When people just stop looking for work
We've all heard the unemployment reports: Millions of people are slaving away on job applications. Or are there? The job market is so tough, some people have just given up. Mitchell Hartman reports.
Application for unemployment benefits (iStockPhoto)
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TEXT OF STORY
TESS VIGELAND: If we are, indeed, on the cusp of some sort of recovery, then it's definitely the jobless kind. The stock market may have rising 15 percent in the last quarter, but the current unemployment rate is almost 10 percent. Most of the newly laid off will probably start pounding the pavement. Sure, they've heard there aren't many jobs to be had, but their hopes haven't yet been dashed. That dubious honor goes to the 2.5 million unemployed who've simply stopped looking.
We wondered who those people are, so we sent Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman to find out.
Mitchell Hartman: The standard unemployment rate -- the one we hear about every month -- counts people who are actively searching for a job. Meaning, they filled out an application, sent in a resume, went to an interview in the last four weeks.
But the Department of Labor also tracks people who were in the job market some time in the last year, but haven't done anything to try and land a paycheck recently. Maybe they had to care for a child or they got laid off, and they're close enough to retirement to just be retired. Or maybe they're so fed up with not finding anything, they've stopped looking.
Ross Anderson: My name is Ross Anderson, and I'm 54 years old.
Anderson is one of nearly 700,000 Americans officially classified as "discouraged" workers. He lives in a modest ranch house in the Minneapolis suburbs. Over a 30-year career in manufacturing, he worked his way up from shop floor to manager to owning his own high-tech equipment firm. He shut it down in 2005, after most of his customers sent their work to China. He picked up temporary contract jobs, until a year ago.
Anderson: And it seemed at first that there were some opportunities. I did some interviewing, and then it seemed that all the opportunities just dried up. For every opening that would be announced on a Sunday night, Monday morning they'd have over 300 resumes.
Anderson, his wife and teenage daughter are living off his wife's salary as a government secretary. He wasn't laid off, so he doesn't get unemployment benefits. He got a mortgage modification to keep the house. He's also seen a doctor for depression.
Anderson: There's been just serious retrenching with the family budget. We cut coupons, we buy only on double coupon days at the grocery store. We're just floating on the very ragged edge.
Of course, in a recession this deep, unemployment doesn't discriminate. Some who've barely gotten into the job market, have already dropped out.
Janeane Marie Ceccanti: My name is Janeane Marie Ceccanti. I am 28 years old, and I live in Portland, Ore.
I met Ceccanti at a local farmer's market. She was counting her cash to see if she could afford a $5 sandwich. Ceccanti finished a degree in fashion design last December. Then, her student loan payments kicked in.
Ceccanti: And there are absolutely no jobs to be had. I've actually kind of given up. The hardest part is entering a field where you're competing against people with 20 years experience, because they lost their jobs.
So Ceccanti's gone out on her own. She's trying to develop a line of clothing. But that's not paying the bills.
Ceccanti: And my husband is supporting both of us on his salary as a kitchen manager at his family's restaurants.
Daniel Hamermesh: In an awful lot of couples like this, one spouse is still working.
University of Texas economist Daniel Hamermesh.
Hamermesh: That spouse will have health insurance, which solves a lot of problems and be bringing in some income.
I asked Hamermesh why the standard unemployment measure doesn't include discouraged workers. After all, shouldn't it reflect how many people want a job, even if they've given up looking for now?
Hamermesh: Their commitment to work is clearly less. They aren't looking in the last month, for whatever reason.
And then there are those who refuse to give up, no matter how hopeless it seems. Take James Lawson. He's an ex-con, and though he's been out of prison for 15 years, finding work remains tough. His wife is a medical aide. She supports them, when she can find work. Lawson was at the Portland unemployment office recently filling out job applications.
James Lawson: Actually, I've pretty much applied to two to three places a week for pretty much past five years.
HARTMAN: How do you keep doing that?
Lawson: It's just plain and simple: I don't want to be a lazy person just sitting on my butt having everything handed to me.
Neither does Portland resident Seth Reams. But he found himself doing just that for awhile. Reams has a high school diploma and found steady work in restaurants, until last year.
