In Rhode Island, manufacturing workers hit hardest by high unemployment

(CBS News) - Rhode Island has the second highest unemployment rate in the country at 11.1 percent. Economists estimate the state will not regain all the jobs it lost during the recession until at least 2021.

CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano went to Rhode Island to find the folks who are still searching for work.

"There's so much unsettled right at this point, and you think, at 50, you should be settled," unemployed Rhode Island resident Gilda Paul told CBS News. "And, here I am at 50, and I'm not."

For 20 years, Paul worked at a chemical manufacturing plant in Rhode Island. She thought she was going to retire there. "We started there when we were young," she said. "This was a company you didn't leave."

The plant once employed 15,000 people.

"They closed down production. They sent it over to China and India and Mexico. So we knew that at that point it was just a matter of time that they closed us down or they would relocate us," Paul said.

She was laid off in 2010.

Over the last decade, Rhode Island has lost more than 37 percent of its manufacturing jobs, the biggest decline in the nation. Paul says she tried to find a job in her field, but wasn't able to find much.

With the help of federal grant money she's back in school training as a medical assistant. But, her new skills don't guarantee her a job. Her husband, a carpenter, is also out of work. Leaving the state they grew up in may be their best option.

"We would have to sit down and have that conversation and say 'What are we going to do?'" Paul said crying. "It breaks my heart but. I figure I'm doing whatever I can do to stay in Rhode Island. This is home. You do what you have to do."

Paul's unemployment benefits run out in September. She thinks they'll run through their savings by the end of the year.

[stormerF69]

After 18 trips to Ohio, I guess there was enought tax money spend there by Obama and AirForce one personnel,their un-employment has recovered some,maybe you in RI need to kiss and make up with Obama so he will viit there more? That is as Long as our Tax trip money lasts.

[rockychance]

Get Real Americans. How much longer are you going to buy these lies coming out of Washington. PEOPLE are out of work and it is growing every day. It is not shrinking as they claim but getting much worse. People by the millions have stopped looking, getting on welfare and disability. We are falling apart and all we here out of the people in power is that the economy is getting better-PURE BALONEY!

[venusvegasvada]

THIS generation at least HAD a decent paying job for some time during their lives. Imagine being a young person today, applying for one of General Electrics graciously offered 13.00 per hour jobs. What kind of life will all these young people expect to have? What kind of "retirement" can they expect?

It used to be our society not only took care of each other, but we constantly planned ahead and tried to make the next generation richer and more fortunate than the one that came before it.

Not anymore. No the only thing in the US that the Govt or Corporations care about is increasing shareholder value. Period.

If they could make 10% more profit by offshoring every single job overseas, they would. In a heartbeat and not give a flying @#$@ about the country or anyone else buy themselves.

At the rate our Congress is going, throwing American jobs under the bus (almost 3 million manufacturing jobs sent overseas the last 10 years), our young people today will be nothing more than service industry-slave labor, working their entire lives, barely staying afloat, to pay off the debt of generations of Americans who dead and long gone. All the while watching the Rich get fatter and fatter and more and more disconnected.

Wait till the GOP get's it's hands on Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. They want to give it all to Wall Street to manage.

Yeah. Right. There goes the last safety net the general public has.

This is the golden age for the older people of the middle class and it's almost over. They should be happy they at least had a taste of what a decent, living wage was.

Unless your an American CEO, a lawyer, a big shareholder, flipper/banker, Congressperson or Lobbyist, your screwed.

[Henri_Rochard]

"...They closed down production. They sent it over to China and India and Mexico. So we knew that at that point it was just a matter of time that they closed us down or they would relocate us..."

Thanks to BOTH the Dems and Repubs on this one.

Folks, wake up to the fact that the Dems AND Repubs are just playing us against ourselves. Both political parties are for sale to the highest bidder.

[berdboy]

Listening to scott pelley tonite i was surprised to hear the truthful statement made by him over the UNEMPLOYMENT numbers... he stated: people NO LONGER LOOKING FOR WORK has risen dramatically... though the [OFFICIAL] UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS HAVE FALLEN DRASTICALLY!..how can this be?... WELL... the PEOPLE ............."NO LONGER LOOKING"........... ARE STILL LOOKING! ..they just have been made UNOFFICIAL due to running out of UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS!...funny once you are off unemployment YOU NO LONGER COUNT!.. and forget the COMPANIES who are making RECORD PROFITS but still UNDEREMPLOY and UNDERPAY current and new hires BECAUSE THEY CAN! its just sick if you ask me.... the united states of america is headed to 3rd world status!....

[mike60min]

In September 2010, the Republicans voted as a "block" to kill a bill that would have taken away the 'tax incentives" of the 800 multinational Corporations to Fire in the USA and Offshore jobs to India, China etc.

