More than 3,100 people lost their jobs due to the historic flooding that ravaged Rhode Island last month. State officials say more than 120 businesses closed down, further burdening a state that is already in a deep recession with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at 12.6%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really couldn’t have come at a worse time,\u201d said Sandra Powell, the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. \u201cWe were really just starting to see some changes in our economy that made us very hopeful and I think while this month’s unemployment numbers don’t really demonstrate the impact of the flooding, over the next several months we’re going to see what that impact is on Rhode Island\u2019s economy.” <\/p>\n
The state labor agency has been struggling to keep up with the increased need for unemployment benefits. Three factors have created a \u201cperfect storm\u201d to further challenge their efforts. Between those effected by the depressed job market, the flooding and Congress\u2019 recent extension of unemployment benefits, the agency is overwhelmed. They are working to bring 25 new workers up to speed to help with the backlog but, in the meantime, people trying to file claims can wait nearly an hour on the phones. <\/p>\n
The agency hopes that many of the job losses associated with the flooding will be temporary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re starting to see some businesses slowly begin to reopen again,\u201d said Powell. \u201cBut time will tell whether or not they’re all able to reopen based on the impact of the flooding in their own individual businesses.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Cranston Casting Company, which specializes in work with precious metals, was among the more than 100 businesses left devastated by floodwaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been in this building since 1960 and we never had a puddle in our parking lot,\u201d said owner Al Schoeninger. Before the flood, the company supplied roughly 600 jewelry designers and companies across the country.<\/p>\n
Schoeninger\u2019s grandfather started the company in 1948. Now, generations later, they are struggling to rebuild all that was lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy employees helped us clean up. Friends. People that were out of work, skilled laborers, they came in and they’re donating their labor,\u201d said Schoeninger. <\/p>\n
\u201cThrough some hard, hard work with everybody- we saved some big units and right now we’re probably looking at about 50,000 to 75,000 dollars that I’m going to have to come up with to get this place open again,\u201d said Schoeninger who is frustrated and angry with the elusive hunt for funding. \u201cI can’t do a loan. I can’t put up my house. I just lost my business. I’m looking for grant money. I’m looking for free money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schoeninger said he hopes to get back to work soon, offering limited service to some clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the flood we had 12 employees. We hope to reopen up again in a week or two with probably six,\u201d said Schoeninger, who says they won\u2019t be able to offer all the services they have in the past. He\u2019s hopeful loyal clients will return and help get them back on their feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 3,100 people lost their jobs due to the historic flooding that ravaged Rhode Island last month. State officials say more than 120 businesses closed down, further burdening a state that is already in a deep recession with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at 12.6%. \u201cIt really couldn’t have come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4642,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4642"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}