West Virginia is on the upswing, adding jobs and residents, pushing down the unemployment rate and making progress closing the per capita personal income gap.

Those unemployment figures do not include over 300 jobs lost in our Workforce Area 25, which includes the counties of Jefferson, Franklin, Perry, Jackson and Williamson.

There are stories — legends, really — of the “steady job.” Old-timers gather graduates around the flickering light of a computer monitor and tell stories of how the company used to be, back when a job was for life, not just for the business cycle. … The graduates snicker. A steady job! They’ve never heard of such a thing.

Overall, while it is clear that the pace of jobs growth is moderating, we continue to believe that the unemployment rate will hold broadly steady around five per cent amid trend-like growth in the economy and employment.

It does not bode well for unemployment that, not only are more unemployed workers seeking jobs, but there also are fewer jobs to go around.

You start out with hand jobs and progress to orgies. You smoke dope and then, the big H. bigger, better, stronger, faster. The key word is progress