On this episode of The Legislature Today, West Virginia, like most of the country, is enjoying record setting low unemployment numbers after the coronavirus pandemic. Briana Heaney sat down with Josh Sword, president of West Virginia’s AFL-CIO, and Del. Clay Riley, R-Harrison, to discuss two bills that would reduce unemployment benefits in the state.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, West Virginia, like most of the country, is enjoying record setting low unemployment numbers after the coronavirus pandemic. Briana Heaney sat down with Josh Sword, president of West Virginia’s AFL-CIO, and Del. Clay Riley, R-Harrison, to discuss two bills that would reduce unemployment benefits in the state.
Also, we’re in the final two weeks of the 2024 state legislative session. All bills, except for the budget bill, must be out of their chamber of origin by the end of the day Wednesday to give time to consider the bill. This is called Crossover Day.
In the House Monday, lawmakers passed bills on third reading altering the state’s definition of human trafficking and a separate bill increasing leniency over youth vaccination. Jack Walker has the story.
In the Senate, the chamber passed and advanced bills concerning marital sexual assault and unemployment benefits. Briana Heaney has the story.
Finally, it was Nursing Day at the Capitol. Bob Brunner spoke with nurses about the challenges they face, and he spoke with a leader who runs a retreat for nurses who are burned out.
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The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.
Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Do we have enough people to do the jobs, and are enough people willing to work at all? Eric Douglas kicks off our newest radio series, “Help Wanted: Understanding West Virginia’s Labor Force.”
West Virginia has had several recent economic development announcements in the last few years with large companies moving to the state. Those projects require construction workers and a variety of full-time employees once the work is done.
Couple this with recent federal infrastructure programs that demand workers and offer solid salaries, it raises the question, do we have enough people for the jobs?
In this new radio series, “Help Wanted: Understanding West Virginia’s Labor Force,” WVPB reporters focus on the state’s workforce. To begin, News Director Eric Douglas sat down with Heather Stephens, director of the Regional Research Institute at West Virginia University (WVU), to understand how things stack up in the Mountain State.West Virginia Public Broadcasting is producing a radio series focusing on the West Virginia workforce.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Douglas: Explain to me the quick and dirty definition of what labor force participation is, and why it’s different from unemployment rates.
Stephens: Labor force participation is the number of people that are in the labor force. And this is people 16 and older. The difference here is that the people in the labor force are the people that are working or are looking for a job. When you talk about the unemployment rate, you’re basically looking at the number of people that are in the labor force that can’t find a job. The numerator of the fraction basically, is people working or looking for a job. So unemployed people, and people working, the denominator, are the sort of big number is the population 16 and older.
When we look at unemployment rates, it is simply looking at the percentage of people who are unemployed that are in the labor force. And so when we have a low unemployment rate, it just means that the people that are trying to work. Many of them have jobs. When we have a low labor force participation, it means that of the people 16 and older, there’s a lot of people that aren’t working or trying to find a job. That’s why we say it’s labor force participation. They’re not working, they’re not in a job. They’re off the grid in terms of our labor force.
Heather Stephens
Credit: WVU
Douglas: How does that reflect if somebody’s on disability or something like that?
Stephens: In that case, they would be considered out of the labor force and having a higher level of disability would affect our labor force participation. That is one of the drivers of lower labor force participation in West Virginia, but it does not fully explain why we have the lowest labor force participation.
All states have some percentage of their population that’s disabled, West Virginia does have a slightly higher percentage than some states. But that does not explain the disparity between the labor force participation rate and the national labor force participation.
Douglas: We’re usually about 10 points lower than the national average, something like that.
Stephens: I looked last week, we were almost 55 percent. So we’re actually about 7 percent below the national average. If we look at our population 16 and older, and right now we have about 780,000 people in our labor force. That’s at the roughly 55 percent of our population. And if we went to 62 percent, we would almost have another 100,000 people in the labor force.
Douglas: That’s an awful lot of tax revenue and everything else, if we had those people working.
Stephens: Even if we assume there’s some underlying reasons that we would never get up to 62 percent, and I can provide some other reasons, partially due to the aging of our population. So it’s probably unrealistic. West Virginia is not gonna get to 62 percent. But let’s say we just got half that, right? You’re talking about another 50,000 potential workers.
Douglas: That’s human beings who are already here. We’re talking about human beings who are sitting here in West Virginia, who could potentially be working, and they’re just not.
