Tony Mahaffey lost his job five days before his 51st birthday.
As a certified welding inspector and former business manager, Mahaffey thought he would soon find another job, as he has done before when business conditions changed. But more than 15 months and 16 job interviews later, the Navy veteran and longtime welder still can't find a job.
With his jobless benefits about to run out, Mahaffey and his wife, Amy, worry they soon may lose their three-bedroom home in Hixson.
"I'm getting desperate right now and will take most any job I can get," he said while filling out an application last week at the Tennessee Career Center in the Eastgate Town Center.
"Unfortunately, there's just not a lot of metal work going on right now and, with so little work, it seems like employers are trying to take younger workers they can hire for less," he said.
As Americans celebrate Labor Day, many workers are lamenting that their labor no longer seems needed nor wanted. More than 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months as shifting economic tides have left many displaced workers adrift amid a sluggish recovery, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday.
Mahaffey, who was paid $25 an hour in his old jobs, said he is now willing to work for less than half that. His $275 weekly jobless benefit will run out by November.
But faced with nearly $100,000 in medical bills for treatment of his pancreatitis and his wife's liver failure, Mahaffey already has begun to buy camping equipment in case he loses the home where he has lived for the past decade.
His eyes tear up as he talks about his worsening financial situation.
"I'm just confused," he says.
"Mancession" Hits Home
Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said middle-age men like Mahaffey have been hardest hit by what he labels as the "mancession" of the past four years.
"As workers are unemployed for longer periods, their skill sets begin to dissipate and they lose their connection to the workplace," he said. "For men especially, prolonged unemployment tends to lead to more depression, and men generally are less willing to enroll in education, retraining or counseling programs than are women."
Manufacturing and construction industries, where men are most dominant, were hardest hit by the recent recession.
Since 2006, Tennessee and Georgia have lost 193,600 manufacturing jobs and 165,000 jobs in construction, or nearly one in four manufacturing and construction jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nationwide, the economy lost nearly 8.4 million jobs in 2008 and 2009. Private employers have added back 763,000 jobs so far this year. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. unemployment rate has barely moved, ticking down from 9.7 percent in January to 9.6 percent last month.
"We're looking at historically high rates of unemployment for two, three or even four years out," said Matt Murray, associate director at the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. "So many businesses have shut down and many of those who have been laid off no longer have skills that are in demand in their local labor market and don't have the resources or ability to relocate."
Tennessee has fewer people employed today than it did in 1999, and Murray predicts it will be 2013 or 2014 before all of the jobs lost during the recession of the past three years are restored.
Retraining the Jobless
Through local Workforce Investment Act programs in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia, many dislocated Chattanooga workers may qualify for retraining assistance in vocational and technical schools.
BY THE NUMBERS* 9.6: Percentage of work force unemployed in August* 33.6: Average number of weeks the typical unemployed American has been out of work* 42: Percentage of jobless Americans out of work for more than six months* $263: Average weekly jobless benefits paid in Georgia** $219: Average weekly jobless benefits paid in Tennessee*** Data for July 2010** Data for first quarter 2010Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Georgia Department of Labor
But Thurmond said most such programs were created to address cyclical and seasonal joblessness, not necessarily the structural unemployment resulting from changing occupational needs following a prolonged downturn.
"For many unemployed persons, we're looking at structural unemployment where their job skills have become obsolete," Thurmond said.
To aid such workers, Congress has extended jobless benefits three times, up to a maximum of 99 weeks. That's the longest period ever for unemployed people to get such payments.
"The current unemployment insurance system was not set up to address this type of unemployment," Thurmond said. "With nearly half of all the unemployed being out of work for more than six months, we have a much more serious form of joblessness."
Older Worker Challenge
Tom Steger, 57, is among the long-term jobless still searching for work. For nearly 25 years after serving in the U.S. Navy, Steger enjoyed good pay and benefits, along with a company car, working in the billboard industry.
Because he quit his last job when his pay was cut and he lost his company car, Steger isn't eligible for jobless benefits. His only income since then has come from a two-month job with the U.S. Census Bureau in North Georgia, plus help from his father in Kentucky and his daughter in East Ridge. To make matters worse, Steger's 45-year-old wife died earlier this year.
"I come to the employment office about every day looking for work," he said. "But the billboard industry has been pretty down and one headhunter told me he hasn't placed anyone in outdoor advertising in over two years. And it seems like the older you get, the harder it is to find work."
Mahaffey, who previously was in charge of hiring workers at a Soddy-Daisy welding inspection company, remembers his own preference for younger and often lesser-paid workers.
"Maybe this is payback for what I did when I was hiring workers," he said. "It's just hard when you get older with the experience I have, because a lot of employers think I'm overqualified or don't want to invest in someone in their 50s. We're sort of left behind."
Last week's jobless report for August was better than many economists expected. The rise in the national unemployment rate to 9.6 percent reflected primarily the addition of nearly a half million Americans coming back into the workforce to find jobs.
"The good news is, when we come out of this downturn, as we will, our work force will be better trained for the jobs of the future because so many people are going to school right now to sharpen their job skills," Thurmond said.
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