Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009

Columbus, surrounding areas seem poised for economic growth

Area couple starts support group in response to fury of economic slump

Angela and Victor Smith are on the front lines of hope and despair.

She’s a secretary at their Phenix City church. He’s a music minister there, as well as a job counselor at the Georgia Labor Department office in Columbus.

Misery has hit home for the couple, who have seen members of North Phenix Baptist Church fall on hard times during what is being called the most severe recession since the Great Depression.

“We have one single mom who works three jobs just to make ends meet, and there was a time when she was almost totally unemployed. It was devastating for her,” said Angela Smith.

Life for those Victor Smith encounters daily at the Labor Department office on Veterans Parkway is just as precarious. Layoffs have seemingly become routine.

“A lot of folks just don’t know where to start,” Victor Smith said. “When you’re in the middle of the fire or the box or whatever, you can’t see out. And you need somebody around to help you see on the other side, and see what the opportunities are and how to get prepared for them.”

That’s why the Smiths have decided to begin a support group that meets two Sundays a month at their church, calling it “Job Aid.”

Call it a gathering of the desperate in an effort to offer up useful tips and information with a healthy helping of kinship and hope.

“It looks pretty rough right now,” said Victor Smith. “But there are, every now and then, just little pockets of hope that things are turning around.”

Those glimmers of economic recovery appear to be becoming more prevalent.

Still, the past few weeks have been the statistical version of a wild roller-coaster ride — an exhilarating high one day, followed by a nauseating drop the next.

Since the U.S. recession began in December 2007, the public has been fed a steady diet of reports and other information chronicling the economic train wreck.

Headlines in recent days:

Ÿ U.S. non-farm productivity rises 6.4 percent, its largest gain in nearly six years, keeping hiring at bay, but inflation in check.

Ÿ Mortgage applications fall 3.5 percent, while the average home price across the country tumbles 15.6 percent from $174,100 to $167,300.

Ÿ Sales rise 4.3 percent in July at the fast-food chain McDonald’s, while sales at key retailers Dillard’s, JCPenney and Macy’s slide.

Ÿ Oil prices, trending higher of late, slip more than $1 on Tuesday. But that good news comes because energy traders believe the economy is still too wobbly.

Ÿ The stock market extends its rally, with the Dow Jones Industrials pushing past 9,300 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 breaching 1,000 and Nasdaq topping 2,000. Those are great levels — portending an economic recovery — but still far off the 14,000 points registered by the Dow before the recession.

But perhaps the most critical piece of data, delivered last week, was that U.S. employers wiped out 247,000 jobs in July. On the surface, it’s grim news. Still, that’s far fewer than any other month this year. There were 443,000 jobs lost in June.