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A rising tide of job seekers

Denver Workforce Centers see 11% increase in clients

By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 24, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Michael Martinez watches as Patricia Garza searches an online job bank for him at a Denver Workforce Center on Thursday.

Photo by Preston Gannaway / The Rocky

Michael Martinez watches as Patricia Garza searches an online job bank for him at a Denver Workforce Center on Thursday.

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Paul Gibson once had little trouble finding work as a truck driver. Now he's looking for almost any job at all.

The Denver resident has been unemployed since early July, encountering competition from other job seekers even for low-paying work that he ordinarily wouldn't consider. A recent posting attracted almost three dozen applicants before Gibson had a chance to reply to it.

"I'm looking for whatever I can," Gibson said during a visit Thursday to the Denver Workforce Center on Speer Boulevard. "That's basically all you can do."

With jobless claims rising quickly nationwide, economists have begun warning that unemployment will only worsen before it improves.

The Denver Workforce Centers, which give job hunters access to computer equipment, postings and advice, served 16,682 customers in the July-September period, an 11 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

The U.S. Labor Department said new applications for unemployment insurance rose by 15,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 478,000, topping analysts' estimates of 470,000. Economists generally consider claims of more than 400,000 to be a sign of recession.

As the Labor Department released the data Thursday, Goldman Sachs, Chrysler and Xerox all announced big job cuts, adding to the woes of an economy hit by tighter credit and struggling banks.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, testifying before a House committee, said he could not see "how we can avoid a significant rise in layoffs and unemployment."

Zach Pandl, an economist at Barclays Capital, predicts unemployment will rise to between 7 percent and 8 percent by early next year. Other economists estimate it could go higher.

The jobless rate currently stands at 6.1 percent. It peaked at 6.3 percent in 2003 after the brief recession of 2001. It peaked at 7.8 percent in the 1991-92 recession and rose higher than 10 percent before peaking in 1982.

At the Denver Workforce Center, DeeDee Spencer joined the others filling out forms in the waiting area. She lost her support staff job at Long Beach Mortgage in May when her employer closed its Denver Tech Center office.

Her one requirement of a new job? "Anything I can get with benefits," she said. "This is the first time I've not had health care pretty much all my life. It's pretty imperative that I find work."

Roge't Smith said he moved to Denver from Oklahoma in hopes of finding more lucrative employment, but all he's found are jobs that don't provide "enough to pay bills" and cover the cost of getting to work. "Now, the temp services are all dying down," he said. "I'm at my end.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments

  • October 24, 2008

    3:33 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    mrfxx writes:

    Since the unemployment rate only reflects the number of folks collecting unemployment instead of those out of work, the numbers of unemployed could easily be TRIPLE what is reported.

    As long as companies are additionally rewarded (over and above the cost savings of hiring cheaper, generally much less qualified help) for offshoring jobs with tax breaks this will get much worse before it gets better. The tax breaks for offshoring must end.

    As long as companies find a way around the tax accounting laws about upper management compensation (by being allowed to deduct perks like corporate jets, apartments, etc over and above the million dollar ceiling for compensation as a deductible expense) this will get much worse before it gets better. The loopholes must end.

  • October 24, 2008

    7:13 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    peter303 writes:

    >Since the unemployment rate only reflects the number of folks >collecting unemployment instead of those out of work

    ABSOLUTELY WRONG
    The unemployment rate is a telephone poll asking if someone is looking for work. You are correct in the sense if a person gives of looking for work, they no longer considered unemployment. People at the edges of the job market- very young, old, with children, not too healthy, etc. may drop out.