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Tight job market is good for felons, people with disabilities and others who are hard to employ. But can it last? |
At 49, Marshall May Jr. could not remember whether he had ever taken his mom out for a meal. |
Certainly not in the last 20 years when he was in and out of prison, serving seven separate terms for crimes like stealing to support his drug habit. He last held a regular job in 1994, as a front desk clerk in a Century City hotel. |
But this spring May was hired as a part-time street sweeper by Chrysalis, a nonprofit serving the homeless, and that helped him land full-time work as a healthcare peer specialist for which he is now getting trained. He still does not have a place of his own, but with a job in hand, May figures he at least has a shot n... |
"It was an incredible feeling," he said. "I spent a lot of time at the table crying." |
As the nation enters its ninth year of economic expansion next month, the low unemployment and tightening labor market have begun to open doors for people like May, who not long ago had all but given up any hopes of returning to the workplace. |
Thus far the improvement for the hard-to-employ has been relatively small and spotty, confined mostly to places with exceedingly low unemployment, like in the Midwest and states like Colorado, where the 2.3% jobless rate is the country's lowest. The nationwide unemployment figure was 4.3% in May, a 16-year low. |
During the Great Recession and immediate aftermath, joblessness surged and reached a high of 10%. Millions of people in the prime of their work lives, mostly men, lost jobs in manufacturing, construction and other industries. Since then some have returned to the labor market, but many remain unaccounted for, as if they... |
But if decent job growth keeps up as most economists expect, groups with historically high unemployment — people with criminal records, disabilities, low skills or little education -- could make some real gains, as they did in the late 1990s. |
Already, the jobless rate for adults with less than a high school diploma is down to 6.1%, less than half of the level five years ago and close to a quarter-century low of 5.8%, according to government data. For workers with just a high school education, unemployment most recently was 4.7%, compared with an all-time lo... |
The labor shortage is pronounced in booming metros like Austin, Texas. Businesses are so desperate for workers there that they recently teamed up with community colleges, labor unions and nonprofit organizations to train people for jobs such as light industrial work, nursing assistants, information technology support a... |
"We have employers more open to hiring people with criminal backgrounds than we've ever seen before," said Traci Berry, a senior vice president at Goodwill Central Texas, part of the nationwide network of nonprofit community job-training and placement services. |
Even in California where unemployment statewide is typically higher than the national average, the latest jobless rate of 4.7% in May -- the lowest since November 2000 — has begun to benefit job developers like Chrysalis. Last year it secured positions for 2,350 homeless, ex-offenders and other long-term unemployed, up... |
"It's great that they're finding success now. It's great that employers are more open to bringing them on," says Chrysalis' chief executive, Mark Loranger. "But I do wonder, have they really changed their attitudes on hiring people with backgrounds? … When the economy turns on our clients, will things go back to being ... |
History is not too encouraging. Even during the record-long expansion of the 1990s, when unemployment was lower, productivity higher and wage growth stronger than the current growth period, hopes that rose toward the end of the decade were dashed as the economy tipped into recession in early 2001 with the tech-stock bu... |
Georgetown University economist Harry Holzer is less optimistic today than at the turn of the last century. More workers have multiple barriers to reentry, such as dependence on drugs and government disability programs, he said. And the labor market is not red hot as it was back then, when unemployment was below 4% dur... |
"A lot of employers were so desperate for bodies that anyone who was marginally employable, they were willing to look at," said Holzer, who was chief economist in the Clinton administration's Labor Department in 1999. |
More recently, Holzer and fellow researchers have advocated a range of policy steps, including changes in disability programs and expanded wage subsidies, to help jobless men get back to work. |
How long the current job gains will last for those at the bottom is anybody's guess. Employers like Norm Sedelbauer, a manufacturer of electronic locks in Grand Rapids, Mich., isn't making any promises. Recently he hired Allen Helmer, 48, who is blind in one eye and has been mostly unemployed since he was laid off from... |
