About 500 people are expected to meet at Magee Park and march across the Greenfield Bridge to demand employment opportunities on Thursday afternoon, according to protest organizers.
The protest is part of a national effort to point out decaying bridges across the U.S. Protesters are gathering at many bridges across the country in need of repair to demand that Americans to be put back to work.
The unemployment rate in Pennsylvania is 8.3%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While that is lower than the national average, the region’s number has been creeping upwards. Protesters said that many of the unemployed are teachers, Port Authority employees, and health workers who recently lost their jobs due to budget cuts.
One of the speakers scheduled to speak at the protest is Ryan Dunmire, a furloughed teacher in the Steel Valley school district.
“I know that in Allegheny County alone we have over 300 teachers furloughed to date, which means that they are out of work. In the state of Pennsylvania alone we have over 5,500 teachers that are out of work,” she said.
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Actually, according to data released yesterday (11/17), the state's unemployment rate is 8.1%, not 8.3, as article suggested. The region's unemployment rate is actually creeping down, not up—but is still woefully high.