Unemployment Rate Drops & Relating

Unemployment Rate Drops & Relating plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Unemployment in the northwest is doing about average with the national rate of 9.5%. Oregon's unemployment rate was virtually unchanged from June at 10.5% while Idaho also remained unchanged at 8.8%. But Washington has seen a gradual decline for the last 4 months according to Dave Wallace, Acting Chief Economist with the Washington Employment Security Department. WALLACE: As far as over the month numbers we had a net loss of 2,300 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis and the unemployment rate officially fell from 9.0 to 8.9. There was some readjustments. The job loss of the previous month was increased from 3,500 about 5,300 and the unemployment rate was upwardly revised as well by one-tenth of a percent. Somewhere along the line I managed to get a little older...I find myself saying things my parents or even grandparents said. But even today it is sometimes hard to relate with my aging mother and even harder to relate to my young son. Now Beloit College in Wisconsin has released their Mindset List for the class of 2014 and it reminds teachers that those kids graduating in 2014 will never have know things like a corded phone, never known a time without a computer or video games. Most of them will not know how to write in cursive or even wear a watch. Can you relate? Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. After a recent shoulder injury the doctor asked me if I did any exercising. Without missing a beat I replied, "Yes, I work out in the yard, garden, keep a tidy house, and enjoy playing with my three year old grandson." It may not have been exactly what he was referring to as far as traditional exercising goes, but being a good sport and the obviously well informed man that he is he agreed that those activities were indeed good exercise. Anybody that also enjoys any one of the before mentioned activities knows exactly what I'm talking about. Spending a half hour or more in the garden weeding, watering, planting, or harvesting on a daily basis guarantees you're getting a healthy workout. I can touch my toes with no problem thanks to an over abundance of tenacious weeds in my rock garden, and shooing crows out of the vegetable garden keeps the upper arms in shape; even though it does lead the neighbors to think I might have gone round the bend. Speaking of neighbors, their cat keeps me in rare sprinting form since cats prefer flowerbeds for the built in air freshener. As far as keeping limber, if chasing after a three year old doesn't do it, nothing will. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.