Workers have jobs, but hours, pay not enough
| Monday, Mar 28 2011 12:42 PM
Last Updated Monday, Mar 28 2011 12:42 PM
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Substitute teacher Chris McDonough in Warren Hall at BHS
Chris McDonough has a master's degree in education, but he's never been a permanent, full-time teacher.
The odd jobs McDonough has worked over the years range from tinkering with computers to manning a mini market cash register. These days he substitute teaches for four different school districts.
But he can't find a permanent job in his field to save his life.
"It's frustrating because my father worked hard all his life, and his father before him worked hard, and it paid off for them," McDonough said. "I'm doing everything that could reasonably be asked of me, including applying for jobs out of state, but nothing seems to be working."
Kern County's 16.9 percent unemployment rate is cause for angst in and of itself, but it doesn't give a complete picture of the full impact of the economic downturn.
The unemployment rate doesn't encompass the huge number of people in the labor force who, although technically employed, are earning far less pay than they're accustomed to. These include educated and highly skilled people in menial jobs, and part-time workers who would prefer to be full-time.
Emotional hit
"Boy, we see that all the time," said Debra Lawson-Tyner, job developer for the Bakersfield Homeless Center, which witnesses the wreckage of the recession every day.
The center counsels clients who have fallen on hard times to take whatever job they can find just to get back on their feet. Most are willing to swallow their pride to generate some income, but it's hard on them emotionally, Lawson-Tyner said.
"Many times we define ourselves by our jobs and occupations. It's so much of who you are," she said. "So you're not just dealing with a loss of income. You're dealing with a loss of identity. When you're not productive, or not doing what you're trained to do, it really affects your self-esteem."
California is one of nine states in the top tier nationally for workers who are underemployed, according to an ongoing Gallup poll. For purposes of its survey, Gallup defines as underemployed both respondents who are out of work and those desiring full-time employment who work fewer than 30 hours a week.
In California and eight other states, between 21 percent and 25 percent of the labor force was underemployed last year, compared with a national average of between 18 percent and 21 percent.
While some of these workers will meander back to more lucrative professions after the economy improves, others may find themselves stuck off course because employers often look askance at job applicants who haven't worked in their field for months or years.
'Gaps on their resume'
The rules have changed some in the aftermath of the worst recession since the Great Depression, said Jackie Flesher, owner of the executive search firm ProSearch Associates in Bakersfield.
"I think most employers recognize that in this economy, people are going to have gaps on their resume," she said. "As long as you can prove and explain what you were doing all that time and weren't in prison or something, they'll overlook it."
Odds of rebounding are greater depending on the industry, of course. Health care, which didn't experience massive layoffs during the recession, might be less tolerant than, say, the energy sector, Flesher said.
"Here in Bakersfield, oil and gas took a big hit, but that's turned around now, obviously, and now that they're hiring again they can't find those people," she said. "I don't know where all the engineers went. Maybe they're in other fields or just left town."
If you're trying to revive a career that has stalled, Flesher doesn't recommend admitting that you've, for example, capped a 20-year engineering career with driving a taxi.
"Make the resume consistent," she said. "If you've been doing consulting or something part-time to make ends meet, put down 'consulting,' even if it's just consulting for a gardener."
Seeking support
Substitute teacher McDonough said he's become something of a career student, alternately working odd jobs and going back to school when there's no work in his chosen profession.
Unfortunately, he always seems to graduate when the economy is nosediving, which is exactly when cash-strapped schools start issuing pink slips.
McDonough, 39, is married and has a 3-year-old son, and his wife only works part-time.
They've made an art of juggling their limited funds. The aspiring educator orchestrates his substitute teaching so paychecks arrive just ahead of key bill due dates. If McDonough manages to scrape together a little extra money one month, he buys non-perishable food and hoards it for lean months to come. And he repairs, rather than replaces, worn out clothes and shoes.
McDonough said he's exhausted from working multiple jobs and parenting an active toddler, and he suspects he may be developing a stress-related ulcer. Yet he tries not to let his fear about the future worry his family.
There is some comfort in knowing he's not alone.
"When I get a day off, I'll take my son to the park, and I'm always struck by how many fathers I see," McDonough said. "There was one time about five of us got to reminiscing about what we used to do.
"There was a former private investigator, a former prison guard, a former oil guy, a former police officer. It almost turned into this little self-help group, with all of us trying to lift each other's spirits."
Impact beyond the individual
Long-term underemployment has ramifications well beyond the personal circumstances of individual families.
When large numbers of people fall into lower tax brackets because they're not working up to their potential, it causes local, state and national deficits to balloon and exacerbates the already precarious position of entitlement programs such as social security and Medicare.
Underemployed people are less likely to have health care benefits through their employers, but can't count on MediCal or other safety nets available to the unemployed or extremely poor because they can't pass income tests to qualify for benefits, said Ron Pollock, executive director of the health care consumer group Families USA.
If it survives Republican efforts to reverse it, the health care reform law could help by making affordable insurance policies available to moderate income families, but most of the law's provisions don't take effect until 2014, Pollock said.
Widespread underemployment undermines long-term recovery efforts, said Don Oswald, a retired Cal State Bakersfield professor of economics.
"Human capital is one of the main driving forces behind economic growth," he said. "The longer this drags on, the more it's problematic because skills are depreciating, and it's like wearing out machines. In order to bring that back up, you have to invest large amounts of money in education and training. This, at a time when not many people have the resources to do that."
Brenda Ratliffe, director of The Volunteer Center of Kern County, said volunteering is a great way to keep your skills fresh, and employers who wouldn't consider that valid experience before are coming around. "The county now counts volunteer work, which is new for them just in the last couple of years," she said.
Aftermath: Part-time, temp jobs
The agonizingly slow economic recovery does seem to be creating jobs, but they're often part-time or temporary positions.
That's typical after a recession, Oswald said.
"Employers are reticent to commit to a permanent, full-time worker, so they'll hire part-time because they like having some flexibility," he said.
"Once the economy gets better and they're feeling more confident, a lot of those employees will be converted to full-time."
That can't happen soon enough for McDonough, who hopes the networking he's doing today as a substitute will pay off when school districts start hiring again.
In the meantime, he's enduring the humiliation of doing work he's overqualified for as best he can.
The graveyard stint at the gas station mini mart was particularly embarrassing.
"I had people find out my background and they were amazed to find me working at a gas station. They were like, 'What are you doing here?'" he said.
But McDonough tries to keep some perspective.
"Having studied history and the Great Depression, I focus on the fact that I haven't lost my home and I'm not standing in a bread line," he said. "It could be worse."