Helmer says he hopes he can stay on at Bauer Products for awhile. He makes $10 an hour, barely enough to pay for groceries and the mortgage on a house his parents once owned. "I have to choose between eating and having fun," he said. At work, Helmer stands from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. assembling and jiggering locks with hi... |
"I like working with my hands, I like putting things together," he said. "It doesn't pay extremely well, but it's well worth it." |
The jobless rate for workers with disabilities reached nearly 17% in the summer of 2011 but has since dropped to 9.5%. |
Helmer got his job at Bauer through Goodwill in western Michigan, but many job developers worry about cuts in public dollars to help people reenter the labor market. President Trump's budget has proposed substantial reductions, for example, in job-training funds that support efforts by outfits like Goodwill, although s... |
"Now we ride the economic waves again, but the funding is not there today," said Kathy Crosby, a 38-year veteran of Goodwill. |
Even so, Crosby and other experts are hopeful especially for those coming out of prison. Budget-conscious states and counties are increasingly looking at early-release programs and tying them to jobs, figuring that helping them find work will make it much less likely that they will return to prison. |
Maine, for example, released a small number of inmates with nonviolent offenses to fill job openings that swell in the summer tourism season. Maine's unemployment is 3.2%. |
In many parts of the country a worsening labor shortage in construction could open up job pathways for men with records. Employer attitudes toward hiring ex-offenders also seem to have softened somewhat as a growing number of states and cities have sought to remove employment barriers for former prisoners since the Gre... |
Isaac Vallejo, 53, used to operate his own auto body shop in Austin. He lost the business when he went to prison several years ago for illegal possession of a firearm. Vallejo says he had carried it because he often had a lot of cash on him. It was his second felony offense and he was sentenced to three years. |
After his release about two years ago, Vallejo bounced around in halfway houses, and then with help from Goodwill picked himself up. Last year he was hired at a paint and body shop, not far from where Vallejo had his shop. He makes $18 an hour now, and he is going to school two nights a week at a local community colleg... |
"I'm proof that it does work," he said. |
Eight home Siena basketball games will air this season on WNYA (My-51), which is available to Capital Region subscribers of Spectrum on Ch. 4 and of DirecTV on Ch. 51. |
That’s double the number of games the station carried last season. |
Saturday, Dec. 29: Cal Poly, 2 p.m. |
Saturday, Jan. 5: Canisius, 7 p.m. |
Monday, ?Jan. 14: Monmouth, 7 p.m. |
Saturday, Jan. 26: Manhattan, 7 p.m. |
Monday, Feb. 4: Fairfield?, 7 p.m. |
Sunday, Feb. 17: Quinnipiac, 2 p.m. |
Tuesday, Feb. 19: St. Peter’s?, 7 p.m. |
Sunday, Feb. 24: Marist, 2 p.m. |
Nancy Shaw of Ann Arbor will be the special guest at Seedlings’ open house 5-7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29. |
The author of the popular children’s book “Sheep in a Jeep” will be the special guest at Seedlings’ open house 5-7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29. |
Nancy Shaw of Ann Arbor will read and autograph copies of her books, which also include “Sheep Out to Eat,” “Sheep on a Ship,” “Sheep Go to Sleep,” “Sheep in a Shop” and “Sheep Trick or Treat.” The books will be available for sale at the open house, both with and without braille. |
Shaw’s aunt, Lorma Gardner, who died in 2003, worked as a volunteer braillist, transcribing books for the Library of Congress. Shaw commends Seedlings for making children’s books accessible to those who are blind. “I love the idea of getting stories out to everybody,” she said. |
Besides meeting Shaw, attendees will be able to tour Seedlings’ facility and watch as staff members and volunteers make braille books. Refreshments will be available. |
Seedlings is located in the MetroPlex Office Complex, 14151 Farmington Road, Livonia. For more information, call 734-427-8552, go to www.seedlings.org or contact Karen Smith at Seedlink7@ameritech.net. |
The apartments are designed to meet even the most demanding requirements. |
What is success? The answer is a dozen definitions and interpretations. However, when you ask yourself, where in Bratislava can you find housing built for the needs of successful people, the answer is clear - Gansberg Koliba. |
What do successful people desire? |
Clear architecture, high-quality materials used in a residential building or an attractive location are among the frequent, but not the only, requirements of clients who know what they want. Those who want the best of the best desire uniqueness, even more than superlatives. Housing that’s perfectly compatible with thei... |
