In Port Charlotte, Fla., Sharon Byberg has been looking for a job for 15 months, after being laid off by a surveying company where she made $17 an hour making blueprints for architects and builders.
Ms. Byberg has had few responses to her job applications at national retailers, fast-food chains and grocery stores. A local gas station got more than 1,000 applications for two jobs paying about $8 an hour, Ms. Byberg said.
“Jobs are like diamonds,” she said. “You got to know somebody to get one and they’re extremely rare. … Employers can pick and choose who they want.”
Ms. Byberg, 48, said she has $50 in a bank account and faces about $300 in bills for car insurance and a mobile phone. She hasn’t had any income since her unemployment insurance benefits ran out this September, so she and her 15-year-old daughter now live with her retired mother, whose Social Security checks cover essential costs.
She doesn’t plan to buy anything for the holiday. “I don’t see a Christmas,” she said.
Her story is common in SW Fl….most of my parishioners are retired but nearly all who work are at risk of losing their job and the market is closed….