Tuesday Open Line


Articles released Monday on the newswire continue to show poor economic conditions.  The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record.  The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.  The median net worth of households headed by someone 65 or older was $170,494. That is 42 percent more than in 1984, when the Census Bureau first began measuring such data broken down by age. The median net worth for the younger-age households was $3,662, down by 68 percent from a quarter-century ago.    Source

Young adult households and older adults alike are having a tough time increasing their net worth if they are unemployed.  I’m sure you know that small business is the #1 job creator in the country.  But, another article released shows that 77% of surveyed small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers for the foreseeable future.  Most shocking of all in the survey of small and medium sized business owners is that many would like to hire more workers but can’t, and new financing rules imposed by hurting banks have made getting loans sharply more difficult than in the past.  Source

Henderson and Vance County are no exception to this, with over 14% unemployment.  Do you know of any local companies hiring?  If so feel free to post them on our open lines.  If you are a owner or manager at a local company, what has been your experience in hiring or not hiring workers lately?  How is the job market out there in your eyes?

Discuss and more on today’s open lines!