The Weekender Saturday, January 7, 2017
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Your chance to help write history By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
The last push to complete the “Chronicles of Allen County, 1946-2000,” a compendium of accounts published in The Iola Register, is underway. The Chronicles goes to press in mid-May with expected delivery six weeks hence. Pictures are an integral part of the upcoming book and many residents from Iola and surrounding communities have been good to peruse their photograph albums and carousels of slides to contribute photos that depict the years from after World War II up to the turn of the 21st Century. Examples of contributions are frequently run in
The old St. John’s Hospital, which was open southeast of Iola until closing in 1952. The Register is eager to find photos of Iola’s old Santa Fe Railroad Depot, for inclusion in the upcoming Chronicles of Allen County, 1946-2000. REGISTER FILE PHOTOS the Register as well as posted on its “Chronicles of Allen County” Facebook page. Although the book won’t go to press until spring, its layout begins in February. With that in mind, a deadline for submitted photos will be enforced in an incremental manner. Photos from 1946 to 1960 will be
accepted up until Feb. 1; those from 1960 to 1970 up until Feb. 18; from 1970 to 1980 up until March 1; from 1980 to 1990 up until March 18, and from 1990 to 2000 up until March 30. We are especially eager to check out photos from specific See HISTORY | Page A6
The Richards house, at the intersection of Madison Avenue and First Street, was demolished in 1949 in order to make way for construction of a county-owned hospital in downtown Iola.
Allen County Hospital opened in the early 1950s.
The fire that destroyed three buildings on the west side of the courthouse square in August 1990. The Register is seeking other photos of events, places and people from the latter half of the 20th Century in Iola and Allen County.
Council eyes meeting change Iola City Council members will discuss Monday whether they should meet on different nights of the month. In November, the Council was approached by Iolan Larry Walden, who noted the city’s regular meeting nights — the second and fourth Mondays of the month — also fall on the same night as the USD 257 Board of Education, limiting the ability of residents
to attend both meetings. City Administrator Sid Fleming has looked into several options, including moving the meetings to another See CITY | Page A3
For the birds Bradyn Jones, left, a fifth-grader at Iola Middle School, aids McKinley Elementary School kindergartner Henry Kramer as they prepare an acorn bird feeder Friday as part of the fifthgrade’s monthly visit to McKinley. Students learned about winter activities, Kansas history and Martin Luther King Jr., all of which are recognized in January. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 49
Allen County Regional Hospital opened in 2013.
Job market evolved with Obama By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER The Associated Press
percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Barack Obama took office in January 2009 in the midst of the Great Recession, the economy was hemorrhaging jobs. Employers were panicking in the face of plummeting demand and a financial crisis that had frozen credit. In March 2009 alone, 823,000 jobs disappeared. When the bleeding finally stopped in February 2010, 8.7 million jobs were gone. The unemployment rate hit a painful 10 percent — a quarter-century high — in October 2009. Eight years later, the job market is in infinitely better shape. The unemployment rate is 4.7 percent. Jobs have been added for 75 straight months, the longest such streak on record. But many other trends, not all of them positive, have reshaped the job market over the past eight years:
Those routine jobs typically paid middle-income wages. As they have faded, both higher- and lower-paying jobs have grown faster. The number of jobs in computer networking and software development has soared 42 percent in eight years. Data analysis has enjoyed job growth of 18 percent. On the lower-paying end, jobs at restaurants and hotels have jumped 19 percent.
MORE HIGH- AND LOW-PAYING JOBS
A SMALLER SHARE OF AMERICANS HAVE JOBS
Hiring has been solid yet still hasn’t kept up with population growth. The pro-
portion of Americans with jobs — essentially the flip side of the unemployment rate — dropped a full percentage point under Obama. An aging society has turbocharged retirements. And many workers, especially less-educated men, have become discouraged about finding jobs with decent pay and have stopped looking. AUTOMATION AND GLOBALIZATION ERASE ROUTINE JOBS
Routine work on factory assembly lines and as office clerks has declined, in some cases lost to computers, robots and inexpensive imported goods. Factory jobs have fallen 2.4 percent since January 2009. The number of people working as office administrators is down 2.5
“Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.”
— Charles Lamb, English critic (1775-1834) 75 Cents
MOST NEW JOBS GO TO COLLEGE GRADUATES
The ranks of employed college graduates jumped 22 percent under Obama, while the number of employed people with only a high school degree fell 4 percent. That partly reflects demographic trends: Older, lesseducated Americans retire and are replaced by younger people more likely to have college degrees. But it also points to rising demand for high-skilled workers. SLOW PAY GROWTH
Over the past year, average hourly pay has risen 2.9 percent, the healthiest inSee JOBS | Page A3
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