WSJ_Roswell-GA_Long-term-unemployed

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ECONOMY JANUARY 18, 2012
Raymond McCrea Jones for The Wall Street Journal
Jennifer Barbee, a mother of three, lost her human-resources job three years ago and has exhausted her jobless
benefits. She relies on monthly child support payments, food stamps and aid from the city of Roswell, Ga.
By SARA MURRAY And CAMERON MCWHIRTER
ROSWELL, Ga.—The waiting list for subsidized housing here, just 40 families long a year ago, is
up to 500. The number of children eligible for free or reduced lunch is up 50%. A little more than
a year ago, the Methodist church began seminars for marriages strained by job losses.
Roswell is a pre-Civil War cotton mill town that grew into a wealthy bedroom community of
Atlanta as the metro area prospered. More than half the city's 88,000 residents have four-year
college degrees. But Roswell sits in a region with an unusually severe case of long-term
unemployment: About 40% of the unemployed in the Atlanta metro area in 2010, the most recent
local data available, were out of work for a year or more versus the national average of 29%.
One of them is Marcy Bronner, 57 years old. When she lost her job at Pennzoil back in 2000, it
took her seven months to find a new one at Quintiles, a bio- and pharmaceutical-services
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Long-Term Unemployment Ripples Through One
Town
Page 1 of 6Long-Term Unemployment Ripples Through Georgia Community - WSJ.com
1/18/2012http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204319004577084843074586190.html?mod=djemTMB_h

The Nation's Long-Term Unemployed
See what percentage of the unemployed have
been out of work for more than 27 or 52
weeks in the largest metro areas around the
country.
More photos and interactive graphics
WSJ's Cameron McWhirter looks at Roswell, Georgia,
an example of a town hampered by long-term
unemployment. The once prosperous Atlanta suburb
now sees long-term joblessness having a ripple effect
on the town's economy. Photo: Raymond M.
Jones/WSJ
company. She eventually became senior director of human resources at a salary in the low six
figures.
In November 2010, she was laid off again. More
than a year later, she is still looking for work.
"It's harder now," she says, compared to the
2000s. "There's a lot more people out there."
While the job market is improving—the national
unemployment rate fell to 8.5% in December—
long-term unemployment continues to be
particularly pronounced, and there is little
indication that it is falling quickly. The
government said that in December 3.9 million
nationwide had been out of work for at least a
year and were still looking. Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke has called this "a
national crisis."
Some will eventually find jobs, though long
spells of unemployment are likely to scar them
for years. Workers who were jobless for six
months or more in the late 1990s and early
2000s in Connecticut and eventually found
work earned 60% less than those who were
unemployed for three months or less,
economists Kenneth Couch of the University of
Connecticut and Dana Placzek of the state labor
department found.
Some will never find jobs again. Their ties to the
job market will wither. The splotches of
unemployment on their applications will make
them unattractive to potential employers.
Workers who had been unemployed for less than five weeks in 2010 had a 34% chance of finding
a job the following month, according to Labor Department data. Those out more than six months
had only a 10% chance.
When their unemployment benefits run out, some will find other ways to get by—relying on
families, drawing on retirement savings or, if they can qualify, going on government disability
programs.
"This is what people saw in Europe: You had large groups of people who hadn't worked in a long
amount of time," says Betsey Stevenson, former chief Labor Department economist and now a
visiting professor at Princeton University. "I am really quite fearful that 10 years from now we're
going to look back and go, 'Why didn't we fight this harder?"

Raymond McCrea Jones for The Wall Street Journal
Volunteers at North Fulton Community Charities,
Roswell's only full-service food bank, sort through
donated clothing for the store.
The longer people are out of work, the more likely
their skills are to become obsolete—particularly at a
time of rapidly evolving technology. "You are in your
40s, 50s or 60s, and you are suddenly out of work,"
said Jonathan Warner, director of community and
economic development at Chattahoochee Technical
College, which has its main campus in Marietta, Ga.,
the next town over from Roswell. "What are you going
to do? Who is going to hire you? The smart ones come
to us to get retooled."
Ms. Bronner, the former human-resources director
who lives in Marietta, has been told by job-placement
experts that she has too much experience for some
openings. She gets that. "I would be saying the same
thing if I was sitting in my old chair," she says.
Moving is an unattractive option: Her husband's home
inspection business relies on local referrals.
Nationally, the rise in the number of two-earner
couples and the decline in home prices has made moving harder when one spouse loses a job.
Only 11.6% of Americans moved in 2011, a smaller percentage than in any year since the Census
Bureau began keeping track in 1948.
So Ms. Bronner, who has a bachelor's degree in business technology from the University of
Houston, has gone back to school, earning certifications in business quality improvement
methods at Chattahoochee Tech. Ms. Bronner has joined a support group for the jobless at
Roswell United Methodist Church and has posted her resume on the LinkedIn website, and she
checks job websites daily. "There is no resting on your laurels, not anymore," she says.
Lately, she has started thinking of looking outside of human resources. A neighbor was
unemployed as an electrician for a year, and went back to school to become a pharmacy
technician. She is considering more training in project management to qualify for work in other
fields, though the prospect of "completely switching gears" in middle age is daunting, she says.
It can also be depressing. While helping with the
wedding of one of her three daughters last year,
she found herself crying uncontrollably at
random moments. For about four months, she
says, she was in "a pretty big funk." At one point,
her husband told her: "Your daughter is so
afraid you're going to lose it. You've got to get
your act together." A counselor helped her pull
through, and the wedding became a turning
point, helping her renew her as-yet-unsuccessful
job hunt.

