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The Faces of Unemployment

The Faces of Unemployment - Monday, March 30, 2009 at 5:02PM EST

LUZERNE COUNTY- An economy in despair. The ripple effects are in the numbers. The amount of jobs being slashed is numbing. Our Joe Holden has more in a special series, The Face of Unemployment.
It could be your father, brother, your mother. Perhaps your husband or wife. Unemployment. It's a word that sums up everything that's bad about our economy right now.

At first, it's a kick to the stomach. And then it settles in, how much longer can I keep going without a job? It's life on the edge.

Jason Jarecki has job hunted before. But “it's not like anything I've ever experienced before,” he says.

A public relations professional, Jarecki was laid off from Luzerne County in December. His P. R. job was cut when the county ran out of cash.

A Navy man and college graduate, he's sending out resumes. But nobody's even called back. “I've never experienced that before and I believe I have a very strong resume and a very strong portfolio,” he says.

Those resumes have opened doors for him before. But the recession means fewer people are hiring coupled with stiff competition. “It's frustrating, it's frustrating and there's been highs and lows and I've been pretty bummed out,” says Jarecki.

Doing this takes his mind off the job hunt. “Fortunately, coming here and trying to stay busy is the best thing,” he says.

When he's not cruising the internet for job opportunities, Jarecki drives the Zamboni at the arena in Wilkes-Barre Township.

It's part-time work that helps pay the bills. He's done this off and on for 10 years. “I came, I applied, I wore a suit, they laughed at me, but I got hired on the spot,” he says.

Now, he needs the job. He'll be here all night, building up the ice. Jason's trained quite a few people on the Zamboni machine. His passion is making good ice and that translates into pretty much anything he's doing.

Whether good ice or a good foot forward, Jarecki now hopes the latter pays off, in terms of landing that next career.

But while waiting, he keeps busy. The bills won't pay themselves. “You'd just go completely crazy if you just focused on not having a job, "oh my God, what am I going to do tomorrow?" What's going to happen when my unemployment runs out? It can really wear you down,” he says.

But he's betting the icy job market will thaw sooner than later. But the numbers still show a shrinking economy, evaporating jobs with no apparent fix to plug the leak.

Consumer spending was up, ever so slightly for February, but that's hardly comfort.
 


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