job outlook grim
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1/31/2009
The mine in the area by far the largest employer anmounced ib late 2008 that it was shutting the mine down, for now due to depressed world demand and pricing for their mineral.
Already landlords are dropping prices on rental units...but no jobs,no pay what good is an aparment where unemployent will probably top 20%.
This sends slivers down the river valley where the next largest employers are downriver (45 miles south are a newspaper making mill ( And we know what the internet has been doing to the print biz as of late and will continue to do so!)
The mine is owned by a canadian mining giant with holdings all over the world. They have no intentions of reopening the mine anytime soon.
By the way the two towns of Metaline Falls and Metaline right down the road have a combined population of 385 people...the mine laid off somewhere between 132 and 165 workers.
The Metaline Falls mine has a history of being shutdown for extended periods of time, the owners only reopened due to the high prices due to China's hungry for that enormus building boom and the false economy that the sub-prime fiasco and the greed for huge bonuses being paid to exec's in the financial markets. NW washington and the upper part of Pend Oreille will face.
jim | Bellingham, WA