Low-Skilled Workers Struggle Amid More Competition and Fewer Openings

By Chris L. Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 20, 2008

Washington area residents who count on low-wage work to make ends meet are having difficulty finding employment as a tight labor market and a more experienced pool of job applicants squeeze opportunities, according to job counselors and labor experts.

Low-skilled workers increasingly find themselves in competition against highly skilled, college-educated applicants who have either lost their jobs because of the weakening economy or are seeking seasonal or part-time work to help stretch their incomes.

Compounding the problem, many employers, such as department stores and other retailers, are cutting back on seasonal and holiday hiring because of their own financial struggles. In addition, a higher proportion of Washington area firms report that they will cut their workforces by 10 percent or more in 2009.

A SnagAJob.com survey, released in October, of 1,000 managers who have responsibility for hiring hourly workers found that, on average, they had planned to hire 3.7 seasonal employees this year, down from about 5.5 last year. That amounts to a 33 percent decrease in hiring. Of the managers surveyed, 57 percent said they did not plan to make any hires this year, up from 49 percent last year.

"The competition for the jobs that are out there is fierce," said Marsha Enkerud, manager for center operations at the Falls Church Skill Source Center in Fairfax. "The increases in people coming to us has been tremendous. What is surprising is that the level of experience and skills have increased. And that's certainly made it harder for those who don't have the higher level skills or experience."

Enkerud said almost 22,000 people sought help at the county's four job counseling centers in the first 10 months of this year, up 122 percent from 9,900 during the same period last year. In Montgomery and Arlington counties, officials said the number of people has almost doubled. In Prince William County, job counselors said they had seen a 175 percent increase.

Delores Heffernan of Arlington had a successful career as an interior designer and real estate agent until business dried up. She found herself at the Arlington Employment Center last week looking for property management jobs that paid half the salary of her past two jobs.

"It's a difficult process to go through, almost like starting over," said Heffernan, 62, who is divorced and raising two granddaughters, Samantha, 17, and Ashlee, 9.

Later that day, Cecelia Hernandez, 27, found herself competing with Heffernan, who has 35 years of experience in the job market, for some of the same jobs. Hernandez, who has juggled two and three jobs over the years, working as a house cleaner, child-care worker and retail clerk, has comparatively few skills. She did not finish college, and her only property management experience was a temporary job as a janitor.

"Last year, I found a job pretty quick, you know, around the holidays. . . . It took maybe a couple of weeks," said Hernandez, who lives in Arlington. "Data entry and administrative help at a car dealership. It was never a problem. Now the Christmas jobs, it seems the places they don't call back as fast. Other jobs you have to have a bachelor's. I have to put in more applications."

Making year-to-year comparisons is difficult because job training centers and employment agencies don't consistently track the education and income backgrounds of their clients. But in Northern Virginia, nine out of 10 workers participating in workforce retraining and development since July 1 had completed high school and at least two years of college. Last year, six in 10 had completed at least two years of college.

In Montgomery County, Barbara Kaufman, executive director of a one-stop job placement center, said that 30 percent of the center's clients from July 1 through November were first-time users, which "is much more than previous years."

In Prince George's County, Patricia White, director of the county's job counseling center, said the agency has seen a 35 percent increase from last year in the number of people looking for jobs, including more people with two-year and graduate degrees. (The number of those with four-year degrees remained stable.) And there has been a 53 percent decrease in jobs advertised.

"It's an employers market," White said. "Competition is tight, and the least-skilled are usually not going to be the first choice for many employers."

The situation is much the same across the country. This month, the federal government announced that the number of people working part time for economic reasons -- known as involuntary part-time workers -- had increased by 2.8 million, to 7.3 million, over the past 12 months. In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said there had been a slight increase in unemployment among people with a college degree. It also found that 25 percent of those who lost their jobs this year and found new ones were making just a third of their previous salary.

"These are the issues that simple unemployment numbers don't really show," said Beth Shulman, work and economy analyst with the Russell Sage Foundation, a New York-based think tank. "There's a cascading effect throughout the labor market, and who's left on the street are the service and low-wage workers who are getting pushed further and further out of the market."

Ana Guadalupe, 35, of Alexandria was recently laid off from a financial services job in Tysons Corner that paid $49,000 a year. She receives $363 a week in unemployment, but that's not enough to cover her mortgage, car expenses and other necessities. She is working 30 hours a week, at $15 an hour, at a women's clothing store and an additional 14 hours a week, at $7 an hour, as a clerical assistant.

"You'd never think from one year to the next there could be such a change in your life," she said. "Who knows what next year will bring."

Several job employment counselors said the scramble for seasonal jobs in the Washington region will be eased somewhat by the large number of service industry jobs that are becoming available because of the presidential inauguration. Hotels, restaurants and other employers will need thousands of workers to help manage the millions of people who are expected to descend on the region next month. But those jobs are temporary, counselors point out.

"I'm afraid to know what's going to happen in February," said Chris Hart-Wright, executive director of StriveDC, which works with low-skilled District residents. "All those jobs that people might get for the inauguration are going to be gone. And we'll be right back at square one."

Hernandez began her job search after her husband, Francisco, was laid off from his job as a truck driver, which paid about $34,000 a year, including overtime. In October, he began working as a contract worker cleaning offices for less than $1,700 a month, without health benefits.

She found a position as a waitress at Chevy's but is looking for a second job to cover the couple's expenses.

"I feel like I was lucky that at least I got one job," she said.