Darrius Burch was a service technician for three years at Wal-Mart. He graduated from high school and even took a few semesters of college.
However, Burch was late a few times and lost his job last week, and now he's one of the estimated 29,480 Chattanooga-area residents without a job, even as local unemployment figures showed improvement.
Unemployment in the Chattanooga metropolitan area fell in March to 8.2 percent from 8.7 percent the prior month.
Hamilton County, where the jobless rate dipped to 8.1 percent last month, is a single-digit unemployment oasis in a rural sea of double digits, according to figures from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Bledsoe, Franklin, Grundy, McMinn, Meigs, Polk and Rhea counties still face unemployment over 10 percent, figures show.
Still, most of the state celebrated good news Thursday, as rates declined in 93 counties and only two had an increase in unemployment - neither of which are in the Chattanooga area.
Bradley County, which has struggled with unemployment about 1 percent higher than Hamilton County, saw its rate drop to 9 percent in March, down 0.5 percent from February and far from its 1982 high of 13.7 percent.
That's no comfort for Jack Thoenke, a self-described "quick learner and hard worker " from Cleveland, Tenn., who struggles to overcome felonies on his record from his late teens.
Now 25 and married with two children, one of whom is 5 weeks old, he's looking for "any kind of physical labor," he said Thursday.
He brings in about $250 per week from part-time work at his father's pallet shop, but business there is slowing and it isn't enough to feed a family of four.
"I'll do anything," he said.
But demand for unskilled labor is shrinking, said Andrea Witt, career center coordinator for the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Large area employers such as Volkswagen, Wacker and Amazon want educated employees, and with so many looking for jobs, they can afford to be choosy.
"With high unemployment, companies want at least a high school degree plus skills," Witt said.
And a lot of employers are increasingly demanding college-educated applicants as well.
"A college diploma is the new high school education," she said.
At the same time, overqualified candidates face as much of an uphill battle as underqualified ones, said Chattanooga resident MaryLin Slater.
Slater, with degrees in law and communications, hasn't had decent work in five years after she lost her job at an attorney's office.
"People don't even call back," she said, citing only three calls she's received in the past year.
Slater still has six months of unemployment benefits left, but after that she and her two children are on their own.
"It's very difficult, but I'm lucky to have that education and work background," Slater sad.
Witt said that employers are often afraid to hire overqualified candidates because they're afraid that the employees will leave as soon as a better opportunity comes along.
That hasn't stopped educated job seekers from trying.
"In this economy, you have people with master's degree applying for McDonald's," Witt said.