WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Jerry Wilmouth moved to Galesburg, Illinois, five years ago, everyone told him to get a job at Maytag Corp.'s (NYSE:MYG - news) refrigerator plant. Maytag paid the best, they said, and the 50-year-old factory was the lifeblood of the city.
Now, Wilmouth and 379 others are spending their first week of life after Maytag -- the first of 1,600 workers to be laid off between now and the end of 2004, when the plant closes for good and Maytag moves the work to Mexico.
The 46-year-old father of three said he has little hope of finding work in Galesburg to match the $15 an hour he made on the assembly line, and now his 17-year-old daughter is thinking about joining the army to pay for college.
"Every decent-paying job in the area is going, going or already gone and I'm faced with taking a job for $6, $7, $8 an hour," said Wilmouth.
The loss of 2.5 million manufacturing jobs since January 2001 has devastated factory towns across middle America, where once-dominant local employers are pulling up stakes and heading to Mexico or Asia in search of lower costs and cheaper labor.
The exodus of 1,600 Maytag jobs is only the tip of the iceberg in Galesburg. Everyone from sheet metal suppliers to local firms providing toilet paper and light bulbs rely on the plant for business in the town of about 33,700 about 150 miles southwest of Chicago
According to a study by the Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University, the Maytag plant is the dominant industry for nine surrounding counties. For every Maytag worker laid off, nearly three other jobs will disappear as the loss of so many high-paying jobs ripples through the economy -- taking total jobs losses to 4,166.
"Never in my life have I lived in a place that is sort of going backwards like this," said Chris Merrett, an associate professor at the institute.
"Along with agriculture, this kind of manufacturing was the economic base and those jobs are going elsewhere."
PINK SLIP DREAMS
Since the end of the 2001 U.S. recession, job losses have ballooned in many sectors despite economic growth. This "jobless recovery" has drained one in six factory jobs, squeezing many of the nation's more highly paid workers.
Manufacturing pays an average $45,580 in annual wages -- about 17 percent higher than the average U.S. job, according to the National Association of Manufacturers ( news - web sites ).
The layoffs have carved a swath of unemployment through the Midwest, where cornfields made way for factories after World War II as industry shifted from big cities to comparatively low-cost rural areas.
In Wichita, Kansas, some 11,000 aerospace workers have lost their jobs since 2001 as employers outsourced both parts supply and assembly overseas, sideswiping the local economy.
Carolyn Summers, a 41-year-old mother of two was laid off from her job at Boeing Co.'s Witchita plant (NYSE:BA - news) two years ago, and she mourns the devastation she has seen.
"I see so many people that I worked with at Boeing, and they're still unemployed just as I am," said Summers. She blames free trade and President Bush ( news - web sites) for allowing U.S. companies to outsource overseas.
"I wish the government would really see what it is doing to the American people. We built this country, and I feel that they're letting it turn into almost a ghost town," she said.
A single mother, Summers most regrets the impact the loss her $18.67-an-hour job has had on her 21-year-old daughter, who was away at college studying nursing when the pink slip came. She now works at Wal-Mart to pay for her part-time studies at Wichita's local community college.
"That's one dream you're always saying -- 'My child is going to go to college'," lamented Summers. "All my American dreams just seem to (have been) written on a pink slip."
All our work is being exported.... no wonder our economy is not coming back!
Fusterating.
X.