Nevadans seek relief from unrelenting economy

By J. Patrick Coolican

Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010 | 2 a.m.

The unemployment rate dropped considerably in November, from 13 percent to 12.1 percent in Southern Nevada. But no one feels very optimistic about the job market.

That’s because there were no new jobs. Just fewer workers looking.

The real unemployment rate is likely higher than the one reported. Part-time workers who want to be full-time aren’t counted, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics count often misses the long-term unemployed, as well.

A trip to a state unemployment office, called “JobConnect,” on Maryland Parkway in Las Vegas, gives a truer, more human picture of the job market.

It was packed, and newcomers arrive all the time.

The unemployed don’t always have a clean and simple story of being laid off. Sometimes their misfortune is their own doing — idleness or foolish decisions. But in the end, the effect is the same — frustrating days and stare-at-the-ceiling nights.

Sheila Townsend

Sheila Townsend, 37, was a cashier at Silver Nugget before being fired because she missed work for a family funeral, she says.

“I’m too old to be jobless,” she says ruefully.

Townsend has three children, ages 2, 7 and 17. Her teenager is looking for work.

The father of her children, who had steady construction work for seven years, is also out of work. They had been looking to buy a house when things went bad.

“It’s very stressful. How am I gonna pay bills?” she asks.

Her 7-year old is learning the value of a dollar, she says. “When he leaves lights on, I tell him, ‘Turn those lights off. We have to pay bills.’”

Townsend has applied for 50 jobs, she says, and has trouble fighting the frustration and anger. At this point, she’ll do anything.

“I’ll sweep up this parking lot for a paycheck.”

Sara Gulla

Poverty is sometimes caused by bad decision-making. But sometimes it’s just bad luck.

Sara Gulla, 30, badly injured her back a few years ago while living in California. That’s bad luck, chapter one.

By the time she had healed and her disability had run out, she needed a place to stay. That meant coming to live with her mother in Las Vegas. There’s bad luck, chapter two: There are no jobs in Las Vegas.

Her brother, who suffered his own severe injuries in a car accident, also lives with their mother. “We all have to pitch in,” Gulla says.

She says she has gone through dark periods of depression but is more upbeat now. The depression led, in part, she says, to weight gain, which makes job searching that much harder. “Employers look at you different.” Once a college athlete, she says she’s trying to drop the weight.

Despite her misfortunes, Gulla is lucky in one way: She is just shy of a college degree. This recession has exposed the wide gap between the college-educated and those who are not.

“I don’t want a job,” she says. “I want a career.”

Her long-term goal is something in health care.

Thadius Oberheim

Thadius Oberheim is one of the lucky ones: He has a job.

But one subset of workers severely undercounted in this economy is the underemployed. Their hours or take-home pay have been cut so severely that their jobs are not what they used to be.

Despite driving 40 hours a week for a limousine company, he’s not making enough to support his wife and four children, even though his wife works, too.

Oberheim works on commission, and his pay is off 40 percent from when he first started in May 2008, before things turned bad.

“Economic times are so rough, nobody wants to ride in a limo,” he says.

So Oberheim, 30, found a job as a bagger at a grocery store. He needed a health card — a clean bill of health — to work around food. He came to JobConnect for help getting the card.

He’ll pick up 15 more hours at the grocery store, he says.

Ray Delfinado

Ray Delfinado, 29, thought he was taking some initiative. His father, a military retiree, offered to help him move to Las Vegas and enroll in school.

Delfinado had been building yachts in Washington state, but things turned south, “Nobody wanted to buy a $2 million boat,” he says.

It’s hot in Las Vegas, so he figured heating and air conditioning was a sure bet. He enrolled in school last year and finished as summer began.

Of the 15 in his graduating class, just one has a job that he’s aware of, Delfinado says.

He’s applied to dozens of outfits, but no one is looking for an entry-level technician.

That’s no surprise — the devastation in the construction industry is such that companies have plenty to choose from. The construction workforce is off at least 33,000 workers, or 44 percent, from its 2006 peak.

Delfinado’s parents are still supportive, and he’s upbeat. He’s looking for any kind of job now.

As for air conditioning work, summer isn’t far off.

Gary Hall

Gary Hall, 56, carries business cards with his phone number and e-mail address, and the motto: “For an honest day’s work.”

He’s just completed a training program in weatherization, and another one in lead abatement at Nevada Partners, a nonprofit job training and placement center.

Here since 1980, Hall has worked in both of the city’s once-formidable industries — gaming and construction. He was a dealer and then a member of the laborers union, he says.

His last steady work was at Echelon, Boyd Gaming’s multibillion-dollar project that was shut down in 2008 before completion.

Since then, he’s done seasonal work for UPS, including this Christmas season. Once that work ended, he expected homelessness.

He rented a house with an elderly woman, but it was foreclosed on and they were to be evicted. She moved into a mobile home and has allowed him to set up a make-shift wood attachment to the unit in exchange for helping her around the house.

Hall says he stays in good health and good spirits with the help of his Schwinn bicycle. “This bicycle keeps me alive,” he says.

Hall wears a bright-yellow reflector vest – needed defense against the city’s bad drivers.

“It’s a terrible biking city,” he says.