From: Public News Service - PA

If you're part of Pennsylvania's middle class, the current recession may have hit you especially hard, according to a new report from the Keystone Research Center. Labor economist Mark Price says the federal stimulus package has helped pull the economy back from the brink, but some serious challenges remain: 192,000 jobs lost in Pennsylvania since last December, 14 percent of workers unemployed or underemployed, and falling wages for the middle class.

"They're going to have difficulty paying for health insurance; they're going to have difficulty raising the income necessary to send their kids to college; they're even going to struggle, in some cases, to maintain their mortgages."

A couple of key measures lawmakers can take, the report says, will ensure the progress made so far does not fall flat. One is to extend unemployment benefits, since 60,000 Pennsylvanians will lose their benefits by the end of the year. The second is passage of the "Employee Free Choice Act." Keystone says it will allow workers who want to do so, the right to form a union and put themselves in a position for better wages. Opponents of the act say it would strip workers of their right to a secret ballot when voting to unionize and would potentially hurt employers' bottom lines through higher wages and health care costs.

Price says one finding in the report may indicate that a tidal wave of bad economic news was coming for some time.

"Generally, as the economy expands, as it was doing from 2001 to 2007, you see some growth in wages. We didn't see that this time, and that's a pretty remarkable and disturbing finding."

Price says it would be dangerous to end stimulus spending prematurely. He says the goal in Harrisburg and in Washington should be to increase revenues and maintain spending.

"If policymakers pull back government spending too soon, the result will be to prolong the recession or perhaps jeopardize the recovery, and we get what economists often call a 'double-dip recession.'"

More information is available from the Keystone Research Center, 717-255-7156.

Tom Joseph, Public News Service - PA