This is what the Great Recession of 2011 has wrought:
By mid-morning Tuesday, a line of job seekers seeking admission to a transportation industry jobs fair sponsored by President Obama’s hometown congressman, Rep. Bobby L. Rush, stretched for more than half a mile under a blazing sun across the campus of Chicago State University.
It took nearly five minutes to walk from the beginning of the line at the glass doors of the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center to the end. Person by jobless person, the line snaked past the Jacoby D. Dickens Physical Education and Athletics Center, the Cook Administration building, the Williams Science Center, Harold Washington Hall, the Business and Health Sciences building and the College of Education.
The South Side university’s 2,700-space parking lot was full and hundreds of cars were parked along the side of the access road.
Yet, throughout the day, the line kept growing. By the time the job fair closed at 4 p.m., up to 9,000 people had walked the line.
“I go to job fairs all over the country but I’ve never seen one this big,’’ said Rodrigo Cervantes, a recruiter for Southwest Airlines, one of 29 transportation companies represented at the event. “With the state of the economy, I’m not surprised.’’
The line began to take shape at 5 a.m. when Stephanie Watson, 20, was the first to arrive, even though the doors were not scheduled to open for another three hours. “I’m just so excited,’’ she said. “I want to work. It’s hard to find good jobs these days, so I made sure I was here bright and early. Bills keep on coming.’’
Watson said she has been looking for employment since November. The last job she had was at a fast food restaurant where she earned about $8 an hour, but was never given more than 25 hours a week of work. That way, she never became eligible for health benefits.
The only way she makes money now, she said, is by tutoring her younger cousins or from odd jobs for her family. “Other than that,’’ she said, “I’ve just been praying and hoping to get by.’’
By 6 a.m., Watson was joined by Desiree Mitchell, 30, and her sister, Candace Mitchell, 28. The sisters are independent hair stylists who work out of their apartments.
“Just like people are living check by check,’’ Candace Mitchell said. “We’re living ‘do by ‘do, hairdo by hairdo.’’
Mitchell, who has three sons–ages 5, 3 and 1–said finding a job is one problem, getting there is another. With gas above $4 a gallon, she said it is it a disgrace that so many Americans have to make “life decisions at the gas pump.’’
“It’s either dinner or it’s gas to get back home,’’ she said. “It’s either my son’s football uniform or gas to get back home. It’s either going to the doctor or gas to get back home.’’
As they talked about having their prayers answered by finding a job that pays a “livable wage,’’ as Mitchell put it, Watson shook her head and sighed. “President Obama what is going on? This is your city,’’ she said. “Why doesn’t he do something?’’
“Obama inherited Bush’s mess,’’ Mitchell said, referring to President George W. Bush. “Everybody expects Obama to work miracles, but Bush left us in the dirt.’’
Her sister, Desiree, said it did not seem to matter which political party is in the White House when it comes to working people. “That debt ceiling fight was ridiculous,’’ she said. “I feel we’re out here fending for ourselves. Even before the recession we couldn’t get any jobs.’’
Miriam Dixon, 59, a former substitute teacher who has been looking for steady work for six years, took her place in line at 5:30 a.m. “I’m a veteran and can’t find a job,’’ she said. “But I don’t get depressed. I just keep on looking and having faith.’’
Dixon said she served four years in the army in the mid-1970’s and one of her duties was to arrange military funerals. “I joined the army to pay for college,’’ she said, “and because I wanted to serve my country.’’
Dixon’s friend, Velvet Hays-Dawson, 58, and her daughter, Jessica Dawson, 21, arrived at 6:30 a.m. Jessica was looking for her first job. Velvet Hays-Dawson was hoping to help save her home, which is in foreclosure.
She said she lost her job as a phlebotomist at a hospital two years ago after falling ill for an extended time. Her husband drives a bus for the CTA. “He’s the only check,’’ she said.
“Our bills got behind,’’ Hays-Dawson said. Then their youngest daughter was beginning college. The family faced a decision: tuition or mortgage. “We made the decision to push her on into college,’’ she said. “Now we’re really in the hole.’’
And now her husband is “completely whipped,’’ working as much overtime as he can get. “I have to help take some of the pressure off,’’ she said.
Before the doors opened to the Convocation Center where prospective employers were busy setting up their tables, Wayne Watson, president of Chicago State, walked the line, shaking hands with the job seekers and encouraging those without college degrees to get enrolled “in one of Chicago’s excellent community colleges or universities as soon as you can.’’
“The solution for our country to get out of where we are right now is tied to two things: education and jobs,’’ Watson said. “It’s no more complicated than that.’’
Inside the center, where the Chicago State Cougars play basketball, Rush told the first 1,500 people who entered that the transportation companies in attendance, such as Greyhound Lines, the CTA and Norfolk Southern Railroad, were serious about hiring.
Then he began chanting, “Let’s go to work, let’s go to work’’ and the job fair began.
As he watched the job seekers hurry across the floor to introduce themselves to prospective employers, Rush said he was encouraged by the sight because, “They’re not turning sour on the American Dream.’’
John Banks, 43, headed straight for the Norfolk Southern table. “I need something steady, with benefits,’’ he said, adding he has been out of work for 18 months. He said he worked at Wal-Mart, earning about $800 every two weeks, before being laid off.
Since then, he said, he has put in at least 150 online job applications. “I’ve gotten some call-backs,’’ he said. “Most of the hiring is for sales jobs. With the way the economy is, people aren’t buying stuff. You can’t live off of sales commissions when you’re not selling.’’
While the job seekers were told to bring their resumes, many people said they did not need them. They said the company representatives instructed them to apply online. “I could have stayed home and not wasted my time in that long line,’’ one man said bitterly. “I been here since 6.’’
Michael Larkin, a recruiter for Norfolk Southern, did accept resumes, but encouraged everyone also to apply online, even though the company receives between 5,000 and 7,000 online applications a week.
“How many people do you hire a week?’’ he was asked.
“Between 70 and 80,’’ Larkin said.
Ray Abrams, 45, who was one of the first people in line, said he planned to apply online to Norfolk Southern and several other companies as soon as he returned to his home in Park Forest–a home he had departed at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday to get to the job fair.
“It wasn’t like I thought it would be,’’ Abrams said. “I thought they would be hiring people on the spot. Yeah, I’m a little disappointed. But I got some good leads. I’m happy I came. I’m going to apply online and then I’m going to bug them. I’m going to call them every day until they hire me.’’
