The records did not contain names. To link the data sets, Matías Scaglione, a labor economist in the Department of Workforce Development’s Office of Economic Advisers at the time, used Social Security numbers, and then removed the numbers so that our data were anonymous. We identified Blackhawk’s dislocated workers mainly by finding the students who had received unemployment benefits at some point during the period we examined. We also relied on Blackhawk’s new-student questionnaire, which asked about employment status. Students who answered that they were unemployed or dislocated were included in the analysis. We made certain that no one was counted more than once.
For the analysis, we created a “before” (pre-recession and pre-layoff) period from 2007 and an “after” period of the final year for which we had information—through mid-2011. In this way, we could look at how many dislocated workers were working for pay before and after they retrained. We could not identify whether people had full-time or part-time jobs, so we divided them into “steady workers” with earnings each quarter of the year; “intermittent workers,” who had at least one quarter with earnings and one with no earnings; and people with no reported earnings. The data contained earnings only from Wisconsin, not from any other state, but other information suggested that relatively few people in the area had jobs elsewhere. We compared their earnings before and after retraining. Then we compared their work and income with those of others who got unemployment benefits in Rock and Green counties—and with those of other students on campus at the time.
Overall, we found that one third of the laid-off workers who went to Blackhawk completed their program of study within the expected time, a little more than other students on campus with them.
Here are some of our other main findings:
Laid-off workers who went back to school were less likely to have a job after they retrained than those who had not gone to school.
Who Had a Job?
Retraining did not translate into greater success at finding a job. Among those who went back to school, the proportion who ended up with steady work was smaller than among the laid-off workers who did not. Worse still, more of those who retrained were not earning any money at all.
How Much Were People Working?
The laid-off workers who went to school were earning less afterward than those who did not. Before the recession, the two groups’ incomes had been about the same.
Did Retraining Pay Off?
Laid-off workers who enrolled at Blackhawk
Laid-off workers who did not retrain
Other Blackhawk students
Average quarterly earnings, 2007
$7,294
$7,239
$1,636
Average quarterly earnings, year ending June 2011
$3,348
$6,210
$2,788
Average change
−$1,935
−$534
$985
Average percent change
−35.5%
−7.5%
47%
The dislocated workers who found steady employment after retraining had started out with relatively high earnings before the recession. Afterward, their wages were a little higher than those of others who retrained—but much lower than those of steady workers who had not gone to school.
Even for people who found steady work, did retraining pay off?
Laid-off workers who enrolled at Blackhawk
Laid-off workers who did not retrain
Before
Average quarterly earnings, 2007
$9,675
$8,390
After
Average quarterly earnings, year ending June 2011
$4,821
$7,637
Average change
−$2,269
−$279
Average percent change
−28.5%
−3.5%
The laid-off workers who graduated from their Blackhawk programs were earning more money than those who did not finish. But because they’d had higher incomes beforehand, these completers ended up with a bigger drop in pay than the noncompleters.
Did finishing school help?
Completers
Non-Completers
Before
Average quarterly earnings, 2007
$10,174
$5,833
After
Average quarterly earnings, year ending June 2011
$4,275
$2,926
Average change
−$4,974
−$1,105
Average percent change
−49.0%
−25.9%
One group of dislocated workers received extra help through a special Career and Technical Education (CATE) program. Based on the predictions of Blackhawk staff and local business leaders about which fields of study would be the most promising paths to available jobs, some of these students were channeled into associate’s degree programs in information technology and clinical laboratory technicians work. And others were enrolled in shorter certificate programs in certified nursing assistance, welding, and business. We looked at whether all the laid-off students who selected these promising programs fared better at finding work than those studying in other programs. They did not.
Did promising fields help?
Before
After
Promising
81%
62%
All Other Programs
89%
61%
Percent working for pay
Many of the laid-off workers who went to Blackhawk were older than typical college students. The older the students, the bigger the drop in their earnings from before the recession to after.
Which age group was hurt the most?
18–24
25–34
35–44
45–54
55+
Average quarterly earnings, 2007
$1,173
$4,316
$11,761
$11,747
$10,760
Average quarterly earnings, year ending June 2011
$2,519
$3,178
$4,128
$4,540
$3,387
Average change
$1,307
−$883
−$5,755
−$6,175
−$6,944
Average percent change
98.9%
−23%
−53%
−59%
−67%
About the Author
©MELINA MARA
AMY GOLDSTEIN has been a staff writer for thirty years at The Washington Post, where much of her work has focused on social policy. Among her awards, she shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She has been a fellow at Harvard University at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Janesville: An American Story is her first book. She lives in Washington, D.C.
