| SMALL PLANTS ELIMINATING JOBS - Tough economic times are taking a toll on workers at Diamond Electric in Eleanor, one of several small West Virginia concerns firing employees recently.
Affected are 23 employees at the Putnam County plant that produces ignition coils for Chrysler, Ford and Toyota.
Company officials said their sales volume is 50 percent lower than expected.
OHIO'S UNEMPLOYMENT FUND GOING BROKE - According to The Columbus Dispatch, the sudden burst of unemployment claims with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has brought the system to its knees.
Calls are going unanswered, and worse, the online claim system that the state encourages claimants to use has been brought down by the onslaught.
A spokesman for the department told a Columbus Dispatch reporter that in the last month daily call loads have jumped from 7,500 to 80,000.
Ohio, like many other states, will soon exhaust its unemployment fund.
WV CHAMBER REJECTS MORE TAX ON BUSINESSES - The president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce says keeping West Virginia's unemployment trust fund solvent shouldn't fall on the backs of the business community.
Gov. Joe Manchin has asked Workforce West Virginia to study whether changes are needed to keep the fund in the black.
Money for the fund comes from taxes paid on the first $8,000 businesses pay for each worker they employ.
The rate hasn't been adjusted since 1981.
The trust fund has about $233 million in its accounts.
For now, the West Virginia fund is solvent.
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