Seth Reams: After I got laid off, I thought, 'You know, no biggie, I'll find a job any day, a couple weeks.' And then the weeks turned into months, and I really just got dejected and depressed. It really eats at you in a million different ways. I'm a grown man, I'm 35 and I can't support myself.
Reams started drinking heavily, stopped looking for work, and had to depend on his girlfriend to pay the bills. Then a light went off. He thought, why not organize unemployed people to do community work -- fixing roofs, planting trees? His group, We've Got Time to Help, now has a 100 volunteers. And Reams is reenergized.
Reams: I'm applying for everything and anything. In fact, I even applied for a window washing position, and I am deathly afraid of heights.
No-longer-quite-so-discouraged worker, Seth Reams.
I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace Money.
Comments
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From Sierra Madre, CA, 10/12/2009
It is only slightly comforting that I am not alone as a discouraged job seeker. I was a restaurant manager with 15 years experience as a chef, bartender and manager. When I was laid off 18 months ago, I was diligently looking for work. In the first few months of unemployment, I was typically submitting 25-50 resumes and going on 2-3 interviews per week. In the last year, I have had temporary contracts as an administrative assistant for the Walt Disney Company; however, those contracts have been shorter in length and there have been longer gaps between contracts. I still make the effort to submit at least 3 resumes per day, but still have had very little in the way of responses, let alone appointments for interviews. I take care of my daughter when she is not at preschool, but my wife and I cannot make ends meet. We have long ago reduced our household budget, and have sought ways to reduce costs, like coupon clipping and finding discount prices for the things we absolutely need, yet it is still not enough. I want to work, but it is demoralizing to know that for every job posting to which I respond, there are 50-250 other people responding as well. I hope and pray this cycle of underperforming economy ends soon. I represent a statistic in the cycle. This cycle involves underperforming companies (which must be fiscally responsible to shareholders) laying off workers, those workers no longer have the disposable income to spend in the economy, the economic performance of companies declines further, and more layoffs occur. I think a massive "make work" effort, much like the days of FDR's "New Deal" would be the best medicine for the country, regardless of the initial or long-term cost.
From Raleigh, NC, 10/08/2009
My story is similar to Ross Anderson's. We had to shut down the family business earlier this year. I sent out some resumes, but soon realized that there was no work out there, so I stopped. Fortunately, I had listened to people like Peter Schiff and Bob Prechter, and positioned myself years in advance to survive this crisis. Yes, there were actually some people who saw the crash coming. So I'm unemployed too, but not depressed about it. I fully expect things to get worse as the Government finally runs of places to borrow money, but I have a plan, and I know God will take care of me, so I feel good.
From Delray Beach, FL, 10/03/2009
About 9 years ago my boyfriend got laid from his job as a network administrator and hasn't really been able to find work since. He has plenty of experience but no education or certifications and we haven't had the money to get them. And after you're out of a technical field for so long how do you get back in? You become obsolete. Very frustrating.
From minneapolis, MN, 10/03/2009
This was a great story. I'm kind of shocked at how similar these stories are to my own. I feel like I have been a discouraged worker for about 10 or 11 years now. I am a stay-at-home mom, which I enjoy pretty much, but to be perfectly honest I think I mainly stay home full time because I have become so frustrated and discouraged at my job prospects. I have a BA in political science, hours of graduate work and a paralegal certificate. I have worked a little over the years, but I have a difficult time finding full time work, even when I have worked full time I have never made enough money to cover daycare, gas etc. I've often said that I can't afford to work. Like so many in your story I am supported by a spouse. I used to jokingly say that I preferred the term unemployed to housewife because at least it didn't seem so permanent.
Anyway, great story. Its so good to see somebody really examine the concept of discouraged worker.
From East Grand Forks, MN, 10/03/2009
Sitting around depressed is the worse thing you can do. I worked as a volunteer coordinator for years and people often came to me to volunteer until they could find work. I had only a tiny work experience until I was fifty, got my degree and found an excellent job because of my variety of volunteer experiences. My degree only filled the legal requirement. No one's going to hand you anything. You have to work for it!
10/03/2009
I'm very surprised you didn't bring up U6; it was simply begging to be heard in the unenlightening exchange with D. Hamermesh, and would have made a great lede for the story as well.
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