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Notes and Sources
This book was researched primarily through interviews with the people in the story and others in Janesville, plus firsthand observation of some of the events described. The names are real. For events for which I was not present, descriptions of people’s actions, statements, thoughts, and feelings are based on their memories and those of others who we
re there, as best they could relate them, buttressed in spots by written accounts and other sources.
A list of books and articles for further reading follows the notes.
Source Notes to Chapters
Prologue
As the twentieth century opened: Mike DuPré, Century of Stories: A 100 Year Reflection of Janesville and Surrounding Communities (Janesville Gazette, 2000), 17.
Its innards: Rick Romell, “Janesville GM Plant’s Remains Go to Auction,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 20, 2009.
Part One: 2008
Chapter 1: A Ringing Phone
A dozen days ago, he issued a plan: Rep. Paul Ryan, H.R. 6110 (110th): “A Roadmap for America’s Future Act of 2008,” introduced May 21, 2008.
Where he was elected junior class president: Prom ’87, George S. Parker High School yearbook, 1987.
Chapter 2: The Carp Swimming on Main Street
The first step is a protocol: Jeffrey Salzman, Melissa Mack, Sandra Harvey, and Wally Abrazaldo, “Rapid Response Under the Workforce Investment Act: An Evaluation of Management, Services and Financing,” U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, August 2012.
By Wednesday, June 11: Ann Marie Ames, “Rock River Flooding Could Threaten City’s Downtown,” Janesville Gazette, June 11, 2008.
Volunteers and jail inmates fill: Gina Duwe, “Rock River Rising,” Janesville Gazette, June 15, 2008; The Gazette staff, “The Janesville Gazette’s Top Stories of 2008,” Janesville Gazette, Dec. 31, 2008.
At the measuring station closest to Janesville: Robert R. Holmes, Jr., Todd A. Koenig, and Krista A. Karstensen, “Flooding in the United States Midwest, 2008,” U.S. Geological Survey professional paper no. 1775, U.S. Department of the Interior.
Near the street’s northern end: Catherine W. Idzerda, “Carp Gathering to Mate in United Way Parking Lot,” Janesville Gazette, June 21, 2008.
Chapter 3: Craig
Within a decade, the company was the largest: Carol Lohry Cartwright, Scott Shaffer, and Randal Waller, City on the Rock River: Chapters in Janesville’s History (Janesville Historic Commission, 1998), 61.
In 1909, the earliest automobile manufacturer in town: DuPré, Century of Stories, 2.
This was when Craig executed his ingenious maneuver: Ibid., 32.
GM turned out its first tractors: Ibid.
“In my entire experience I have never seen”: Letter from W. C. Durant, Rock County Historical Society, Feb. 26, 1919.
Nevertheless, when Chicago’s “Century of Progress” World’s Fair opened: Austin Weber, “GM Centennial: Show and Tell,” Assembly Magazine, July 1, 2008.
“Of all the brilliant spectacles”: “The Making of a Motor Car,” Souvenir Guide Book to the Chevrolet-Fisher Manufacturing Exhibit, General Motors Building, A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933.
On December 5, 1933, the Janesville plant reopened: “Janesville a Plant City for 40 of GM’s 50 Years,” Janesville Daily Gazette, March 6, 1958, 24.
In Flint, Michigan, the strike lasted forty-four days: Neil Leighton, “Remembering the Flint Sit-Down Strike oral histories,” Labor History Project, University of Michigan–Flint; “The Sit Down Strike of 1936–37,” United Auto Workers, Local 659.
In Janesville, by contrast, the sit-down lasted: DuPré, Century of Stories, 58–59; Gillian King, “The Cogs Fight the Machine: The Great GM Sit-down Strike,” Wisconsin Hometown Stories, Wisconsin Public Television; Oral history of strike, Janesville Room, Hedberg Public Library.
At 9 p.m. that night: “Shifting Gears: Janesville after GM” (GM history timeline), http://gazetteextra.com/gmtimeline/, Janesville Gazette, Dec. 15, 2013.
And for the next five weeks: Irving Bernstein, Chapter 5, “Americans in Depression and War,” Bicentennial History of the American Worker, U.S. Department of Labor, 1976.
“Keep ’em firing” was their motto: Letter from War Department to the Men and Women of the Janesville Plant, Dec. 11, 1943.
In 1967, General Motors bestowed: Mike Hockett, “Today in Manufacturing History, GM Celebrates 100 Millionth Car Made in US,” Industrial Maintenance and Plant Operation Magazine, April 2016.
In 1986, General Motors transferred: DuPré, Century of Stories, 197.
Chapter 4: A Retirement Party
As he approached the south entrance: Gina Duwe, “Obama Visit Came Off ‘Without a Hitch,’ ” Janesville Gazette, Feb. 14, 2008.