Stephens: One of the criticisms of the standard labor force participation rate is that it’s people 16 and older. The older part of that population, that part in retirement age, they may just be collecting Social Security or living off of some retirement savings. And so they may not have a reason to want to go back into the labor force. I looked at the demographic numbers for the state of West Virginia, and since 2010, West Virginia has lost about 77,000 people from its population. And at the same time, the share of our population that is over 65 and older, has increased from 16 percent to 20 percent. We have a smaller population, and of that smaller population, more of them are over 65 or older.
So part of our current labor force participation rate, obviously, is being driven by that denominator, that population, more of them are over 65. Now, that doesn’t explain the long-term trends that you mentioned. The other thing I noted was during that same time period, it looks like we actually lost about 100,000 people between ages 18 and 64.
Douglas: In the primary workforce, we lost 100,000 people?
Stephens: Yes, more than 100,000 people. Our population overall is down. And it’s down more in the working age population.
In some recent research that I did, that I published with one of my former graduate students and another faculty member at WVU, we actually found that one driver nationally, of losing working age population, can be when there’s a spike in opioid overdoses. And so it could be, on a population weighted basis, we are still, statewide, at the top, or one of the top places in terms of those opioid overdoses.
Our research shows it could be a tipping point. People in that working age population, maybe there aren’t a lot of opportunities. And then this is sort of like the last straw, “my community is just not where I want to live anymore.” I don’t know if that’s the reason. But that’s one potential reason that we’re seeing that out-migration.
Douglas: The numbers aren’t great enough for overdose deaths themselves, but just people saying, “Alright, I’ve had enough of my community, I’m leaving here for someplace better.”
Stephens: There is some evidence from our research, not specific to West Virginia, but nationally, our research shows that, that can be sort of a tipping point for out-migration of primarily working age people. The other thing that I noted in a meeting a couple weeks ago with some folks at the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, is that while some measures they were touting was that West Virginia doesn’t have a lot of income inequality. They were ranking states by income inequality. And I said the problem with that is that part of the reason we don’t have high income inequality is that our incomes are highly compressed downward.
So if you even go to the Workforce West Virginia website, and you look at the average annual wage for West Virginia, it is $17,000 below the national average. And that is pretty significant. It relates back to this discussion of labor force participation in economics. In labor economics, we have this theory called your “reservation wage,” which is, I need to make a certain level of wages in order for it to be worth it for me to go to work.
If wages are compressed downward, it might be that part of our persistent labor force participation rate is that there’s enough people that can’t justify taking a job because of the commuting cost, or those who have young children, the cost of of childcare, that it’s not worth it to work and live in. Salaries can prevent some portion of the population from entering the labor force. I am not saying it’s the only reason, but it is one potential reason.
Douglas: Do we have enough people to support some of this economic development? Do we have enough people who can work the tourism jobs? What does it take to get people off the sidelines?
Stephens: One thing is making sure they can make enough money, making sure that there’s access to childcare for those in the working age population. The reason that U.S. labor force participation rates went way up starting around the mid ’70s, is that women entered the labor force at really high rates compared to the past. If you keep women out of the labor force because of lack of access to childcare you’re always going to have some sort of compression of your labor force participation rate. I think it’s important to be thinking about access, and especially that there are some issues with lack of childcare access in the state, and especially in places that make it convenient for you to get to your job and take your kid to childcare. That’s one potential thing that, but again, salaries overall are highly compressed downward.
You mentioned some of the big sectors like education and health care. We’re not paying in the state the same kinds of salaries that other states are paying. If you’re a teacher, for example, you can go to Pennsylvania and make a lot more. You can go to Virginia and make a lot more. So that can be a problem when it comes to recruiting educators. Tourism jobs, historically, everywhere, are not the highest paid jobs and they’re highly seasonal. Before we got started, we were talking a bit about bringing in international workers to help out in the high tourism seasons. You see this a lot in national parks, where the lodges at national parks are almost all staffed by international workers. The seasonal nature of that work, where if I’m someone living in that community, I need a job that’s year-round, not one that pays me for six months a year, because I’m supporting a family and I’m trying to live there full-time.
These are all some of the things that might bring people back into the labor force. More support in terms of childcare and higher wages. Trying to figure out how to balance this seasonal nature. Tourism work isn’t going to solve everything. The aging of our population means that we’re going to have a persistently lower labor force participation rate. Another reason that we may have lower labor force participation is that we have a significantly lower level of higher education graduates in our state compared to the nation.
