With its striking cable-stayed bridge spanning the Ohio River and murals plastered around town, Steubenville, Ohio, has worked hard to put on its best face. But the Appalachian area, which includes Weirton in West Virginia’s northern panhandle, has long struggled economically. The Great Recession hasn’t helped. The area has shed 68 percent of its logging, mining, and construction jobs since late 2008. Those 2,700 lost jobs represent about 5 percent of the workforce. As the recovery began, unemployment stood at 13.2 percent and has since drifted upward, not downward.
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