Cif America

Unfit to walk dogs

I was told there would be no problem finding a temporary job in New York. But then months passed without any work
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After agonising for months now about whether the US is headed for a
recession, is already in a deep recession or is hurtling over a cliff like a herd of suicidal lemmings into the greatest depression since the Great
Depression, it has finally been officially resolved that we have indeed
been in a recession for almost a year now. Being an unemployed person, who on a clear day can see Wall Street from her porch, I can give an insight into how bad it is.

For many years I worked in television as a producer and writer making a fairly solid income. When reality TV took over the airwaves, the writer in me rebelled and made the foolhardy decision to pack up my job and go freelance instead. I did fine for a while. I got financing for a film I wrote and got the odd article published, but as the economy slowed down, it became more difficult to make ends meet. So a few months ago I decided I would try to supplement my income with temporary secretarial work.

I didn't think there would be a problem. When I first moved to New York back in the nineties, I temped until I landed a TV gig. Temp jobs had been easy to come by then so I expected it would be even easier now that I had so many years of work experience behind me.

I felt like a proper grown-up again, getting dressed up in a suit and going to an office. You are almost fooled into thinking you have a job until you are asked to leave after 90 minutes or so.

The recruiters were enthusiastic at first. They seemed to like my eclectic resume and wanted to test my skill-set. I loved doing the tests. I was really good at the software programs, but my typing was the real coup de grace. I guess all these years tapping away at a keyboard have not gone entirely to waste. I scored 80 words per minute on the first try! I had no idea I was this good. All right, it was 76 with corrections. But still, I was impressed and so were the recruiters. They assured me I would be snapped up in no time.

The months go by without so much as a peep. When I call the recruiters now, I hear a tremor in their voices. I guess being in the job placement business right now is up there with being a sub-prime mortgage lender for kicks. I find myself offering them solace. But what is there to say when someone like me, who has a typing speed of 76 words per minute, excellent software skills and no criminal record (yet), cannot get a temp job with no prospects, no benefits and that pays less than I earned for the same kind of work 10 years ago?

Employers cut 533,000 jobs last month, the highest number in 34 years. According to the US bureau of labour, unemployment is at 6.5% at the moment and is predicted to rise to 8% by mid-2009. It is already at 9.1% in Michigan. These statistics, which do not include the impossible to quantify number of people who don't have a job but are not eligible for unemployment benefits, are not comforting. The bottom line is that there just aren't enough jobs to go around right now. If you're out of work then you're out of luck.

I go to a café every day to avail of the free wifi. (Luxuries such as internet access are no longer available at home.) I saw an ad looking for dog walkers. Maybe this was the answer! I love dogs, and I love walking! I was about to call my friend's dog Pixie the poodle for a reference when I figured out that even if I walked 10 dogs at a time, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, I wouldn't make enough to pay my rent. As it turned out they were only considering applications from people with professional dog walking experience anyway.

I console myself with the fact that at least I didn't have too much to lose before this crisis. But I wonder how the more stalwart members of society who once held proper jobs and have mortgages and children and tuition fees are coping? The maximum unemployment payout is $410 dollars per week before tax. That's slightly more than I would have earned if I got the dog walking gig. So anyone trying to survive on unemployment has to dip into their savings (assuming they have any). The savings will run out as will the benefits. And then what? I have already called my parents to tell them to get my old room ready.

The president-elect feels our pain. So, too, does the current president, who did a heckuva job in his eight year tenure transforming the US economy from a roaring lion into a quivering mouse.

Empathy is all very well, but it won't do much to bail-out the ten million
and rising unemployed.

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