Fourth in an occasional series

Joe Profaci can tell things are tougher than usual at his Sparkle Clean Laundermat in hard-time Clementon because of all the wet laundry coming through the door.

Unemployed people are saving precious dollars by washing clothes in their bathtubs, then lugging in dripping loads to use Sparkle Clean's dryers, Profaci said. "I never saw that before," he added. "Everybody is struggling."

Meanwhile, in middle-class Marlton, all is not as sound as it seems, as growing numbers of residents find themselves jobless. Restaurant business is down, and Whole Foods Market has loaded up on bulk foods for the uptick in customers who eat at home.

"Marlton is hurting, and I didn't recognize it until six months ago," said Deacon Barry Tarzy of St. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic Church, who recently started a ministry to help the unemployed in town. "I was shocked there were so many who lost jobs in IT, finance, and construction."

Marlton and the Clementon area could not be mistaken for one another; while the former looks prosperous, the latter is worn and weary.

Yet together, Marlton and the Clementon area (which includes Lindenwold and other towns in zip code 08021 in Camden County) show some of the highest increases in joblessness in South Jersey over the last two years.

At their core, they share the growing strain of unemployment that continues to vex the Philadelphia region, where about 200,000 people continue to be out of work.

In Marlton (zip code 08053), unemployment claims spiked 119 percent in April, from 433 to 948 between 2007 and 2009, state data show.

Meanwhile, the Clementon area now has the highest number of unemployed of any zip code in South Jersey - 1,705 out of an estimated workforce of 30,000.

Despite Marlton's sharply rising joblessness, unemployment isn't widely noticed there yet, masked by a population of more than 40,000 and a robust median household income of around $70,000 annually.

But like a coyote that's creeped into camp, unemployment may soon be more widely felt.

"Unemployment is nearly invisible in Marlton," said David Elesh, a sociologist at Temple University. "But these things can worsen."

The proof is seen around the nation, now suffering a 25-year-high unemployment rate that stood at 9.4 percent in May. There's an expectation of even more job loss before the year ends, pushing the rate into double digits.

The Clementon area has a large working class - many in construction - with a median income around $40,000, U.S. Census figures show. Growing unemployment there means increased crime and home foreclosures, local officials say.

Many of the people in the Clementon area view better-off places like Marlton as a kind of promised land, where stores and restaurants offered jobs in the past, according to Martha Chavis, chief executive officer of WELCOME New Jersey, which runs STRIVE, a job-readiness agency in Camden.

Now, though, with business souring, many people in both Marlton and Clementon are seeing the dismal effects of a failing economy together.

"The American dream - you can't do it anymore," said Clementon bartender Debbie Love, many of whose friends and customers from Johnny Walker's bar are out of work. "Losing your job is like being a battered woman: You're thrown out in the world and don't know how to fix tomorrow. It's hard to believe, with the intelligence we have, that this happens in America."

Tidy-lawned utopias

There is a framed photograph hanging in Joe Bisicchia's house that shows a rainbow ending, seemingly, in Bisicchia's backyard.