Photo of the Day: Working for a Living

With a continued high unemployment rate, those who are working are working hard for their pay.

That much was clearly evident from the scene where Ron Dotterer and Dan Kaufman, both of Bethlehem, were working in Easton Wednesday.

Both are employed by Hellertown company Brickote, which is currently refacing an aged brick wall in the city's historic Downtown district.

The company is holding it's own in a still-sluggish economy, third-generation owner and Hellertown native Tom Polak said.

“We're hanging in there. We're working month to month,” Polak said. “It seems to be picking up though.”

The current job in Easton is an average size one for the company, he said.

Weather-permitting and allowing for curing time, the project is expected to be complete in about a week.

That the project is a week's work for three people an insignificant sounding number, but one that suggests if all the building restoration and revitalization projects in the Valley were added up, has a real impact on the local employment rate and economy over time.

Nationally, the unemployment rate stands at 9.2 percent. In the Lehigh Valley, the official figure is 8.7 percent, down from 9.7 percent a year ago, but up 0.4 percent from May. The current state rate is 7.6 percent.