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2,015 comments. That's how many people weighed in with their thoughts within the first five days since Laurie-Ellen Shumaker's story ran on Huffington Post. This is in addition to the almost 100 comments that came in from the post about it on the American Bar Association's blog. The almost 1,000 people who tweeted the story, or over 200 people who shared it on Facebook. Unemployment, in this economy, for lack of a better term, sells.
Overwhelmed by the lack of interviews that came after applying for 1,000 jobs, Laurie-Ellen agreed to have her story told by the Huffington Post. The article itself was simply the first chapter. It's the aftermath that is more interesting, as well as the discussion it has kicked off on how social media is being used in unique ways within this economy. Her daughter, Calliope, a good friend of mine and fellow BlogHer, gave me a head's up that the story was going to run, unsure of how stepping forward would change her family's luck with the long string of non-responses on the job front that has stretched back to 2009, when Laurie-Ellen first lost her job as in-house counsel for a shopping center.
Unlike those 2,015 commenters, I've watched the story unfold from the front lines. The comment section reveals exactly what you'd expect: Everyone has "good ideas" when they're comfortably employed. But as someone who knows them personally, it has been terrifying to watch their situation continue week after week. It has been a reminder of how thin the line is separating the employed from the unemployed. In this economy, there are no guarantees for employment. Top-tier education, excellent references, years of job experience -- none of these things ensure that you'll move easily to a new position once downsized.
Back in 2009, when Laurie-Ellen was first laid off, she assumed she would have a new position in a matter of weeks based on her work experience and background. But as she applied to jobs, her applications were met with silence. Though the Huffington Post exaggerated with the statement that she never received one interview in 1,000 job applications, the reality is -- as she is quoted within the piece explaining -- that there were a handful of phone and face-to-face interviews (six in 2009 and eight in 2010). Laurie-Ellen describes the experience of going from employed to unemployed:
It is very lonely to go from productive member of the workforce to trying to connect with jobs in the faceless, isolated way that most searches happen these days. The lack of response to my heartfelt applications was surprising to me. I am used to having a connection with people to sort out answers to issues. Most of the job postings were crafted so that one cannot find The Person to reach out to for that personal spark. Often the companies are "confidential" in the postings.
In other words, she became invisible as potential employers hid their own identities. It's one side to this story: the way the job market is become depersonalized and distanced by computers. Job seekers are throwing up their resumes of job sites such as Monster.com or banking connections on LinkedIn, but more often than not, computers are allowing employers to hold the workforce at arm's length. Analogous to warfare, just as guns and bombs depersonalized war and made it easier to pretend that something other than killing was happening on the ground, computerized applications and email has made it easier for employers to ignore the desperation that exists within this job market. They don't need to look the person seeking work in the eye nor even bump into them around town. Instead, people are reduced to a single page view on a computer screen.
The story focused on the fact that she is female and over 50, but we've also seen the statistics where the young are struggling to gain employment, with as many as 53 percent of Americans under 24 currently seeking a job. In fact, only 6.4 percent of women over 50 are currently unemployed, as opposed to 8.9 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds. Men over 55 also carry a higher unemployment rate at 7.5 percent. These numbers, of course, only tell part
