After applying for over 300 jobs, with a Master's degree in Social Work and a Professional teaching license in elementary education, I was offered a temp job serving the unemployed for 14.00 an hour.
I talk with despairing people all day long. It seems the more qualified the less chance of finding employment. Even those looking for minimum wage jobs are finding a tough market.
The press writes about the numbers monthly. Media highlights individual plights of job seekers.
Not many write about the slow descent into despair.
How the despair turns into depression and self doubts. How many people-never experiencing job loss historically begin with faith in their skills and the longer the search, the deeper the spiral.
Lifestyles change. Worries about how to pay utilities. Mortgage defaults and homelessness.
The homeless are many but not counted. A physicist having worked for the government many years-moving in with his son and wife. A working couple, having lost their jobs and then their home, moving to another state to live with a family member.
Couples, for the first time in their lives, applying for food stamps and cash assistance when the unemployment stops. Going to job programs which don't have jobs for them either.
Productivity is such an important component of the US culture many individuals brag about the overtime they work, the vacations they relinquish. Often, the first question when meeting someone is , "What do you do?" Not, "what do you do for fun or joy?"
I am struggling with my own feelings about underemployment. Watching unqualified people hired for positions which I know I am very qualified to do. Watching unqualified people hired for positions requiring credentials which they do not have.
I look around and I ask myself-if I have been a productive worker for 20 years, how has that changed in the past year?
I no longer have faith in the system I worked so hard to support. I hear others claim this as well. I begin to question whether it is so important to be productive in a culture that does not support all of its' citizens talents and commitment? Perhaps there are other ways to earn money to pay the bills which isn't a part of our business culture?
Many talented and qualified people are losing hope. The future does not look good for our young adults. The future is bleak for those of color, older adults, new graduates, young teen moms, anyone outside the narrow grid now defining our employed.
It isn't the jobs lost killing our country, it is the killing of our spirits which shakes the foundation of our beliefs in the culture of the United States.
