Still looking for labor

Story by Dara Belic

Some Illinois residents see ample opportunity amid the state’s diverse and growing job market. Others find it a huge challenge.

For 46-year-old Howard Touch, a 20-year resident of Chicago’s South Side, the job market has been nothing but a source of stress and disappointment the past five years.

“The employment agencies I’ve worked with always told me the same thing: ‘Don’t worry, with your certifications and experience, we’ll find you a stable job in no time.’ I’m still waiting,” said Touch, who has been searching for a steady, full-time job in construction labor or warehouse supervision since 2002.

Touch is one of 363,800 unemployed Illinoisans among a labor force of 6,719,500, which is an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, according to August 2007 data from the Illinois Workforce Information Center.

The unemployment rates for both Illinois and Chicago have increased since last year. Information from the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) shows Illinois’ rate has jumped nearly a percentage point since August 2006, when it was 4.5 percent.

And Chicago has experienced a larger increase, to a 6.3 percent unemployment rate in August 2007 compared to 5.2 percent in August 2006.

But while a rising unemployment rate is often the sign of a distressed economy, experts say Illinois is different.

“Data clearly shows the number of jobs available in many Illinois industries continues to grow,” said Richard Kaye, a labor market economist with IDES.

Indeed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 29,500 new jobs were created last year in Chicago, more than any other major U.S. city in that time frame.

And data from IDES shows 12 to 78 percent increases in job availability for 15 major occupation titles in Illinois between 2000 and 2007. These occupations include customer service representatives, office clerks, construction laborers, waiters and waitresses, truck drivers and security guards.

Why, then, has unemployment increased?

The unemployment rate has grown this past year due to an increase in job availability, Kaye said, as more people entered the labor force looking for work. Many of these people, however, have not yet found work and are therefore still unemployed.

“The problem is not the number of jobs open, it’s the inability of the individuals that make up the current labor force to fill them,” Kaye said.

“Sometimes, the skills offered by potential employees are irrelevant to employers, or are simply not in demand. This seems to be the case in Illinois and in Chicago,” he said.

Touch, who earned 13 certifications from Joliet Junior College between 1999 and 2000 and has over 15 years of work experience in construction and warehouse supervision, has grown increasingly frustrated as he continues to deal with rejection from employers.

“I devoted eleven years of my life to Imaging Science of America (ISA),” said Touch, describing his loyalty to a past employer.

“I worked in their warehouse from 1983 to 1994, committing myself completely and waiting patiently to be promoted. But in ten years, I watched four different employees with much less experience than me become supervisors because they ‘knew people.'”

Shortly after he was finally made a supervisor, Touch said, ISA went under. Since then, Touch has worked as a supervisor for Copley Newspapers and has done construction labor full-time for three different companies.

All three companies he worked for downsized and he was laid off, most recently from BRK Concrete in 2002.

Among the more than sixty companies Touch has contacted for employment in the past five years are John Deere & Co., Illinois Tool Works, W.E. O’Neill, J.L. Masonry and Home Depot.

“Employers tell me I have the wrong type of experience; that they can’t pay me more than, say, seven dollars an hour due to my level of training,” Touch said. “That was the case at John Deere.”

“And the guy at Illinois Tool Works said I needed to update my computer proficiency skills,” he said. “I told him, ‘I just got certified in five areas of computer applications seven years ago! That’s not good enough?'”

Apparently, it’s not.

Tom Krolik, a research specialist with the BLS, said major gains in productivity coupled with the shifting of less skilled jobs overseas has translated to the need for a workforce with advanced technical skills.

“Diplomas and outdated expertise just don’t cut it anymore,” Krolik said.

But some employers disagree.

Zoran Perna, who owns a brick cleaning company in Carol Stream, Ill. called Brick Masters Inc., says all he looks for when he hires is dependability and good work ethic.

“I don’t care if the guy’s never touched a tool in his life; if he’s dependable, honest, willing to learn and ready to work hard, I’ll hire him and train him myself,” said Perna, who pays employees $15 an hour and provides insurance and retirement benefits.

“To me, it’s not what you know, but what you’re willing to learn,” he said.

Touch recently contacted Brick Masters Inc. and applied for a job. He is waiting to hear back from Perna.