Faces beyond the numbers of long-term unemployed

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ITS_THE_ECONOMY_JOBLESS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-02-11-16-22-04


In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Jon Creek pets his dogs Harley, left, and Memphis while studying for a graduate school admissions test at his home in Mason, Ohio. Creek, who lives in suburban Cincinnati, was a construction company office manager until he and almost everyone else at the firm were laid off in December 2007. He'd known the business was in trouble and says he actually turned down another better-paying job earlier, out of loyalty. It took 18 months to land part-time work as an insurance agent's assistant at $240 a week - a dollar less than his unemployment checks. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

J.R. Childress is up before the sun, bustling about in the French colonial brick house he built. He helps pack his wife's lunch, downs some eggs or cereal for breakfast, pores over online and newspaper job listings and hopes - even prays - this will be the day when his fortunes turn around.

He's determined to stay busy, job or no job, for sanity's sake. Maybe he'll help a neighbor. Exercise. Or check out computer blueprints of construction projects around Winston-Salem, N.C., to stay connected to the world where he thrived for three decades. Childress has been laid off twice since late 2009, most recently for 10 months.

"Every day is a struggle," he says in a soft drawl. "The struggle is the unknown. You've worked your way up the ladder and you get to a point in life and a position in work where you're comfortable ... then all of a sudden everything goes away. It's like being thrown into a hole and you're climbing to get up, but it's greased. There's no way of getting out."

The frustrations of one 53-year-old North Carolina man are multiplied millions of times over across time zones and generations in a country still gripped by economic anxiety, despite increasing signs of recovery. And they resound in a presidential campaign pitting an incumbent defending his economic record against GOP opponents who are attacking it.

[russspeakeasy]

1. A well written article. Thanks.