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These days, as economists bleat hopefully about the bottoming-out of the recession, Bob Niemeyer's story provides a tough lesson. If history is any guide, the 15 million people who are now unemployed will not recover along with the economy. Their loss of earning power is permanent, according to studies that have examined work histories over decades.
At the moment they should be blasting off, many in their 20s are finding their trajectories altered, or their launches stalled, by the dream-killing economy. While national unemployment is at 9.4 percent, people ages 20 to 29 face jobless rates of 12.7 percent nationally and 14 percent in the Philadelphia metropolitan are.
Clutching their coffee cups like talismans - as if a hot cup of coffee might bring them luck, or at least a day's work - the stevedores who unload the region's commerce from cargo ships on the Delaware River amble into their union's no-frills hiring hall in the shadow of the Walt Whitman Bridge.
Marlton and Clementon could not be mistaken for one another; while the former looks prosperous, the latter is worn and weary. Yet together, both show some of the highest increases in joblessness in South Jersey.
Every company that closes has its story. What all the stories have in common are economic currents that wash away lives and dreams and change the course of life in a community.
At 7:25 a.m. on Feb. 20, Dan Perry arrived at work at his Malvern industrial-parts company. By 7:35, Perry was back in the parking lot, holding a box of items from his desk asking, "What just happened to me?"
The closings of law firm Wolf Block and Northeastern Hospital in Port Richmond last month prove that this recession, approaching 18 months in duration, practices equal opportunity as it curtails careers and ruins lives. No sector is spared.
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What if he doesn't take his drugs?
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What about this scenario? A company hires an excellent tech worker who does a great job, but then decides, for whatever reason, to go off the drugs that keep his bipolar tendencies in check. Weirdness at work ensues and the excellent worker isn't able to do his job in the same way. Now what? Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, if a person's disability was "mitigated," by some means, say drugs, then the person wouldn't be considered disabled and wouldn't qualify for accommodations and wouldn't be able to sue for discrimination. New amendments to the bill now broaden the definition of disabled and change how this idea of "mitigation" should be applied.
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Question & Answer: Job counselor Gloria Leidel
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Job counselor Gloria Leidel is one of the lucky ones. In her decades-long career, she has never been fired or laid off.
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Laid-off HR specialists offer mutual support
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Recruiter ranks are stripped - no one's hiring. No need for as many benefit specialists when fewer employees are receiving benefits. Training and talent management? Those "priorities" somehow become less so in tough times.
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Gallery: Claims for Unemployment Benefits: 2007 to 2009
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Tips for keeping your job
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With the U.S. jobless rate at a 25-year high of 9.4 percent, a new book by Michael J. Kitson and Bob Calandra seems ideal for the times. They are not surprised by the misery and fear they see in the job market.
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Once co-workers, now a network of friendships
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Workplace bonds become emotional umbilical cords - lifelines to new jobs, new identities and new feelings of self-worth - especially important in today's rough job market.
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How to let the ax fall gently
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Stewart D. Friedman, who directs the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project at the University of Pennsylvania, has been doing some listening and thinking about how front-line managers can lead their staffs through today's rough ride.
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