The Gansberg Koliba is the first residential project in the Slovak environment which took the need for uniqueness into account in the apartment typology itself. It goes hand-in-hand with the current world-wide trend of tailor-made solutions and the attraction of future inhabitants to spaces soaked with individualisatio... |
First ask yourself – what in life stimulates and fulfils you the most. As soon as you name your comfort zone you’ll know what kind of apartment to look for in Gansberg. |
Does it suit you to live in the heart of a bustling capital city, but when you come home do you want to leave all stress and excitement behind you, so that you can immerse yourself in silence? The QUIET apartment will give you exactly that - the possibility to uninhibitedly draw energy and inspiration in the comfortabl... |
Do you enjoy 21st century achievements, but you’re afraid of alienation from nature? With the GARDEN apartment you’ll never be far from it. You can enjoy the home-grown gifts of the land in your town garden and once the barbecue season starts, your home will become a "hot spot" for famed garden parties. |
Do you like it when you can see things from above? It’s exactly a change of perspective that opens up new horizons. In the CITY VIEW apartment your horizons will be expanded with every glance from the window or spacious terrace. Enjoy the imposing view of Bratislava and you can scheme big business plans or plan an adve... |
Do you live the life you dreamed of and do you belong to the lucky ones who can say that they lack nothing at all? If this is the case, you’ll want to settle on a spot with a seal of premium quality. The PREMIUM apartment represents the highest category of housing and the materialisation of success in its most concentr... |
I almost don’t like to talk about “bloggers,” per se, anymore as most of those creating good content these days are much more than bloggers; they’re social media content creators with active profiles on the major sites and on the less popular but just as important platforms in their own niches. |
So, among these people in the business of content creation, quite often multi-media, there exists a rather large, and from a marketing standpoint, important niche of Foodies. I like foodies. I am a foodie … as in small “f” … I like food … but am hardly an expert. But Foodies with a capital “F” frequently are. They spor... |
As a marketer to moms, though, I am much more interested in “Foodie Moms” or “Recipe bloggers” or mom bloggers who write about food. There are a lot of them, like Full Plate and Eating on a Dime and My Judy the Foodie. They make me hungry. |
But they also make me want to try their recipes, something I quite frequently can’t even begin to contemplate when reading complicated recipes posted by experts. I don’t have the time ... or the ingredients … or the equipment. |
For many consumer brands, these Foodie Moms are right in the sweet spot. They use common foodstuffs one can find in the local supermarket … with perhaps an occasional field trip to an ethnic market or gourmet store. They make dishes that are replicable with a toddler hanging on your leg and homework help to provide. Th... |
As a brand marketer, I’ve enjoyed partnering with these entrepreneurs. I know they speak to my target market in a way which, as a brand, I cannot. They know I am happy to provide opportunities for them to grow their business, with back-links and visibility hard for them to achieve on their own. |
Yes, I advise my clients to work with celebrity chefs and restaurateurs … but I encourage a healthy helping of Foodie moms to round out the meal. |
2 comments about "There Are Foodies ...Then There Are Foodie Moms ". |
Michael Robleto from Allrecipes.com, September 19, 2012 at 5:32 p.m. |
I agree, a lot of the celeb chef type sites make unrealistic recipes. People in a rush, people that don't have ready access to foie gras or martian eggplant just get intimidated by that style. |
Indy food bloggers and Allrecipes (nice plug ha ha) are way more attainable and do a great job of bringing new people into the kitchen. |
Kudos on highlighting the food sites for us. |
shari brooks from My Judy the Foodie, September 20, 2012 at 5:28 p.m. |
thanks for the shout out!! appreciate it.. |
There is a wide spread view that targeted investment and implementation of information technology (IT) can help improve health system efficiency and effectiveness for patients, medical professionals, and related service providers. Yet the adoption of new approaches to facilitate quality-driven patient care, such as ele... |
Each white, oval-shaped, biconvex film-coated tablet, engraved "APO" on one side and "IRB 75" on the other side contains irbesartan 75 mg. Nonmedicinal ingredients: anhydrous dibasic calcium phosphate, crospovidone, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, ... |
Each white, oval-shaped, biconvex film-coated tablet, engraved "APO" on one side and "IRB 150" on the other side contains irbesartan 150 mg. Nonmedicinal ingredients: anhydrous dibasic calcium phosphate, crospovidone, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose... |