Unemployment is, at first, a personal struggle.
But as it persists, the ripples spread throughout a community.
Local governments in the arc of wealthy suburbs north of Atlanta don't have the infrastructure to
deal with thousands of middle-class residents who have been out of work for six months or more.
They never had the need before.
"I haven't experienced this kind of impact in my lifetime," says Jere Wood, a 63-year-old lifelong
resident of Roswell who has been its mayor since 1997. "This isn't the first time a lawyer's lost his
job, but it's the first time a lot of them have lost their jobs." Unemployment in the Atlanta
metropolitan area in which Roswell sits was 9.8% at last tally, well above the national average.
The roster of Roswell residents collecting Social Security disability benefits, often the last refuge
of those who can't find work, is up nearly 16% since 2007, mirroring the national increase. Local
charities are serving residents who once earned six-figure salaries. Unemployed parents scramble
for fee waivers to keep children in after-school sports.
As job losses became more prevalent, the 6,700-
member Roswell United Methodist Church
reacted, offering a support group for the
unemployed. The twice-a-month events drew
nearly 350 last year, up from fewer than 100 in
better times. In late November, Ms. Bronner
went for the first time—and was amazed by the
number of others who were there.
In November 2010, the church launched the
seminar for couples dealing with the tension
that unemployment can cause—particularly as it
continues for long periods. The church
considered doing so earlier but there wasn't interest.
Geoff Wiggins, 58, who runs the seminar with his wife, usually opens sessions like this: "How
many times have you had this discussion? The working spouse comes in at the end of the day and
says 'How was your day?' And the unemployed person says, 'I'm out of work, how do you think
my day went?'" The goal is to help couples communicate better as they struggle with income
insecurity and battered self-worth. "What breaks my heart," Mr. Wiggins says, "is how many
people aren't getting help."
The recession hit the church budget hard. Donations fell. "The jobs just aren't out there," says
Mike Long, senior minister. "Because of that they simply couldn't give to the church like they
were."
In 2009 the church cut spending by 10% and trimmed staff salaries by 5%. In 2010, it cut its
program ministries by 15%. When paid employees were laid off, volunteers took over lawn
maintenance and custodial work. Last year's $4.5 million budget is 13.5% below 2008 levels.

One of the other participants in the church support group, Edward "Ted" Boone, a 49-year-old
college graduate, lost his job in August 2010. He had been earning in the low six figures in a
business information job, a field in which he had planned to work until retirement.
He, too, rejected an out-of-state move. His wife is employed as a pastor nearby. Instead, he
concentrated on aggressive networking.
In November 2011, after 15 months of unemployment, one of his contacts helped him land a data
manager's job at a Decatur, Ga., nonprofit. He begins work this month. One drawback: The new
job will pay half what the old one did. "I'm not going to find what I was making years ago," Mr.
Boone says. "It's less, but that's fine."
When the recession took hold, job losses stung all parts of the Atlanta economy—Roswell
included. Employers with jobs to offer are flooded with applicants. Applications and placements
at staffing firm Hire Dynamics LLC, which has six Georgia locations including one near Roswell,
were up 40% last year, says chief executive Dan Campbell. But it takes longer to winnow
candidates because there are so many. A recent ad drew 400 resumes.
For some openings, the unemployed need not apply. Amy Grimmer, for instance, is searching for
a sales representative in the Atlanta area for a client in the payroll outsourcing services business.
"We're not looking at the unemployment pool," says Ms. Grimmer, president of Centripetal
Consulting Group, based in Dallas. "They feel like the sales people [who] are talented enough
would have found positions." Most clients, she adds, aren't so explicit.
In the worst of the early 1980s downturn, the typical or median unemployed American had been
out of work for 12.3 weeks. In December 2011, the typical unemployed person had been jobless
for 21 weeks.
In response, Congress has extended unemployment benefits—which normally last no more than
26 weeks—for as long as 99 weeks.
For Jennifer Barbee, 34 years old, it doesn't matter what Congress does. A mother of three who
once made $40,000 a year, she lost her human-resources job three years ago and has exhausted
her $330 a week in jobless benefits. Now she relies on $600 a month in child support, Medicaid
for her children's medical care, food stamps and aid from a local food bank, North Fulton
Community Charities.
Demand at the food bank is running 30% ahead of 2007, and organizers are still playing catch-
up. "People don't realize we're seeing middle-class families that have been unemployed 18
months or longer," says Vonda Malbrough, the development director.
Ms. Barbee has widened her job search to waitressing and other hourly jobs. Her plans to earn a
college degree online are on hold so she can put any cash toward her children. She does what she
can to keep her skills fresh, teaching herself to use Adobe Dreamweaver to help a friend with
website work. Her laptop has the 2007 version of Microsoft Office so she has been looking online
for subsequent changes to stay up to date.

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It is harder to keep tabs with constantly changing regulations that human-resources
professionals are supposed to know, such as recent changes governing health insurance. "I kind
of try to pay attention when I hear about them," she says. "But I really don't know what's out
there right now."
Meanwhile, she writes to the local parks and recreation department requesting fee waivers so her
children can participate in football, basketball and gymnastics. The department has seen a spike
in such requests, which allow parents to pay $5 or $10 instead of $100 or more.
Roswell is changing. More than 9,200 children, 19% of those enrolled in schools in and around
Roswell, received free and reduced-price school lunches last year. Before the recession, 13.2%
qualified.
The free-lunch line has been tough to explain to Ms. Barbee's 10-year-old daughter, who goes
through it every day. Most of her friends don't. "She has said, 'Mommy why do we get free lunch
and other people don't?'" the mother says. "It's something that they notice."
Write to Sara Murray at sara.murray@wsj.com and Cameron McWhirter at
cameron.mcwhirter@wsj.com

WSJ_Roswell-GA_Long-term-unemployed

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