J. Alexander

BLUE_4389_20121027

J.J. Alexander of Steubenville, Ohio, walks past an old Hardy's fast food building which will be used as a new call center in downtown, Steubenville, Ohio, Saturday, October 27, 2012. Alexander is a dishwasher for the local Smokey Bones and Robinson Restaurant and has been able to find regular work but says he has friends and family members who are struggling. Once a productive steel town, Steubenville, Ohio's population has contracted faster than anywhere else in the country between 1980 and 2000 as their steel plants shut down. The area has seen a drop in unemployment in recent years due in part to the prospects of natural gas but the city still has a long way to go with unemployment figures higher then the the rest of the state and the country. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)