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Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

The People Behind September's Unemployment Rate

Gracie Zheng |
October 11, 2012 | 12:38 a.m. PDT

Senior Staff Reporter

September's unemployment rate of  7.8 percent was the lowest unemployment rate since January 2009 when President Obama took office.

Neon Tommy talked to some unemployed people who either quit their job or got laid off.

Brent D. Claypool (Gracie Zheng/Neon Tommy)
Brent D. Claypool (Gracie Zheng/Neon Tommy)

 

Name: Brent D. Claypool

Age: 49

Home: Long Beach, CA

Education: B.A, Communications/PR, California State University, Fullerton

Employment Status: Unemployed since August 1, 2011.


Brent D. Claypool worked as a licensed customs broker for two and a half years at Crowley Logistics Inc., where he made $75,000 per year, plus benefits and yearly bonuses. He was laid off in August last year due to company reorganization. 

Claypool collected unemployment until last month, when he found out his unemployment expired and he no longer qualified for federal extensions.

“I did reapply but it wasn’t successful,” he said.

For the past year or so, Claypool would go online to search for job opportunities. He has been constantly keeping an eye on JobsinLogistics.com and Indeed.com, while looking for the same type of job he had before.

                          (ALSO SEEOnline Job Offers Up In L.A. Despite Steady Unemployment Rate)

“It’s always good to have your LinkedIn profile built up,” he said. “I know that’s the new way to look for work because of technology and social media.”

Claypool sent out resumes, asked for references and went to job interviews. He always writes a different resume for each job based on its job description instead of using a generic resume.

He has yet to be hired.

He had one job offer, but eventually turned it down because the $58,000 salary he was offered was “not enough to keep up with the cost of living.”

He has two interviews scheduled; both are the same kind of job he had before.

“I have been using my savings, but I need to find a job really soon, probably in one or two weeks…so I don’t run out of money,” he said.

           (ALSO SEE: Unemployment Drops With More Part-Time Workers Hired In September)

 

Name: Holly Goldfuss

Holly Goldfuss (Gracie Zheng/Neon Tommy)
Holly Goldfuss (Gracie Zheng/Neon Tommy)

Age: 27

Home: Los Angeles, CA

Education: B.A., political science, USC

Employment Status: Unemployed since July 2012.


Holly Goldfuss worked as a project coordinator and director of sales at Trims Unlimited, a promotional products company, for five years. She decided to quit three months ago to figure out what she wanted to do as a lifetime career.

“I really enjoyed it at the beginning. It sort of lost its luster to me,” she said. “It wasn’t something that made me excited to go to work in the morning.”

The company had a small staff of five people. The USC graduate was making $60,000 a year.

“If the economy had been better, I probably would have moved on sooner. But because of the downturn, I sort of felt like I need to stay and appreciate that I had a job and make the best out of it,” she said.

For the past two months, Goldfuss has been looking for work. She searched jobs online, went to USC alumni job boards and other job websites, like Indeed, Monster, and CareerBuilder.

She's had a few interviews, but hasn’t landed a job yet.

“There is this aspect of fear to being unemployed that makes you want to get the next job that comes your way,” she said.

Goldfuss is determined to find a long-term job that she loves--something creative, fast-paced and in a vibrant environment. She hopes she can find work within the next three months.

“The soul-searching is going to have its limits,” she said.

 

Read Neon Tommy's coverage of unemployment here.  

Reach Senior Staff Reporter Gracie Zheng here



 

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