Each white, oval-shaped, biconvex film-coated tablet, engraved "APO" on one side and "IRB 300" on the other side contains irbesartan 300 mg. Nonmedicinal ingredients: anhydrous dibasic calcium phosphate, crospovidone, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose... |
PanARMENIAN.Net - Arsenal boss Unai Emery is ready to unleash Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Spanish player Denis Suarez on Huddersfield after admitting only three points will do, The Sun says. |
The Arsenal boss landed the Barcelona midfielder on loan last month and saw him make his debut off the bench in the heavy defeat against Manchester City. |
And Emery reckons his new man, 25, is settling in well, with Mkhitaryan providing another boost by returning to fitness ahead of Saturday, February 9's clash after six weeks out. |
Asked if Suarez would start, he said: "The first day last week he was adapting to our style and also in the 25 minutes he played against Manchester City. |
"From the first day with us, he was performing well but this week he worked with our coaches. |
"Today he is working with different adaptation and better than last week. I hope he will continue, he is improving every day with us. |
"Then I hope he can show in the next matches how he can help us better than in the first match against Manchester City. |
"Mkhitaryan played 45 minutes on Monday with the Under-23s. Today, Aubameyang is sick but I think he's okay for Saturday. |
"Laurent Koscielny was sick but today he is training well. I think the other players are well and will be OK for Saturday." |
From his shop/studio in Warsaw, Skjold has been making extraordinary, handmade bass guitars for many years under the name Skjold Design Guitars LLC. |
WARSAW – He uses words like burpy, sparkly and catacombed. And phrases like “One man’s ‘mud’ is another man’s ‘thump.’” Who is this guy? And what’s he talking about? |
Well, he’s Pete Skjold (pronounced “Shold”), and he’s talking about bass guitars – something he knows a great deal about. |
From his shop/studio in Warsaw, he’s been making extraordinary, handmade bass guitars for many years under the name Skjold Design Guitars LLC. |
“It’s something I know really well after three decades of playing them,” he explained. |
Skjold, now 49, grew up in Southern California. When he was 8, the family we moved up the coast to Atascadero, now home to some of the best vineyards in California. Colorado followed, then New Hampshire. He moved to Ohio in 1988. |
All of Skjold’s designs stem from a bass guitar he designed in 1992. He’d already been a professional bassist for two years and that, he felt, gave him the inside perspective on what bassists want. He started building complete instruments in 1996. And in 2003, he went full time in the business. |
Chadwick, a fellow musician, was there when Skjold started to build bass guitars in 1996. |
Skjold Design Guitars LLC is located at 36728 U.S. Hwy. 36 in Warsaw. For more information, call 740-824-3598 or log on www.skjolddesign.com. |
Despite all the advice suggesting that waiting can be smart, there are times when claiming your Social Security as early as possible is the right move. |
Most of the advice that you read concerning Social Security advises that you consider waiting as long as you can before taking your benefits. Yet for some people, claiming at the earliest available age of 62 is actually the best thing they can do. Below, we'll run through three scenarios in which it's smart to take you... |
Scenario 1: When you want to wait to take larger survivor benefits. |
If your spouse has passed away, then you have the right to claim either your own retirement benefits based on your work history or survivor benefits based on your deceased spouse's work history. Even after recent law changes, you still have the right to choose to apply for one set of benefits while leaving the other un... |
If your own retirement benefit is relatively small compared to the survivor benefit you're entitled to receive, then it often makes sense to collect your own retirement benefit first and later switch to your survivor benefit. That way, you'll avoid the reduction in the survivor benefit that would result if you claimed ... |
Scenario 2: If a public pension will reduce or eliminate your Social Security later. |
If you are entitled to a pension because of service as a public employee, two provisions can adversely affect your Social Security benefits. The Government Pension Offset can reduce spousal benefits you're entitled to receive if you worked at a job that didn't pay into the Social Security system through payroll taxes, ... |
If you know that your pension will eat up all of your Social Security benefits once you start receiving it, then claiming Social Security at 62 before your pension kicks in could be the only time you get benefits. As a result, it makes sense to get something rather than nothing -- no matter how small the something migh... |
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