About 6.7 million Americans have been unemployed for at least 27 weeks, including nearly 880,000 Californians. The ranks of the state’s long-term unemployed more than doubled in the past year and now account for about 40 percent of all those out of work, according to the Employment Development Department.
Kathy Gaschk, 51, is one of many caught by surprise at how hard it has been to find a job. The Sacramento woman endured layoffs during the recession of the early 1990s and also the one in 2001, but never for more than six months. This time she’s at one year and counting since losing her job last May at The Golden 1 Credit Union.
“This is different than anything I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said.
EDD figures confirm her observation. During the 1990s and 2001 recessions, there were never more than 350,000 people out of work that long in California – less than 40 percent of the current total. Department records don’t go back further than that.
With unemployment at 12.6 percent in California, the problem won’t disappear soon even though employers are starting to hire again.
“The explosion in long-term unemployment is just reflective of how tough it is,” said Michael Bernick, former EDD director and a research fellow at the Milken Institute. He notes the number of long-term unemployed Californians is equivalent to the population of San Francisco.
Going such a long stretch without a job has proved shocking to many. Michael Overholt, a construction worker from Carmichael, lost his job in the summer of 2006. At the time, the housing market was starting to cool but the recession hadn’t begun.
“When I was laid off, it was no big deal,” said Overholt, 57.
Four years later he’s still searching for a job and wondering whether his age is working against him.
Ranks of ’99ers’ grow
Overholt is part of another group whose membership is growing. An estimated 115,000 Californians have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, said EDD spokeswoman Loree Levy. That number has grown by 30,000 since mid-April.
Congress last week tackled emergency legislation to keep unemployment checks flowing to those who haven’t used up all their benefits. But the bill did nothing for Overholt and other “99ers” whose benefits have run out.
“Aren’t these people still unemployed?” Overholt said. “Not everybody’s back to work.” He said his wife’s job at Sacramento International Airport keeps them afloat, but they’ve cut back.
Congress’ reluctance to extend benefits beyond 99 weeks sparked a grass-roots protest led by Escondido resident Donalee King, who got her last check two months ago.
King, who once worked as a compliance officer for a subprime mortgage lender, said 99ers are “the people who need the help the most, who’ve borne the brunt of this recession.”
She hosts an online forum for fellow 99ers and coordinated a “fax attack” in early May to bombard the White House and key lawmakers with résumés.
Normally, unemployment benefits pay a person half his salary, up to $450 a week, for up to 26 weeks. In this recession, Congress extended benefits to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states, including California. The stimulus plan increased payments $25 a week.
Recipients say they’re grateful for the benefits, but the amount still leaves them struggling.
Gaschk, the former Golden 1 employee, gave up her home in a short sale. She’s renting in east Sacramento and saving where she can.
“No clothes shopping, no extras,” she said. “You just hold off on everything as long as you can.”
Although she’s beginning to see an uptick in the job openings, the fact is that in the past year she has been able to score just one job interview.
“I apply and apply – and nothing.”
Scrambling to survive
Amanda Brown hasn’t held a steady job in more than three years. The former clerical worker has bounced from place to place, living with friends and relatives, sleeping in her car and in a shelter.
“My life has been turned upside down,” said Brown, 44, a single mom with two grown daughters. “I was used to working, to being independent, taking care of my girls.”
Since losing her job with the old Levitz furniture chain, Brown has struggled to get by on food stamps and $263 a week in unemployment.
She has been unable to find work despite faithful visits to Sacramento County’s career centers, where she combs through job listings and brushes up on her skills.
“I went to job fairs, career fairs. I was doing everything I was supposed to do,” she said.
For a while she lived with a nephew in San Diego, then with a daughter in Montana. At one point she lived for free at a Watt Avenue motel, earning her keep by working in the sales department.
Last summer, trying to save up for an apartment, she spent three weeks in a bunk bed in an Oak Park women’s shelter. The people were nice, she said, but she was unnerved by the presence of pit bulls nearby.
“There’s a sense of pain,” she said. “I feel like I lost my children’s respect.”
She eventually moved into her apartment but lasted only a couple of months. Her unemployment checks were interrupted temporarily because Congress was slow to authorize new funding. By the time the checks resumed, she had lost her apartment and on Christmas Eve boarded a train to go back to Montana.
In April, her 99 weeks ran out, meaning she would no longer receive unemployment benefits. She moved back to Sacramento and stayed for a while with a friend in the Rosemont area. He kicked her out last week, but agreed to put her up in a motel for a week.
That sent her scrambling – again. She contacted social services agencies to see about housing vouchers and stepped up her job search.
“I’ve got seven days,” she said. “All I know is I’ve got to come up with something.”
In the wake of attending the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco this month, I have digested the wealth of discussions concerning the latest technologies, and the future expectation of the real estate industry.
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