“A VERY DIFFICULT job market.”
Colleen Gardner, New York State’s Labour Commissioner, was describing what Lisa Scantlebury, a Bajan in Queens, already knows. And that’s based on hard experience as she pounds the pavement, sends out scores of job applications via emails, and knocks on doors of government and corporate hiring centres.
Scantlebury, not her real name, has been unemployed for more than ten months and with a city jobless rate of 9.8 per cent in April, down from ten per cent in March, the Bajan is deeply worried – and for good reason.
For example, although her unemployment benefits have several months to go before they run out, the money doesn’t meet her monthly expenses, one of which is her mortgage payment.
Then, there is the psychological pain she suffers from being out of work for so long. Next, she can’t send back money to close relatives in Barbados.
“Things are tough, very tough,” she said.
You can say that again.
While the city jobless rate is in single digits, it is slightly higher than the national average of 9.8 per cent in May, down from 9.9 per cent in April. But the picture in black and Hispanic neighbourhoods tells a different and awful story.
With unemployment rates of 15 per cent in some predominantly African-American and Caribbean neighbourhoods and almost 13 per cent among Hispanics, the evidence is clear: ethnic minorities are bearing the brunt of the worst economic recession since the 1930s.
That’s why Scantlebury is hitting the road early this morning, heading for York College of the City University of New York to attend a federal job fair, organised by United States Congressman Gregory Meeks, a third of whose constituents in Queens traces the roots of their respective family trees to Guyana, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica and other island-nations and coastal states.
“People should come dressed for success,” Meeks told the WEEKEND NATION.
However, the presence of recruiters from such federal agencies as the Immigration Customs Enforcement; Federal Air Marshall Service; the Food and Drug Administration; Social Security Administration, and the United States Small Business Administration, along with the United States Customs and Border Protection offers hope to people like Scantlebury.
An underlying message being sent by the job fair is that people’s plight is being taken seriously.
A crucial aspect of the effort is the ability of legal immigrants to participate in it. Green card holders and naturalised American citizens are expected to take advantage of the opportunity and, in the words of the Congressman, “seek to be hired”.
The jobless story has a depressing chapter to it, especially in West Indian communities across the city. It is helping to fuel the housing foreclosure crisis in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Financial struggle
Many homeowners who were relying on steady employment to pay their mortgages now find themselves unable to meet their monthly obligations. Some families who had to depend on two working adults to keep the roof over their heads and put food on the table have seen the jobs of husband and wife, mother and father simply disappear.
The seriousness of the situation was evident recently when State Senator John Sampson of Brooklyn, the son of a Guyanese immigrant, organised a similar job fair in the East New York section of Brooklyn and thousands of jobseekers, including Bajans, turned up for interviews with recruiters.
The trouble with many of the unemployment figures being cited is that they don’t reflect the pain being felt in households where unemployment is a hard reality, not a statistic. That is why at some of the fairs, three, four and sometimes five times as many applicants line up for the available offers of employment.
When one considers that almost 600 000 people across New York are receiving unemployment benefits and more than 50 per cent of them have been unemployed for at least six months, the psychological and financial damage is evident.
Because joblessness is imposing such an unbearable burden on families and dulling the aspirations of young people entering the job market for the first time, a more aggressive approach needs to be taken by the United States Congress.
Lawmakers must extend unemployment benefits by approving a bill now before the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The private sector, which created a mere 41 000 jobs across the country in May, must also do more. Had it not been for the 411 000 workers hired by the federal government to assist with the 2010 US census, the problem would have been worse.
That fact has implications for Barbados and other Caribbean tourism destinations. If the job picture doesn’t improve, there is little chance the various countries which are winding down Caribbean Tourism Week in the city will see an upsurge in travel in the summer and later in the winter season.
With more than 15 million Americans out of work, the travel market is also taking a beating.
