Economic Decline Rattles Iron Range - February 2016

Economic Decline Continues to Rattle the Iron Range February 2016 All across the nation the economic downturn of various industries is hitting hard.

Unemployment rates are on the rise as workers across the U.S. and Canada receive lay‐off notices and in the heart of the U.S. iron ore industry, the Iron Range has gone from a bustling production center to a quiet scene of snow‐covered railroad tracks and factories with locked fences.

Driven by a global boom from China’s industrial explosion a few years ago, the iron ore market in the U.S. and elsewhere flourished by adjusting production to greater exportation. Unfortunately, this was a trend of growth unlikely to continue forever and recently, as China winds down the industrial expansion and heavy construction, the Midwest faces high lay‐off rates while the now‐unemployed workforce attempts to diversify their job skills in an effort to maintain salaries, benefits, and the ability to provide for their families. Although they know the solutions to the iron ore market will be slow and difficult the confidence with government backing of local industry is low.

The wife of laid‐off miner Dan Hill said, “If we are the most powerful nation in the world, why are you killing an industry?”

Solutions are in dire need but will likely take years to sort out. Legal actions against oversupply from China to U.S. markets, although already proposed to international courts, are slow‐moving. In the meantime business that supplied to and relied on the mining operations are slowly closing shop and out‐of‐work miners wonder what they should do as their livelihoods run dry.