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Don't Tell Grandma

The great recession may be over, but there are still remnants of the recession that will live with us. One of these things is the new category of people “the long term unemployed.” At this point, people are past 99 weeks of unemployment and are now just in that magical place they go where they are no longer counted in the labor market.

Although these folks’ numbers are in some magical realm where the official data counters no longer search for them and where reporters no longer show the faces of the unemployed in the news, those in the day to day workforce development business know that they still exist. We see their faces daily, as “regulars” in our offices. Our offices have become like that sitcom bar where “everybody knows your name.”

Whenever, I see people lingering, despite utilizing services on a regular basis, I try to analyze what is going on with a person. Why isn’t he employed? I have noticed that some people share some common experiences or demographics. Many of the long term unemployed fall into that “older” pot. Another issues I have noticed is that long term unemployed have skills, experiences, and education that does not compliment the current economy.

There are so many reasons why an individual is not employed and the reasons are a combination of person specific issues and global societal issues. The rules are different now than they were “back then” whether back then was 10 years ago or 50 years ago. My grandmother liked to think that she was wise. She would tell anyone that said that they needed a job to go to the post office because there was a job for everyone there. Once upon a time she was right. There were many jobs courtesy of the United States Postal Service. She passed in 2013 at the age of 96 years old.  In that same year of her passing, according to labor market data, the postal jobs were amongst the top declining occupations in my state.

Since September is Workforce Development Month, as workforce development professionals, our call is to look at the faces of those in our centers and look at all the reasons someone is unemployed. Workforce Development as an industry needs to remind itself that it is not an island and form strong partnerships with services for physical and mental health, housing, and community.  We need to call upon our politicians to recognize that the void in the way that labor statistics are counted and to get them to see the people that may not have an official number on their back.  We need to look holistically at a person.

There is a quote from Mother Teresa that says, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”  As one individual in the system, I alone will not be able to solve the problem of long term unemployment, but I can still make a difference to one person.  I call upon everyone to do the same for Workforce Development Month. Take some extra time with a person. Make a phone call or write a letter to your elected officials to remind them of the impact of your service. Invite them to shadow you for a day and show them the people that may not be an official statistic or what a person that is an official number actually looks like.

Happy Workforce Development Professionals Month! If anyone has any questions, comments, issues, rants, or is able to solve all the problems of the world, feel free to leave a comment below or send an email. ~Karen Cirincione- kcirincione@gmail.com

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