The consistency of the GOP to keep the economy in the toilet, offshore jobs, to "gain the Whitehouse" like McConnell and Boehner announced shortly after 2008, is a major contributor. Not to mention how we, the people, screwed up, not showing up to vote in 2010 and allowing the Tea Party nuts (sponsored by disgruntled Billionaire Koch brothers) to take over the House to kill any Financial Reform and bring back the "good ol days" of fleecing Americans and putting the people in debt (slavery).

That with a Filibustering US Senate with the Corporate Senators bribed and paid for who have blocked any movement forward with a 60 vote rule, and a Corporate US Supreme Court who is makes decisions in favor of Corporations and the Point 1% who are Corporate Executives and Wall Street Banksters (41% and 16% of 150,000 families).

Gee, the downward trend chart of job seekers starting since 9/11 2001, well we remember the lie of WMD's and the "blank check" given to George W Bush who gave his buddies a Tax Break and put debt of the two unfunded wars on our backs.

It is going to take more than 1000 days, of this new President to turn this ship around. Heaven forbid we put another GOP in charge in Washington.

The person losing her job, her husband unemployed, in RI is not alone. She needs to look to Washington and the Party of NO for this Mess we are in. Until we throw those Bums out of Washington, we will not be out of the Mess.

I hope people show up this coming election to make that happen especially Boehner, Ryan, Cantor, Hatch, and McConnell to find employment elsewhere, out of Washington.

We are not Stupid anymore, as we have been for the past 30 plus years.

[dopeisotope]

Glad to see others have the same view of whats really going on.Don't believe all the BS put out by Fox unfair and unbalanced news and the Koch Bros robots=Repula-con Job!!Bohner and all his Buddies ought to start packing if Americans stop drinking the koolaid-Money has got to get out of politics-they work for us and we pay them very well-Wealthy Americans/Corporations should not be allowed to buy laws that make them wealthier-Repub/Demos alike,need to go back to voting based on fact/merit/public interest instead of how much money the Koch Bros or Exxon puts in their pockets!

[mike60min]

In September 2010, the Republicans voted as a "block" to kill a bill that would have taken away the 'tax incentives" of the 800 multinational Corporations to Fire in the USA and Offshore jobs to India, China etc.

The consistency of the GOP to keep the economy in the toilet, offshore jobs, to "gain the Whitehouse" like McConnell and Boehner announced shortly after 2008, is a major contributor. Not to mention how we, the people, screwed up, not showing up to vote in 2010 and allowing the Tea Party nuts (sponsored by disgruntled Billionaire Koch brothers) to take over the House to kill any Financial Reform and bring back the "good ol days" of fleecing Americans and putting the people in debt (slavery).

That with a Filibustering US Senate with the Corporate Senators bribed and paid for who have blocked any movement forward with a 60 vote rule, and a Corporate US Supreme Court who is makes decisions in favor of Corporations and the Point 1% who are Corporate Executives and Wall Street Banksters (41% and 16% of 150,000 families).

Gee, the downward trend chart of job seekers starting since 9/11 2001, well we remember the lie of WMD's and the "blank check" given to George W Bush who gave his buddies a Tax Break and put debt of the two unfunded wars on our backs.

It is going to take more than 1000 days, of this new President to turn this ship around. Heaven forbid we put another GOP in charge in Washington.

The person losing her job, her husband unemployed, in RI is not alone. She needs to look to Washington and the Party of NO for this Mess we are in. Until we throw those Bums out of Washington, we will not be out of the Mess.

I hope people show up this coming election to make that happen especially Boehner, Ryan, Cantor, Hatch, and McConnell to find employment elsewhere, out of Washington.

We are not Stupid anymore, as we have been for the past 30 plus years.

[tvnutt]

I applaud this story. I was surprised to see little ol' RI making National News but it is important to point out how high unemployment is in this state. It is actually a pathetic state, always has been pathetic. Politicians are crooked, welfare is crooked, unbelievable. We have NO, I mean, NO tourism. You COULD count the city of Newport but it is only busy from June to about October. It's just starting to get tourists now. I would move from this craphole in a minute but I am just starting a new career myself at 36. I was actually a news producer for another 3-letter network here in RI but it went down the tubes with the recession. I had no choice but to quit and go back for a new degree. Hopefully this career will work out. I also can't leave since my parents aren't willing to move(spend a few months a year from here, yes, but not up and leave) and my mother has cancer. I would leave this place in heartbeat and move to AZ. Nicer people, better weather, better tourism, more jobs. Living in RI is like living in North Korea. Stores and restaurants in other areas of the country cannot be found here because people only want a certain type and will stick to that till their dying day. Dunkin Donuts is all they want, nothing else. We've had other chains come and go. RI'ers for the most part are very narrow-minded. There is a bizarre cult of personality here, pretty pathetic. My grandfather used to say, "if they have to give this country an enema, they'd stick it here..."