By Candice Ludlow
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-902954.mp3
Memphis, TN – The unemployment rate for Tennessee continues to hover above 10 percent. Candice Ludlow headed to the Opportunity Expo at the Pink Palace to find out how the search for employment is going.
I met Daniel Wiltberger as I walked into the job fair. Dressed in black slacks and a white button down shirt, the manufacturing engineer tells me he used to commute from Olive Branch to ThyssenKrupp Elevator in Middleton, Tennessee. That's until he was laid off.
"Manufacturing's not a real hot button in the Memphis area," Wiltberger explains. "I may have to move. I'm married. We have a 12-year and a two-year-old and one due in June. So we'd be moving, selling a house, and that's a scary idea as well."
Wiltberger is the sole breadwinner. His wife has one more year to go to get her bachelor's degree at Ole Miss.
"I've been out six weeks. I kind of gave myself maybe eight weeks before I start panicking, so we're getting close to that," Wiltberger said. "I have as of this morning, opened up my searches, the monster.com, automatic emails are now set to East Coast, ya know before it was specifically 30 miles of Memphis, but I've expanded that now."
"I'm Julia Wynn." Four months ago, Wynn worked at a warehouse. She's finishing up her associate's degree in Health Information Technology.
"I've been looking from when I leave school, I go look, put in resumes, put in applications, but most people say, they're not really hiring, or they'll call me back or they'll check into it. So I haven't been having much luck," Wynn said.
"Another thing that's making it challenging is that the job market has really changed," Jennifer Less said. Last year, she found herself looking for work after her divorce. Now, Less a single mom.
The last time Less was in the job market was ten years ago, and a lot has changed. "I have been going on-line to look for jobs because that seems like the main resource available, but the process of posting your resume on-line is very different than it used to be where you were dealing with the person," Less explains.
The book that broke many falls the last time unemployment was this high, is titled "what color is your parachute?" But Less feels she's swimming. She says the Internet is a sea of resumes with no faces attached to them.