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Saturday, November 15, 2008
Job seekers can use luck in this economy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She told me her name was Lady B.
I paused.
“I have to do this all the time,” the woman said, reaching for her purse. “That’s the name on my driver’s license.” Sure enough, Lady B. it is. The Atlanta resident is a certified esthetician and cosmetologist who does freelance work, among other endeavors.
On Thursday, she was one of hundreds of clients at the state Labor Department’s one-stop employment center on Beaver Ruin Road in Norcross. The Gwinnett Career Center, which provides information in several languages, was hopping. Practically every computer terminal, table and chair was occupied. Lines at the intake desk and copy machine were constant, often several people deep. Some clients wore business attire; others donned baseball caps and jeans. All were either looking for work, gathering info about training programs or filing unemployment claims. Many appeared solemn, serious, anxious.
No doubt there’s another side to the frequent media narrative about consumers who have lived the good life, partied off their home equity, overspent and overcharged themselves into an economic malaise. It’s a script that’s a little too handy, much too generic. Folk I know had been pinching pennies and packing lunches long before the historic financial meltdown. Many share Lady B.’s mindset.
“When you’re a hustler, you do what you have to do,” she told me. “You have to do what you have to do to make it work. Many people have been struggling a long time, and they know to keep themselves calm amid all the craziness that’s going on now. People who had [high incomes], whose bottom line is not what it used to be, they are the ones who suffer more in times like these.”
Michelle Green, who was sharing a table with us, nodded in agreement. She’s an east Atlanta resident who works as a technician for a firm that does laser facials. “There are jobs out there,” Green said. “It may not be exactly what you want, but there are jobs. You just have to assert yourself.”
But it’s a tough search.
In October, new jobless claims climbed to 72,627 — 75 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the state Department of Labor. The state’s unemployment rate in September was 6.5 percent, compared to a national rate of 6.1 percent. The state’s October rate has not yet been reported. It’s a competitive job market. Employers can afford to be super-picky.
Some clients at the Gwinnett Center shared the pain of their job search in a deteriorating market. They say they’d been on interviews in which dozens of people sought the same position. And if they got the offer, the salary paled when compared to prior earnings. “I am always overqualified — which means they don’t want to pay you anything,” said Lady B. “They always want to pay you something ridiculous.”
It turns out that Green and Lady B. had been waiting to be interviewed by the same skin-care representative. When the women found out they were in similar professions, they exchanged e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. Then they wished each other well.
“If it’s meant for me, I’ll get it,” surmised Lady B. “And if it’s meant for her, she’ll get it.”
As they departed, I offered up two words I’d heard counselors tell job-seekers repeatedly during my two-hour visit at the Gwinnett Center. Good luck.
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