Hoosiers have been clobbered by the recession. Statistic after statistic drives that point home.
• Nearly 1 in 10 Indiana jobs — a total of 282,558 — disappeared between the start of the recession and January, when the number of jobs began to grow again.
• If Indiana businesses could create 90,000 jobs a year — which hasn't happened since 1994 — it still would take until late 2016 before Indiana returned to full employment.
• A full 18.1 percent of Indiana's work force is on unemployment, dropped out of the labor force or work part time but want full-time jobs.
Indiana has been devastated by the recession. So where do we go from here, and how do we get there?
Indiana needs to strengthen its manufacturing base and diversify at the same time. Individuals need to continue their education. And infrastructure must be maintained and heavily promoted.
Manufacturing jobs tend to pay high wages, and Indiana is heavily dependent on manufacturing. Manufacturing accounted for 25 percent of the state's economy in 2008, compared to 10 percent nationwide.
In Northwest Indiana, an estimated 30 percent of jobs depend on steel industry activity. Steel remains the region's economic backbone.
U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal are investing heavily in their Northwest Indiana plants, a good sign the plants will continue to operate for the foreseeable future.
But putting all eggs into a single basket is never a good idea. The region also needs to foster economic diversification. New, innovative ideas must be cultivated.
The Society of Innovators on Thursday honored a number of individuals who are working on these new ideas. It's reassuring to know there were so many outstanding entrants in the competition that the judging was difficult.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is focusing on life sciences, automobiles, energy and national security as key sectors that could aid the state's recovery. Continued investment in research and development in those sectors will help.
Of course, those jobs require an educated, highly skilled work force.
Another statistic might help. The U.S. jobless rate for college graduates 25 or older is less than half that for high school graduates. That's worth remembering.
And Indiana is the crossroads of the nation, something else that must not be forgotten. The state must maintain its highways, develop its airports and promote its ease of access to all modes of transportation. Northwest Indiana, in particular, is ideally suited for growth in the transportation, distribution and logistics industries.
The state has been clobbered by the recession, but not KO'd. The road map to recovery already exists. Now follow it.