For The Times Leader
WHEELING — The “now hiring” signs in front of nearly every eatery and store in the city are morphing into occasional “closed” signs. This included one outside the iconic Patsy’s Pizza that remained in place for the second half of April.
Just what is happening to work in the Ohio Valley?
Has a COVID-driven expansion of unemployment assistance and rounds of stimulus checks sunk — at least temporarily — the need for paychecks? Is it something else – population decline, opioid addiction, poor health?
Three voices shared their takes on such questions. They include Joe Vespa, owner of Patsy’s Pizza of Elm Grove; Del. Erikka Storch, R-Ohio, who also heads the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce; and John Deskins, director of the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research in Morgantown.