Searching for a job here in the city of Winston Salem, NC seems to be a hopeless battle. There really seems to be a severe lack of employment for the residents of the entire Triad of NC. I did a little experiment just to see if the job market is looking as gloomy as our economy. I set out to put in applications at most of the job placement agencies here in the Triad region and what I found was mind boggling.
Over the past 2 weeks, I have been driving from Labor Ready to Able Body,agencies that claim you can work that day and get paid that day, just to see if I would be put to work. I found that I was one amongst forty plus people looking for day to day work while seaching for permanent employment. The problem seemed to be that there is no work to be found. I arrived at 5:15am and stayed until 9:30AM. I was amongst the last three to leave. For three days straight I followed the same routine just to leave 4 ½ hours later,being told try back again tommorrow we just don’t have any work for anyone today . What are the people of Winston Salem, NC supposed to do if the job placement agencies thats sole purpose is to find individuals’ jobs are not able to provide a stable work force?
Everyday I went to both Labor Ready and Able Body. To no effect did I, as well as many others ever be given the opportunity to work. To my knowledge these agencies are equal opportunity employers. There was a job ticket for a furniture expo in High Point, NC and I as well as many others were told that 100 bodies would be needed and to report to Able Body at 5:30am. Excited, I showed up to find that at least sixty other people were already present and patiently waiting like myself to be sent out for this job. We were informed that another agency about thirty minutes away in Greensboro, NC sent a bus of 100+ people to the job site which caused the whole Winston Salem, NC job placement agency to be put on standby. This of course meant another day sent home with no work and no pay.
To stand in the parking lot that day spoke volumes on the severity of the employment situation in this paticular area.You could feel the frustration and tension in the air as people walk back home or to the bus stop. Those of us who drove had wasted the gas driving there knowing now that we would not be able to make the money to replace it. Amazingly people continued to show up day after day to this same story week after week hoping everyday that it would be different and this would be the day they would be put to work.
I met a variety of qualified people that just can’t get over the hump. People showed up from all walks of life that due to many circumstances from layoff’s and cutbacks to just the fact of not finding a job, were forced to seek temporary employment as a last resort to becoming another person dependant on the welfare system. Why is it so hard to find legitimate work here in Winston Salem, NC? How are citizens supposed to pay their car notes, or their house payments? For those of us that don’t depend on the welfare system we must spend our hard earned money on groceries and gas. For some this economic situation has literally caused them to lose everything and their seems right now to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
Now days it’s not enough for one person in a single family home to maintain a job. It now requires both parties to hold down a job just to make ends meet. Family outings are going to become nonexistant because that is money needed for the gas tank to get to work. For those that don’t have a job they are basically wasting gas looking for jobs that just aren’t there.
The jobs sections in the Winston Salem Journal are getting smaller and smaller and our good paying jobs are being out-sourced to companies overseas. What is at the end of the road for us? Do we all just give up and live our lives on welfare? That certainly will not help this economic crisis however, what can we do as citizens to change our own economy? Wall Street is still failing even after the bailout was passed. Why wasn’t the proposal passed to give every working taxpaying American one million dollars? In order for companies to make money people have to be able to spend money. Without jobs we will see more and more companies have to close their doors due to signifigant drops in sales which causes more job loss in manufacturing plants and distribution facilities.
In these extremely unstable times their seems to be no quick fix to the economic crisis however, I feel that the most important issue to be solved is the employment crisis. I know that many of you reading this article are directly affected by this problem and if you are not you go to work everyday hoping that this will not become your situation. Unfortunately the Triad of NC has been hit the hardest right now because the majority of jobs were derived from manufacturing. As a person living here I can only hope that the new president elected can help to bring new jobs to this area ensuring that we Americans can continue our way of life.
Thanks for reading.
