Seeking jobs and dignity

Is it ever a good time to have to be looking for a job? Definitely not. Especially right now, when unemployment is at its lowest in eight years, since before the Great Recession.
Sonoma County’s official unemployment rate is 4.2 percent. That means about 7,800 people here are job hunting. But they could be in luck if they want to work in construction, health care, retail or hospitality where lots of new jobs were added to the economy last year.
All of us know the story of unemployment can’t be told in a single statistic. Maybe most of us don’t have a relative or neighbor looking for work right now, but we all know someone that wishes they had a better job, a little more pay, maybe some health insurance or just a little more self-reliance.
Besides the officially counted “unemployed” there is also the under-employed, the working poor and the thousands of our neighbors living on fixed incomes without adequate cost-of-living adjustments.
The big reason for the record-low local unemployment rate is Sonoma County’s overall improving economy. But, like all other parts of America, not everyone is enjoying the same or equal improvements in their paychecks or job security.
The national unemployment rate is 6 percent. But it is 7.6 percent among job seekers without a high school diploma and only 2.5 percent for people with a college degree. Last month, 151,000 new jobs were created in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But, at the same time, Macy’s stores eliminated 4,000 jobs and closed 36 stores. Yahoo announced last week it was cutting 10 percent of its total workforce and Walmart plans to close 154 stores soon.
There are many parts to the jobs and unemployment story that statistics can’t tell. For the real story, readers should look around their own community for the human faces, economic realities and social needs that call for our attention.
Here, in Sonoma County we have several kinds of “underemployed” people we should try to help, especially as we consider what new government leaders we will be voting for in 2016.
California just increased the minimum wage to $10 per hour. That equals a $20,800 annual gross salary. That’s just $9,000 over the  federal poverty line and eligibility for free school lunches and food stamps.
What about all the female wage earners who still are not paid on an equal basis with their male counterparts? Sorry to evoke another statistic, but according to many sources including U.S. Census figures, women earn only 79 percent of what comparable men earn.
What about recent college graduates that finally won the job or early career position they wanted? Maybe they are getting an above-average salary. But many of these young men and women are paying as much as 30 percent of their monthly salary on student loan payments.
Then, there is the small business owner or self-employed tradesperson or professional. These people almost never get counted in the unemployment statistics, even when they might go a whole season without a new bid, job or contract. These people live on last month’s sales, completed job or billed services. No two paychecks are ever the same, especially after deducting rising insurance and other expenses.
Some of our best and hardest working neighbors are both the “most employed” and the least well-off. That’s because they work two or even three part time jobs to keep up with all their bills, rent or mortgage.
So, even in the best of times, it is always hard out there in the job market. What ever happened to the call for “total employment” we used to hear during past election years? This year, we can’t even agree to support “living wages” where the definition includes affordable housing, daily meals, access to health care and dignity for all.
— Rollie Atkinson