Marv is a Democrat: Stacy Vogel, “GM Workers Caught Up in Obama-mania,” Janesville Gazette, Feb. 14, 2008.
Just the day before, General Motors had announced: Nick Bunkley, “GM Posts Record Loss of $38.7 Billion for 2007,” New York Times, Feb. 12, 2008.
“Prosperity hasn’t always come easily”: Transcript, Barack Obama, remarks in Janesville, Wisconsin: “Keeping America’s Promise,” Feb. 13, 2008, American Presidency Project.
Chapter 6: To the Renaissance Center
The posse includes the two men: Press release, Office of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, June 23, 2008.
Finally, the governor sums up the case: Press release on meeting with General Motors, Office of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, Sept. 12, 2008.
Chapter 7: Mom, What Are You Going to Do?
Four Mondays ago, she watched as Lehman Brothers: Heather Landy and Neil Irwin, “Massive Shifts on Wall St.,” Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2008.
By Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average: Vikas Bajaj, “Whiplash Ends a Roller Coaster Week,” New York Times, Oct. 11, 2008.
On Saturday, at a meeting in Washington: Adam Plowright, “World Powers Look to Solve Crisis with Collective Efforts,” Agence France-Presse, Oct. 11, 2008; “Financial Stress, Downturns and Recoveries,” World Economic Outlook, International Monetary Fund, October 2008.
Chapter 8: “When One Door of Happiness Closes, Another Opens”
He felt a take-charge satisfaction: Rock County Community Resource Guide, Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board.
So on page A8 of the guide: Ibid.
So, late on the afternoon of December 10: Meeting minutes, Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board, Dec. 10, 2008.
Chapter 9: The Parker Closet
Deri kept in her mind and spirit: Adapted from Loren Eiseley, “The Star Thrower,” in The Unexpected Universe (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969).
Part Two: 2009
Chapter 10: Rock County 5.0
The Beloit Corporation began as an iron foundry: “From Beloit Iron Works to Beloit Corporation,” Beloit Historical Society.
A fall from industrial glory: Superfund Program profile: Beloit Corp., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
One of nine daughters: As told to Amy Zipkin, “The Business Must Go On,” “The Boss” column, New York Times, Nov. 21, 2009.
In 2006, Inc. magazine named Ken: Leigh Buchanan, “Create Jobs, Eliminate Waste, Preserve Value,” Inc., Dec. 1, 2006.
They built a fortune: “The Forbes 400,” Forbes, Sept. 20, 2007.
The sixty-six-year-old roofer fell: James P. Leute, “Billionaire Hendricks Dies After Fall,” Janesville Gazette, Dec. 21, 2007; Krista Brown, “Reports Detail Fatal Fall,” Beloit Daily News, Dec. 22, 1007.
Chapter 11: The Fourth Last Day
He helped to prepare an application: TAA Program Benefits and Services under the 2002 Benefits, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor.
Two days before Christmas, the day that GM and Lear stopped production: Reports of mass layoffs and plant closings, Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, 2008 and 2009.
No, it wasn’t only GM and Lear: Unemployment rate, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Janesville-Beloit, Wisconsin, metropolitan statistical area, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.
Chapter 12: Bidding War
In his booming voice: Proceedings of the Rock County Board of Supervisors, June 11, 2009.
It is the first
time the supervisors have met: Transcript, press conference by Fritz Henderson, president and chief executive of General Motors, June 1, 2009; Statement from General Motors, “GM Pulls Ahead U.S. Plant Closures; Reaffirms Intent to Build Future Small Car in U.S,” June 1, 2009; Statement on General Motors and Chrysler, Office of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, June 1, 2009.
Rick Wagoner is not around: GM Statement on Officer and Board Announcements, March 30, 2009; Peter Whoriskey, “GM Chief to Resign at White House’s Behest,” Washington Post, March 30, 2009.
By the time Marv finishes and the votes are tallied: Thomas Content, “State Bid $195 Million to Land GM Auto Line,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 8, 2009.
Chapter 13: Sonic Speed
The package adds up to $195 million: Thomas Content, “State Bid $195 Million to Land GM Auto Line,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 8, 2009.
At 7 a.m. on June 26: “Michigan Gets Small Car GM Plant; Doyle ‘Deeply Disappointed,’ ” Madison.com/Associated Press, June 26, 2009.
The company had merely used Wisconsin’s offer: Statement regarding GM decision, Office of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, June 26, 2009.
Home to the U.S. auto industry and a 15 percent unemployment rate: Regional and state employment and unemployment monthly news release, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, July 17, 2009.
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