US middle class gloomier over jobs

DENVER // They lined up by the dozens, carrying handouts with tips on how to beef up their résumés and sharing looks of quiet desperation.
"I was optimistic this morning I'd find a job here," said Marta Harrison, who will be laid off next month. "Now I see all these people, and I am not so hopeful."
As US unemployment figures soared to their highest level in seven years, more than 1,000 unemployed or underemployed turned up this week at a job fair sponsored by the Colorado state government. A key swing state in November's presidential election, Colorado has watched its unemployment rate shoot past five per cent as the country lurches through economic hard times and thousands of jobs shift overseas.
Ms Harrison's story was typical. An employee in Verizon's software development department, she was told in August that her position was being shifted to India or Brazil, where wages are lower. "They tell us outsourcing keeps prices down," she said. "But I don't see how shifting jobs overseas is supposed to help our economy."
The world watched anxiously this weekend as US lawmakers hammered out a US$700bn (Dh2.5 trillion) bailout plan for Wall Street's troubled financial markets. But for millions of ordinary residents of the United States the spectre of unemployment looms as a far bigger concern. The federal department of labour said on Thursday that new claims for unemployment benefits jumped by 32,000 to 493,000, much higher than analysts' predictions of 445,000 for September. Weekly unemployment claims have now topped 400,000 for 10 straight weeks, a level economists consider a sign of recession.
"It's really scary how many people are suddenly out of work," said Cathy Kohl, a business outreach specialist at the state of Colorado's department of labour. "I'd say our biggest problem in this state is outsourcing, followed by undocumented migrants who will work for less."
Many who attended the job fair were in their 50s and 60s, an age bracket increasingly at risk for unemployment, according to state labour officials.
James Joyce, 55, was speaking to the Denver police department about shifting into law enforcement after 15 years of building electrical panels at a Colorado factory. He took a buyout last month when the firm shifted his position to Mexico. "Companies are getting rid of the older guys, like me," he said. "They think they can get a better deal moving my job to Mexico." But Mr Joyce was worried the police department would be wary of training an officer only a decade away from retirement age.
Mary Campe, who is almost 60, voiced similar concerns. She was laid off in April from Noridian Administrative Services, a contractor to Medicare, when her firm lost a major contract with the US government health insurance programme. Ms Campe says at her age, she wants to find a job providing health insurance, and worries her retirement fund will dwindle amid Wall Street turmoil. Ms Campe queued for a call centre position, "although at this point", she said, "I'd take just about any job".
Economic woes have bolstered Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, whose campaign for the White House gathered steam this week as the country's economic problems came into sharp focus. The financial crisis on Wall Street, falling home prices, a manufacturing slump and slowing consumer spending are all putting the breaks on the US economy. Many fear jobless claims could soon pass the half-million mark. Mr Obama is pledging an economic stimulus plan, which would broaden unemployment insurance. He also said he will stop giving tax breaks to companies that send jobs overseas. Instead, he will give them to companies that will help alleviate the high unemployment rate by offering jobs in the United States.
"We need a president who will fight for the middle class every single day," Mr Obama said on Saturday at a rally in North Carolina. "And that is exactly what I will do when I am in the Oval Office as president."
Mr Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, has slipped in public polls this week amid the financial uncertainty. He pledges to overhaul unemployment insurance and make it a programme for retraining, relocating and assisting workers.
At the Denver job fair this week, both candidates' plans sounded too little too late for people such as Gil Rodriguez, who has been out of work for six months. A human resources manager by training, Mr Rodriguez has worked at McDonald's and taught secondary school. As the months drag by collecting unemployment benefits, he is worried how he will feed his wife and two children. "There's such a large pool of us looking and so few jobs," he said. "It's just really hard."
gpeters@thenational.ae