The 2007-09 recession haunts the nation and its workers
“I was in a dark place feeling that everything was placed on my shoulders with no light at the end of the tunnel.”
That’s how Karen Watson felt during the recession, which began 10 years ago this month. The darkness hung on, stubbornly, years after economists announced the recession’s end, even as millions of people — 15.4 million at the worst of it — lost their jobs.
“I was angry at being unemployed for so long,” said Watson, an executive assistant. It took her four years and a bit of moxie to find a similar job at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, which she loves. “To say that it feels good to be working again is an understatement.”
These days, the economy is booming, the job market is tight and the unemployment rate stands at 4.1 percent. In 13 of the past 24 months, the nation’s payrolls expanded by more than 200,000 jobs a month, including 228,000 in November.
“There’s growth everywhere,” said Adam Ozimek, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, an economic research company.
What a contrast to the dark days of the recession, when companies shed jobs at a horrifying rate. For a 23-month stretch in 2008 and 2009, there was not one month of job growth. In March 2009, payrolls shrank by 823,000 jobs.
After two huge brokerage houses collapsed — Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers — the misery worsened until at one point, the official unemployment rate hit 10 percent. Worse, 17.1 percent of working-age Americans couldn’t find work, were too discouraged to look, or managed to work only part time when they wanted full-time jobs.
In Jacobstown, N.J., financial analyst Mike Bruni hung on for a while but ultimately was laid off.
The Inquirer profiled them and others — 100 in all, 60 in the “Looking for Work” series published daily in the paper in early 2011, and 40 that ran online after that. The goal was to show the lingering devastation of the recession, how it affected all kinds of people, not just the poor in rundown row houses, but also the wealthy in suburbia.
Black, white, Hispanic, young, old, women, and men — truck drivers, retail managers, quality-control experts in pharmaceuticals, fledgling teachers, stone-setters, camp directors, construction workers, paralegals, and plant managers: They struggled to keep their homes and pay their children’s tuition, and prayed for a little extra for holiday gifts. Their houses were cold — that winter was brutal; hope was elusive.
“I’m happy to hear from you,” wrote landscape designer Samuel Jimenez, now of New York, one of about a dozen “alums” who responded to an update request. “Those times were so trying. I look back at those times with a lot of animosity and confusion.”
Most of those who responded landed jobs. For the most part, they haven’t completely recovered financially, although they are catching up, and are at least stable. Many are earning less than they did before at jobs with less status. Mostly they are a brave bunch, talking about the value of positive thinking and the importance of gratitude in the face of daunting odds.
“Physically, I’m still standing,” wrote laid-off communications pro Jeff Adam Baxt, on his second round of downsizing since he was interviewed in 2011. “I can still function despite the ongoing stress of finding work.”
At one point, Baxt stood on a Center City street corner wearing a business suit and sign: “Not homeless. Just hungry for a new career opportunity.”
Economist Ozimek said it’s not surprising that certain groups are still feeling the recession’s pain.
“As the labor market tightens, employers will become less picky and it will be easier for those people to find employment,” he said.