We know that nearly 600,000 people lost their jobs in January, increasing our national unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. Too often, however, we concentrate on the statistic and forget the faces of the people who make up the unemployed population. Yesterday, Michael Luo of the New York Times wrote a profile of the citizens of Manchester, Ohio who are still seeking solid ground after Manchester Tool Company closed its doors 10 months ago.

The lessons we learn from this small town shine a light on the broader economy. Only 15 percent of the hourly workers have found steady employment. Older workers, like John Foss, age 50, find it especially hard to transfer their skills to other sectors of the economy:

Mr. Foss, who started as a machinist at Manchester, applied for scores of jobs after his layoff, combing the newspaper and Internet and dropping in on employers to fill out applications. He has not heard back from anyone.

A job search he initially thought might take a few weeks has stretched into its 11th month. And his initial hopes of landing a job that paid close to the $18.12 an hour he used to make have faded. He now believes $8 to $12 an hour is more likely.

For those laid off workers who can afford schooling, the healthcare field has shown the most promise:

Cindy Starcher, 35, and Lorraine Norrod, 50, are among the small group of Manchester workers who decided to seek retraining in a new field. Their rationale is easy to understand: in Ohio, more than 280,000 manufacturing jobs have been shed since 2000.

The women carpool now to classes Monday through Thursday at Northcoast Medical Training Academy, studying to become medical assistants. Those jobs typically pay about $20,000 to $30,000 a year, they said, much less than what they used to make.

But as Ms. Norrod put it, “It pays more than being laid off.”

Ms. Starcher, who has two young children at home, said she settled on health care as a potential career after much deliberation, concluding the jobs would always be needed.

“There’s always going to be sick people,” she said. “It’s the one thing you can’t send overseas.”

The tales from Manchester, Ohio should guide policy makers as we look for ways to create jobs and help people find work. Education and training are key pieces to this puzzle. As we move forward we must connect people to growing sectors of the economy and give them the tools to make an easy transition.

On Tuesday, I wrote about the need to connect social mobility policies with the “green movement,” saying that low-income workers need advocates at the table as the federal government moves toward greater energy independence. Well, Mayor Richard Daley and his team in Chicago have done just this. Daley has pledged to turn Chicago into “America’s greenest city” and has tied these efforts to job training for low-income individuals.

For Chicago residents, the term “green collar job” isn’t just new language that has been tossed around during this presidential campaign. In fact, the city has administered a green-collar job training program since 1994. “GreenCorps Chicago” trains city residents in landscaping, environmental and health safety, electronic recycling, professional development and academic enhancement. Program participants consist largely of ex-offenders - those most often disconnected to the labor market.  After completing the six month course, graduates are certified to work in one the city’s green initiatives.  More than 300 Chicagoans have completed this training program.

In addition to the government initiative, leaders from business, labor, education, and other organizations came together in 2007 to form the Chicagoland Green-Collar Jobs Initiative with a mission to:

explore and identify employment and job training opportunities to prepare workers for emerging green jobs related to sustainability, natural resource conservation and environmental related technology. The target audience for a new green collar jobs program includes: unskilled, unemployed or underemployed individuals, and incumbent workers requiring updated training for new technologies….The Chicagoland Green Collar Jobs Initiative supports development of Green Collar Jobs that will focus on low-income, disadvantaged communities and developing career-paths that lift people into a head-of-household job.

The most promising thing about the work in Chicago is the explicit commitment to bringing low-income and underserved residents into this new industry and connecting them with opportunities for social mobility. This certainly is a model worth repeating.

Today brings bad news for the American economy. In August, the unemployment rate soared to a five-year high of 6.1 percent, up from 5.7 percent in July and 4.1 percent one year ago. More than 600,000 jobs have been eliminated this year bringing the total number of unemployed Americans to 9.4 million.

Furthermore, job losses represent just one leg of the economic trouble affecting many American families. The uptick in unemployment is part of what the Washington Post calls a “triple whammy:”

They have less wealth, given falling home prices and a falling stock market. They can’t get loans as easily to ride out the bad times, as banks and other lenders have become more cautious. And now the job market is deteriorating even worse than expected.

The statements McCain and Obama on the new unemployment data are about what you would expect from each party in the height of a presidential election: a blaming of the other party for the situation, and a declaration that they will cut taxes more than their opponent. This is understandable, given that in order to actually do something about the economy, they will need to first win the votes of the American public. So while they battle it out in the swing states, here are a few ideas Congress should consider to help unemployed Americans.

• Create a new economy scholarship program. Laid-off workers get little help in boosting their skills for other employment. A “New Economy Scholarship” plan would change this by allowing dislocated workers collecting unemployment insurance to receive up to $4,000 worth of scholarships to assist in retraining and re-employment.

• Modernize the trade adjustment assistance and unemployment insurance (UI) systems. The UI system should be reformed so that it gives workers the right mix of incentives to get back to work and adequate benefits to help them get back on their feet. All employees who lose their job through no fault of their own should be eligible for UI, even if they have been working for a short time or are making low wages.

• Provide transitional health insurance for all unemployed workers. Losing health insurance coverage is among the scariest parts of losing one’s job. The current tax credit offered to cover health insurance has a low take-up rate and does not cover all UI-eligible workers. Therefore, the program should be expanded to cover all workers collecting unemployment insurance and streamlined so that the recipients receive timely tax credits.

Today Senator Obama is spending the day with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, creating additional buzz about the VP selection. Richardson remains in the mix because of his unique combination of experience, which includes representing his state for 15 years in the United States Congress and 6 years as governor, and serving as U.S. Secretary of Energy and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton administration. He would bring executive and foreign policy experience to the ticket, and some argue that he could help win over Hispanic voters - a key voting bloc - this November.

Let’s take a look though at Richardson’s lengthy and diverse public service resume to see how he would help low-income Americans in the number two spot.

Gov. Bill Richardson (NM)

Richardson, a fiscal conservative, has been able to bring relief to low-income families in New Mexico, while also cutting waste and maintaining a balanced budget. Recently he increased his state’s minimum wage to $7.50 per hour. When this increase goes into effect on January 1, 2009 it will surpass the federal $7.25 minimum wage hike that will go into effect in July of 2009.

He has partnered with companies to create New Mexico’s Job Training Incentive Program, which funds training for newly created jobs in expanding or relocating businesses. This program has worked with 66 companies since its inception, and has created nearly 2,000 jobs with hourly wages of $13.58.

Richardson has also been committed to reforming New Mexico’s education system by offering a voluntary statewide pre-K program for every child that wants to attend high-quality pre-K. He has called for frequent audits of New Mexico’s schools to determine their performance, and match progress with a proposed teacher pay raise. As he said in his second inaugural address:

For too long, some have believed that certain children can’t learn. They have the wrong environment at home, the wrong attitude in class, or come from the wrong side of the poverty line. No more. We are living by a new belief matched by strong actions -a belief in ourselves, our educators, our parents, and in our children. We must demonstrate that it doesn’t matter where you come from, every single child can learn. We must raise our expectations of them, and their expectations of themselves.

As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Richardson worked to bring jobs and services to rural New Mexico. He sponsored a bill that improved rural health care and increased the number of nurses in his state. He also brought a new dairy factory and high-tech business parks that created new jobs for New Mexico citizens.

When people cite Richardson’s vast experience they typically tout his experience in energy policy or foreign affairs. However, if elected Vice President, he would also bring a desire to help low-income Americans scale the economic ladder.