Middle-aged men moving in with parents, wives taking two jobs, veteran workers taking overnight shifts at half their former pay, families moving West ? these are signs of the turmoil and stresses emerging in the little towns and backwoods mobile homes of southeast Ohio, where dozens of factories and several coal mines have closed over the last decade, and small businesses are giving way to big-box retailers and fast-food outlets. Throughout the state, the percentage of families living below the poverty line ? just over $20,000 for a family of four last year ? rose slightly from 14 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2007, one study found. But equally striking is the rise in younger working families struggling above that line.
See "Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families? Way of Life Along", Erik Eckholm, The New York Times, January 15, 2008