On a cold and soggy day last week, more than 7,000 people showed up at a job fair in Greater Cleveland to apply for 1,000 positions — most of them hourly wage.
The diversity of the crowd — racially and economically, as well as age-wise — painted a collective face of desperation. They waited for hours for the chance to dazzle employers with whatever sparks they had left after spending so much time in the steady rain. In five minutes or less, each jobless person hoped to prove that he or she was greater than the sum of recent defeats.
Many of them never got through the door. The local fire marshal, concerned about safety, ended up turning away nearly 2,000 who were looking for work.
There are currently 12.5 million unemployed workers in this country; 116,300 of them live in Cuyahoga County. So it shouldn't have been all that surprising that 7,500 of them showed up on a single day for the chance to nab one of the jobs that pay anything from minimum wage to $18 an hour.
Terri Wynne is general manager for the northeastern Ohio division of Employment Guide, the company that sponsored this job fair. It has nearly 90 more scheduled across the country. Initially she told reporters that she was "amazed" by the turnout, but when I caught up with her two days later, she said she was more "sad than surprised."
"Sometimes you go home and you do feel overwhelmed and sad," she said. "I'm 43, and I've never experienced anything like this in my lifetime. It's emotional for my staff, too.
"I know, for a lot of people, this seems hopeless. And it's our responsibility, for all of us, to help them find hope. If we only talk about how bad everything is, it's nothing but a downward spiral. People need to know we're not giving up on them."
Wynne is right that all bad news all the time can sap strength from the sturdiest of souls. It's difficult to see an end to the suffering when even top economists can't agree on the antidote. Dreams get whittled down; five-year plans morph into maps for the foreseeable future.
And not just in Cleveland. At a teen job fair in Denver, for example, adults competed with students for the same seasonal work.
When you're jobless, progress often is measured by momentum. Each day you put one foot in front of the other is another day you out-stepped despair. Wynne is struck by how most applicants, despite their anxiety, endure long waits with calm and grace.
"People are extremely patient, and you're really touched by that. It's one thing when you're turning on the TV or reading the newspaper and you hear about 200 people losing their job here, another 200 losing their jobs there. But to really stand in the middle of it and hear their stories. You're committed to step up and give them hope in any way you can."
Pastor David Rittgers knows just what she means. He and his wife, Beth, navigated a clogged highway near the job fair and then turned on the noon news when they got home. When they saw the long line of people standing in the rain, they decided they had to do something.
They gathered up their 4-year-old son, Joshua, and headed for a local discount store, where they bought 50 umbrellas. They drove as close as they could get to the job fair and then walked for several blocks until they reached the line. Then the pastor, his wife and their little boy started handing out the umbrellas to the people standing there.
"My heart was softened by meeting some of those people," said Rittgers, who is working full time for the fledgling Orchard Path Church, a United Methodist congregation that meets monthly at a recreation center. "They were all races, all ages. It's one thing to see them on TV. It's quite another to stand face to face and see their surprise over such a small act of kindness."
One after another, the people in line thanked the family. "It's nice to know someone cares," one of them said.
Another asked, "Would you pray for us?"
The pastor assured them he already had.
Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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I never could imagine anything worse than being laid off and not finding another job. I worried about that right up to when I retired. Now, I worry because the Texas Teacher Retirement System lost a third of the money they have invested and the idiot we have for a governor is turning away federal stimulus dollars for unemployment insurance. This is the same state government that cut the budget by cutting the CHIP money and turning away better than two-for-one federal matching dollars. Perhaps they will make it up by selling more of our highways to foreign governments who will charge tolls. Happy Ides of March.
Comment: #1
Posted by: Paul M. Petkovsek
Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:24 PM
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Ma'am;... No one of their own free will abandons hope....If Work Makes Free were not already our unstated national motto; Abandon hope all ye who enter here would be...And that is not a curse; something to be mourned, but is the way to a better future...Hope is an essential element of happiness, but people have been trading on our future, levering all of the wealth out of it, the health out of it, the retirements out of it, so that they can finally prize all of the happiness out of our lives to have it for themselves...If we could forget hope, and see life without the hope glasses on for just a moment, then our paths would be clear...Those people who hope capitalism will work for them, and government will work for them are robbed of the obvious truth that capitalism and government has not, and can not, and will not work for them, if it works at all for anybody...I don't care what you have for an economy or a government, or what you call it; but each has got to do better than working part time maybe... You don't want people to give up hope; and I want them to drop hope like a greasy turd, and pick up some anger... People should be angry who have been used... It is just beaten wife syndrom to live in hope that the abuser will suddenly reform... Are we a nation of abused wives??? Are we demure and sweet waiting to rub his feet??? This governmentaleconomy has kicked us down the street... Why be sweet???Why be hopeful??? Why be fair, or generous, or legal, or understanding??? Have they not sucked the meaning out of all our good will, our love, and our unity???We have to part company with these parasites and let them go feed on themselves... We clearly have no more blood to give them.... And while they think they own the land beneath our feet, we cannot live without this land so we must claim it back by adverse possession... Tear down the fences keeping us from the rich... There is real hope in the rich people's homes... We should go get our share...Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #2
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:07 PM
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Re: Paul M. Petkovsek;... Sir, My father was a construction worker, and I was a construction worker too...All my life I have lived with economic insecurity, and now is no different than any period in my life... My brother is a construction worker too, and his response to insecurity was to lay aside as much money as he could... Good for him; but does he realize how quickly that wealth could be turned to paper??? The rich feel their insecurity too, and for that reason they try to provide for all their needs, and the needs of their generations unborn.... Is this possible??? Is it possible for one to be totally secure??? To me the key to national security is for all to have some security.... One can be more secure than another, and feel more secure than another; but when one tries to have all the security, they take meaning from the whole relationship, because people cannot live without some security; so in taking all, they risk all... If this situation, this depression, this rising unemployment, this lack of a future, of having more debt than value, or having more need than income, of having more life than insurance, and grinding insecurity in every facet of life is not an education to people that change, and systemic change is needed, then they are ready to put on the shock collars of slavery...We cannot expect that this government, which has made its purpose the support of Capital will support our need for justice or security... We cannot expect capital which has made the cornering all our wealth, and the wealth of the world its priority will care for our interests... If we want security as much as we need it we must be brave enough to go and fetch it from those who carted it off... It is not so difficult, and it cannot be made more simple.... I have survived insecurity because of courage, and nothing more, understanding that security must come out of the palms of my own two hands, and that to have it I must seize it and never let it go to grab some from another... We must all have our own security together, and take only what we absolutely need.... Thanks....Sweeney
Comment: #3
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:36 PM
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I see and hear every one trying to get a job, I am trying to OFFER JOBS 100's of jobs and no one is responding. I am looking for sales reps. NO INVESTMENT required, NO Shipping, NO Inventory.
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Comment: #4
Posted by: Connie
Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:13 PM
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