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Atlantas Jobless Have Yet to Feel Effects of Better Employment Figures |
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Wednesday, April 07, 2004 |
 Apr. 4 - A burst of new jobs in March may raise hopes, but it hasn't radically reshaped the economic landscape for the unemployed.
The federal government reported a boost in new jobs last week, but the unemployment rate actually increased in March, apparently because the improvement in jobs is drawing more people into the pool of job-seekers.
The job market has been hobbled for so long, it will take many months of solid growth to soak up many of those bogged in long and painful job searches.
Here are the voices of some of Atlanta's jobless, presented as the second in a continuting series of occasional snapshots of the unemployed:
--Reggie Castleberry, Jonesboro
Castleberry, 35, was in software sales for Los Angeles-based Adexa. The company's local office went from 40 people to one. He made it to the final cut. And then he was cut, too.
"I have been able to do a lot of free-lance work.
My income is a fraction of what it was --- it's reduced by 40 to 50 percent. My quality of life has certainly changed.
I am lucky. The largest home in my subdivision has been foreclosed on. They had 3 acres. Both the husband and wife lost their jobs.
I am still looking for a job. I'd like to have that stability. But I am not waiting for that. If I weren't a praying man, I'd probably be dead right now.
My head is above water, but I'm swimming furiously.
I think the market is starting to turn. I've interviewed for a few jobs."
--Valerie Bonitto, Stone Mountain
Until a month ago, Bonitto, 51, was a sales manager with Rich's-Macy's.
When Macy's recently merged into Rich's, Bonitto was moved to a new store. Then the company did some cost-cutting and trimmed its payroll.
"I was last in and so I was the first out.
For two weeks I was mad. I was depressed. I didn't tell anybody. I had to get over the hurt and the feeling of rejection. You have to get over that before you can face anybody.
I had worked at Macy's from 1994. I am from Jamaica and I had worked in credit unions, but when I came here I decided to try retail and I found I liked it. It's kind of difficult to go back into banking.
I did have a phone interview with a recruiter, and she got my hopes up. Then I heard nothing else. That was two weeks ago, I know two weeks isn't that long, but still...
I did get some severance, but I hope I don't go a long time without a job. Fortunately I don't have to support a family. Thank God. But things happen. Yesterday I had to fix my brakes and that was 400 and some dollars.
If I have to change fields, I will. I look at furniture [retail]. That's what I think I'll be focusing on in coming weeks. But I am 51. I don't want to get retrained."
--Jon Rodriguez, Stone Mountain
Originally from Puerto Rico and New York, Rodriguez has lived in Atlanta for about half of his 50-odd years. He has worked as a cameraman or director of photography for corporations, agencies and news operations. Three years ago, he was trying to break into the Florida market.
"I was delivering yachts from Miami to New York, working as a first mate. After 9/11, the yachting industry kind of fell apart. I came back to Atlanta.
I had worked in motion pictures in New York years ago. I won [an award] for a documentary on Roberto Clemente for PBS back in the 1960s. In Atlanta, I had clients like Coca-Cola, IBM, Delta, as a photographer. But the people I used to work for are unemployed themselves now.
I've tried to call some of my old contacts, banging on doors, dialing for dollars. It's been very tough. Right now, I'm trying to make ends meet. Bartending, catering, working in a florist shop. It's kind of dismal.
There are times I feel as if, when I'm faxing my resume, that at the other end it is coming out and going through a paper shredder. I have 20-plus years as an artist, a creative person. When I apply for jobs in other fields, they look at me like I have 'artilepsy.' I am at the crossroads.
I have been blessed that I can stay with a friend, but how long can I stay there? I'd like to have my own place again. My stuff is here, there, in people's garages, all over town.
There are times that I sit in the dark and think, 'What did I do wrong?' "
--Susan B. Quick, Roswell
An Ohio native and Atlanta resident of 20 years, Quick has three part-time jobs: She caters, runs wine-tasting events and works during events at AmericasMart.
"I don't have a full-time income by any stretch of the imagination.
But I remain optimistic. I'm not one of those people with four children. I have a house payment and that's it. That is my blessing --- I don't have a lot of debt.
Nevertheless, this is not a good economy.
There just haven't been any jobs. The good news is that I am seeing more job listings, but if I don't walk in with my own Rolodex [of customers], they just blow me off.
I have run the gamut of every kind of networking. Meetings, church networking groups, e-mailing to friends --- I tell them I'm still looking for a job.
Nobody has made me an offer I can't refuse. Nobody has made me an offer at all. But I am encouraged. At least people are talking to me.
I am optimistic. What is the alternative?
It is a battle, but you have to wake up every morning and say, 'Today is the day.' "
--James Clark Jr., Chamblee
Clark, 46, says he has landed bit parts in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie and in another directed by Jonathan Demme. He still looks like the U.S. Army Ranger he was a quarter-century ago.
But the Bainbridge native would prefer making his living in an office at a computer, the way he did until last year, as an architectural and mechanical draftsman. He had been working for a small firm in Syracuse, N.Y., until customers stopped asking for new designs of medical instruments, mechanical tools and homes.
"Nobody wanted to build anything. They've built a lot of houses, but they are often using the same designs as before. Rather than stay in the cold. I came back to Atlanta. I left my 4 1/2-year-old daughter there. Her mother has a good job. That's her home and Georgia is mine.
I first came to Atlanta in 1986 when jobs were so plentiful you could quit one and walk into another one the very same day. Now, it's gone the other way. And the longer it goes on --- you've got another generation coming out of college and if you are older and have experience, it's like you get pushed aside. They want somebody who is young and will conform to the way they want things done.
Now I've got a job starting this weekend, working with a caddy at a private golf club. Maybe I can meet people who can see my skills and maybe from there, I might get back to being employed.
You try to keep it cheerful, not let it drag you down. But I haven't seen my daughter in two years. I talk to her on the phone when I get a chance --- I've got a phone card. Lots of the time, she'll just hold the phone to hear my voice.
--George Gregory, Atlanta
A software programmer for more than a decade, Gregory, 40, came to Atlanta about five years ago. He has pursued a career in information technology, mostly working in the corporate world, supporting the systems that run his employers' businesses. Most recently, he worked in the corporate offices of Home Depot.
"I've only been out about 2 1/2 weeks. I had been at Home Depot for three years and nine months. Leaving was a long-developing thing, being dissatisfied there. It was pretty much my decision to leave.
I stuck around there a lot longer than I wanted to because I am concerned --- I have heard a lot of things about the job market in IT.
I've been out of work before. For about six months four years ago --- I know what it's like. And I haven't heard anybody say that the job market is really coming back yet. Maybe a little.
The search [for a job] has to start pretty seriously next week. I can probably go three or four months, and then I'll start to be real worried that I'll be tapping out of savings.
I am also looking at changing my direction, my career. I am looking to get to do more true software development rather than corporate IT. The process is what interests me, rather than doing support.
I am also concerned about the business I am in because programmers in India will do the work for a lot less. Programmers and designers are the technical people, and those are the jobs that are going away."
--Anita Askew-Bawl, Conyers
The Detroit native has been out of work for a year. Askew-Bawl, 46, ran a human resources department, and now she must wrestle with others who do it.
"I'm an HR person, so I really understand how it works. But even being an HR person, having something of an edge has done me no good at all.
These people don't return phone calls and the questions they ask ...
I don't want to be on welfare, but I will be if I don't find something soon. I may just have to get out of Atlanta, and I don't want to do that. I could go back and live with my mom --- but I'm 46 years old. I don't want to do that."
Source: miami.com |
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