If you look at the share of the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher, nationally, it’s 33.7 percent. And we have only 21.8 percent of our population with a bachelor’s degree or higher. I may work at a university, but I’m not ever advocating that everyone needs a bachelor’s degree. But we have a very high, high school graduation rate in this state. We graduate a lot of our students. But the thing that I’m not sure we are doing as good of a job at is getting those high school graduates into some sort of post-high school training that makes them more marketable for jobs that exist.
This could be a two-week certificate program that gets them some kind of training in programming, and then they can get hired and get additional training by their employer. But I think we’re stagnating out at that high school graduation. And so our workforce isn’t as trained, that makes them less marketable, it makes it harder for them to find jobs, and probably makes people discouraged and could be contributing to the slower labor force participation.
Douglas: There’s no easy answer to this, is there?
Stephens: I think that we need to chip away at thinking about what can be done. I think that things like improving access to childcare is one really big one that would bring some people back into the labor force. I think identifying training opportunities that would make people who maybe are out of the labor force get the skills they need to be prepared for jobs that do exist. I’ve been talking to some folks in the New River Gorge area who are putting together a working group to bring together various educational institutions, and think about these training programs to get people ready for jobs.
West Virginia’s working men and women took center stage in the Capitol rotunda Monday. On Trades Apprenticeship Day at the West Virginia Legislature, the old is new again when it comes to learning an occupation.
West Virginia’s working men and women took center stage in the Capitol rotunda Monday.
On Trades Apprenticeship Day at the West Virginia Legislature, the old is new again when it comes to learning an occupation.
Construction, maintenance, renovation, design, the job themes here update what goes back to the medieval apprentice times of the butcher, baker and candlestick maker. West Virginia is fifth in the nation for apprenticeship programs. George Capel, the government relations director for the West Virginia State Building and Construction Trades, said the “earn while you learn” initiative puts thousands on a direct career path.
“You have a job while you’re in the program, and you’re paid a living wage while you’re receiving your education,” Capel said. “It’s tuition free for the apprentice so there are a lot of great benefits for the apprentices in these programs.”
Capel said he’s concerned with Senate Bill 59, which has been stalled in the House Workforce Development Committee since Valentine’s Day. The measure would cut unemployment benefits from 26 to 12 weeks. Capel noted that many construction jobs are temporary and/or seasonal.
“Folks who are on unemployment are there through no fault of their own, so it’s not just like they’re staying on there for an indefinite amount of time,” Capel said. “You have to have earned wages in West Virginia for the last 18 months to be on those rolls, and it’s important to us because those unemployment benefits get our folks to the times when there is no work, whether that’s the winter months or time between projects, we rely on that.”
These trade folks want to see an equivalency program, similar to what they have in Michigan and some other states. A program where you complete your trade apprenticeship and you earn an associate’s degree.
Shawn Young from Buckhannon completed a five year electrical apprenticeship, went to work as an electrician and is now a IBEW union organizer. Young said earning that degree from an apprenticeship would open more career doors.
“I work for the union, other people go work for contractors directly, maybe in the office as a project manager, or an estimator,” Young said. “Some of those positions with these big companies require some kind of college education even if it’s not even related. In a related field to have that degree and then be able to continue to pursue higher education afterwards would be a great thing.”
Twelve construction craft unions, all supporting apprenticeships, were represented at the Capitol.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, our WVPB reporters Randy Yohe and Chris Schulz sit down with fellow reporter Steven Allen Adams of Odgen Newspapers to discuss the past week at West Virginia’s statehouse.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, our WVPB reporters Randy Yohe and Chris Schulz sit down with fellow reporter Steven Allen Adams of Odgen Newspapers to discuss the past week at West Virginia’s statehouse.
Also, the Senate suspended its own rules to pass a bill Friday morning. Senate Bill 510 was introduced and passed by the chamber in less than five minutes. Senate Finance Chair Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said the move was necessary to address a budgeting oversight around the state’s newly formed charter schools.
The Senate’s Workforce Committee met after the regular floor session Friday. As Chris Schulz reports, they heard two reports on the state’s workforce situation: one about what’s being done, and one about what could be done.
And getting young, out-of-state professionals, especially in the medical industry, to make a life and career in West Virginia is an across the board challenge. On West Virginia Rural Health Workforce Day at the West Virginia Legislature, Randy Yohe gets to the crux of helping meet that challenge.
