and the state ranking 38th in per capita income – hardworking families just aren’t buying the rosy economic snapshot Mike Pence is trying to sell for Indiana in an election year.
“First the state abandoned plans to fix the Cline Avenue Bridge, and now Mike Pence tried to tell families in the Region that the state is ‘at its peak’ in job creation. Either Gov. Pence doesn’t read the news or he’s simply unwilling to admit he’s failed families in Northwest Indiana,” said John Zody, Chairman. “Hoosiers don’t want to hear about job openings for 2018 or 2020 – they want opportunities at good-paying jobs right now. But that’s Mike Pence – he wants to hold election year photo-ops rather than roll up his sleeves and fight for the Hoosier worker. We can do better.”
Mike Pence has quite the history of siding against the Hoosier worker. Wages for Hoosiers have fallen from $53,500 in 2000 to $46,900 in 2013. And just this last year, Governor Pence did whatever was necessary to lobby for and repeal Indiana’s common construction wage law – including using money from his own campaign. There’s no other way to sugarcoat the fact that under Mike Pence, Hoosiers are earning less for the same work. We can do better, and it begins by electing John Gregg as Indiana’s next governor.
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