Dean Reynolds
Laid-Off Workers Just Can’t Find Comparable Jobs
Tue Jan 20 10:04:30 2004
67.1.128.185

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/Business/job_quality_040112.html
The New Reality
Laid-Off Workers Just Can’t Find Comparable Jobs

By Dean Reynolds



Jan. 12— Joe Stefano doesn't need the federal government to tell him it's tough to find a job.
Stefano, 56, was laid off two years ago from SBC Communications after 30 years as a systems engineer — laid off from a job that had paid him close to $100,000 annually.

Now Stefano holds down a part-time job at a Best Buy in suburban Chicago and freelances. His annual income?

"I'll be lucky if I can crack $10,000," he said.

Stefano now relies on the income of his wife, a nurse, to keep the family solvent. He has two children in graduate school.

"It's a completely different life," he said. "You can't live with a company for 30 years any more. It won't happen."

For millions of Americans today, being employed means lowering your expectations.


Accepting a New Reality

The Labor Department said Friday that the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5.7 percent in December, the lowest level in 14 months, but businesses overall added just 1,000 jobs. The decrease in the jobless rate came instead from unsuccessful job seekers giving up their searches out of sheer frustration.

The figures contained a few hints that better-paying jobs are returning, but for the most part the new positions are on the lower end of the pay scale. And now, with white collar jobs being farmed out to nations overseas, that situation is unlikely to change for years.

John Challenger of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a firm that helps workers look for new jobs, said it's important that American workers come to terms with this new reality.

"There isn't going to be any miraculous job rebound," he said. To suggest that this economy is capable of creating 250,000 jobs a month is "unfair," he added.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the machinists union has erected what members call a "wall of shame" with the names of more than 1,000 men and women from Local 831 who have lost their jobs since George W. Bush became president. Dave Sacora's name is on the wall.

"It's disappointing, depressing," he said. "You can't really compare it to anything."

Sacora worked at the local printing plant in Cedar Rapids for 27 years. When he was laid off he was making about $22 an hour. Now he drives a delivery truck for less than half that wage.

"It's the shock of your life," he said.


Where Are the Jobs?

The jobless recovery has been a big issue for Democrats running for president. In Concord, N.H., Friday, Rep. Richard Gephardt was quick to pounce on the fact that only 1,000 new jobs were created in December.

"With the recovery we're supposed to be at, adding a thousand jobs is pathetic," said Gephardt, D-Mo. "It's nothing short of pitiful and pathetic. This president is presiding over an economy that is still not producing jobs."

On Wall Street there is still a lot of talk about an economic recovery, but on the street where people live and work, there is still precious little sign of it.

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