The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.
Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, reporter Chris Schulz talks with Del. Charlie Reynolds, R-Marshall, and Fred Albert, the president of the American Federation of Teachers — West Virginia, to get their perspectives on the latest concerns surrounding PEIA — the health care benefit for state employees and teachers.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, reporter Chris Schulz talks with Del. Charlie Reynolds, R-Marshall, and Fred Albert, the president of the American Federation of Teachers — West Virginia, to get their perspectives on the latest concerns surrounding PEIA — the health care benefit for state employees and teachers.
Also, in this show, a bill passed in the Senate Monday morning, requiring all West Virginia hospitals with emergency departments to have a trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner available to treat survivors 24 hours a day. Reporters Schulz and Emily Rice have the story.
And state tourism revenue in 2022 set an all-time record with $5 Billion dollars in traveler spending. Those gains were impacted in all areas of the state. As Randy Yohe shows us, “Almost Heaven” was on full display as “Tourism Day” filled the state Capitol rotunda halls.
Having trouble viewing the video below? Click here to watch it on YouTube.
The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.
Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Senate Bill 59 makes several changes to the system of unemployment benefits in the state.
Senate Bill 59 makes several changes to the system of unemployment benefits in the state.
Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, is the lead sponsor of the bill. He says the bill aims to help target benefits fraud that saw a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For example, I got contacted that I had filed for unemployment and all these benefits were kicking in. Obviously having been a pulmonary physician during 2020- 2021, it’s the busiest I’ve ever been,” he said. “But it’s outside entities, it’s foreign governments trying to get in, break into our system, computer hackers. So there’s always going to be more fraud. What this does is gives more latitude to us as a workforce development state to be able to defend against those fraudulent activities.”
Takubo also said the bill aims to alleviate the burden of the unemployment tax on the state’s businesses.
“Everybody thinks of a big corporation when you think of employers but in West Virginia, over 90 percent of the employment is small businesses, and those small businesses are having to pay a very high tax levied to pay for unemployment,” Takubo said.
He said the bill ultimately aims to modernize the state’s unemployment laws to reflect the modern workforce and work environment and try to help more people get back to work.
“What we believe we can use this bill for is to help match jobs that are good jobs for people looking for those, and improve our workforce participation,” Takubo said. “We’re still the worst in the country. Part of that may be that they’re having more difficulty, so this bill will address some of that.”
If passed, the bill would require a job search, with the help of Workforce West Virginia, as a condition of receiving unemployment benefits. If a recipient of unemployment refuses the offer of what the bill calls a “suitable” job, their benefits could be reduced.
Takubo said the bill isn’t intended to penalize anyone.
“We’re not trying to pass legislation that guarantees you the perfect job,” he said. “What we are trying to do is get people back into the workforce because we do believe that one job will springboard to the next, to the next to get you to what you feel suitable, and what you enjoy doing for a living.”
The bill also reducess the maximum number of weeks applicants can receive unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20.
Sen. Mike Caputo, R-Marion, voiced his opposition to the changes during discussion of the bill on the Senate floor. He drew from his own experience of being on unemployment, and said the changes Senate Bill 59 makes are too harsh on workers.
“When things got a little slow in the mining industry, and myself and my friends got laid off, we wanted to go back to work, we wanted to go back to work desperately, but sometimes things just weren’t available to us,” he said. “There was a time when folks were laid off for years. Sometimes things get extremely tough, and sometimes 26 weeks is not enough. But I’ll tell you what I do know, I do know that 12 is not enough. And I do know that 20 is not enough when you’re trying to pay the light bill.”
Caputo also questioned why the government had no issue helping corporations, but couldn’t do the same for workers.
“We hand out things to corporations all the time, and I’m supportive of that, because we believe it brings jobs to West Virginia, and we all want people to succeed and have good employment, and we hand it out constantly,” he said. “But when it comes to workers, it seems like it’s a constant beat down. I just don’t get it.”
Takubo said Senate Bill 59 is just one tool in the state’s toolbox to address workforce issues, and they are always looking for more.
“We’re trying to look at all facets to help as many West Virginians as we possibly can. And so one thing I would say is legislators are all ears,” he said. “What we need is all the help we can get. So anybody out there that has ideas that maybe would help us with this, or any piece of legislation, please let us know.”
The bill will head over to the House of Delegates for consideration.
