Economic expert out at United Way of Greater St. Louis
Russ Signorino, the local media’s go-to expert on regional employment and other economic issues, is himself out of a job.
The United Way of Greater St. Louis confirmed Monday that Signorino’s position in the agency’s research division, where he served as a vice president, has been eliminated. Signorino, an economist, had been with the United Way since 1997. His last day was June 18.
Prior to coming to United Way, Signorino spent three years as the workforce development coordinator with the St. Louis Economic Council and 18 years as a labor market analyst for the state.
As he searches for a new job, Signorino said he will “be actively involved in the St. Louis region through boards, partnerships and collaboratives.”
And, good news for media folks who always appreciate his timely and cogent insight, Signorino will continue to make himself available for observations on the local economic scene.
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Russ is the guy who lost his job with the county in Kinko-gate: He got ‘caught’ by security cameras (probably illegally accessed by the county police) trying to object to impropoer use of federal funds by his then-employer, St. Louis County. He’s one of the good guys.
Typical St. Louisans, weeping and moaning about the economy and people losing their jobs. Hey, here’s a headline. St. Louis is finished. Through. Done. D-U-N done. Your city has been gradually sinking into the pit of bad eonomics, bad employers, crumbling infrastructure, deteriorating downtown, poor leadership, and sorry football for years. Accept the fact that your crime rate, high taxes, ghost town airport, failing school system, overcrowded highways and growing unemployment rate is fodder for successful cities everywhere. “Who would want to live, work or play in St. Louis?”, they ask. “Who would want to locate a company in St. Louis? Have you been to St. Louis recently?”, they ask.
Not sure how you all allowed yourselves to be dragged down and ill-relevant conversation about vehicle manufacturing and buying American from this story. But since we are there, some of you sound like a bunch of whinning brats pissed off because you made bad choices and now you need to deal with them. Even if we did not personally make the decisions, we sure did not pay attention to the bad policies, misappropriation of funds, de-regulation and big government of the last 8 years. Sounds like some of us were just fine when the wind was blowing in our direction. Or when we thought we could really “have a beer” with our last President.
While we were busy raking in the dough, living above our means, buying homes we knew we really could not afford, racking up credit card debt and grabbing the first flat screen TV-iPod Nano-new fangled bobble we could get your hands on, the Rich folks became uberRich and middle class and poor folks were fooled into believing we were too.
Now that the veil has been lifted off of our eyes and we see how ugly the wound of this economy really is and that it happened on our watch - we are willing to be distracted by silly comments and acqusations. Shame on us for pointing the finger to everyone else but ourselves for this mess we are in. Some of you are still distracted - foreign vs. American made please. What about the Execs at those car companies that made bad decisions and got themselves in this place in the first place. Be pissed at them for not making cars that the majority of Americans wanted and needed. They were making cars that only 3% of the population wanted or could afford. Be pissed at the banks with their big paychecks who are still not lending to small businesses eventhough most of them have the money (speaking from direct knowledge). Get on your Reps head about making sure that this kind of crap cannot happen again!
I got a Malibu, love it. Nearly 150k on it and it is still going strong. But who gives a crap. My one car purchase won’t save GM. Like the other poster said “Buy Local”. Stay out of Walmart, go to the mom & pop small businesses.
BTW, I know Russ. He is a good guy that gave a lot to this community. He was one of them who were trying to help. For those of you who are just whinning, get the hell out of the way so the rest of us can recover this economy and move forward. Then you can go back to your hi-def, big screen, head in the sand lives.
I know firsthand why Russ Signorino remains so well-respected by those involved in local businesses, not-for profits and other organizations: Some years ago, I worked with Russ at United Way of Greater St. Louis and found him to be incredibly knowledgeable about local economic issues and forecasts, as well as completely dedicated to helping fulfill the needs of the St. Louis community. Far from receiving one of the “fat salaries,” Russ probably was not compensated enough for the kind of quality, meaningful work he did or for his service on behalf of all our interests. One more thing: The overhead at United Way of Greater St. Louis is around 10 percent, not 75 percent.
This guy had a nice run. So did the Chrysler janitors who made 100 bucks an hour and then took a $140K buyout to retire. Once we get free medicine (when we’re not sick) and free energy (when the wind blows), everyone will be happy.