April 25, 2003/Nisan 23 5763, Vol. 55, No. 35
Slumping economyAgencies strain to serve the Jewish jobless
RACHEL POMERANCE
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 Jewish Employment and Vocational Service of Philadelphia offers computer training to its job-hunting clients. Photo courtesy of JEVS Philadelphia |
But business dried up about a year-and-a-half ago as his clients opted to cut their costs by reducing his services and buying accounting software.
"I've been at this quite a while, and I haven't even had a bite yet," the 56-year-old Epstein says of his quest to find new work ever since. "There are really too few positions to go around."
Surviving on a meager income from what's left of his business - under $500 a month from one remaining client - Epstein has relied on loans from friends and family.
Now he's considering jobs in retail - the same ones that put him through college more than 30 years ago - just to get by.
Epstein, one of many Jews engulfed in the two-year job slump that has saddled the country, is also one of many who has turned to Jewish social-service agencies for help.
Though the numbers of the Jewish unemployed are not documented, Jewish vocational services across the country have seen a huge increase in clients seeking job counseling.
And Jewish social-service agencies are finding themselves inundated with new demands, from requests for psychological counseling to assistance for basic needs.
But the agencies are facing a double challenge - serving a larger, higher-skilled clientele at the same time that government funding has been slashed.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 2 million jobs were lost in the last two years. That amounts to a greater job loss than any experienced during the recession of the early 1990s, when not much more than 1 million jobs were ever cut.
The recent release of U.S. unemployment figures - 108,000 jobs were cut in March - signaled the continuing trend. Unemployment hovers at 5.8 percent, where it has essentially been since November 2001.
That percentage does not account for the reported rise of people no longer looking for work.
Many of the newly unemployed are highly skilled and formerly high-income earners.
"Now you're seeing high-level, former six-figure earners, many who were former donors and employers of ours walking through our doors," says Vivian Seigel, chief executive officer of Los Angeles' Jewish Vocational Service.
"It's a dreary state right now," says Genie Cohen, executive director of the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services in Philadelphia, whose agencies serve both Jews and non-Jews.
According to the 2002 Greater Phoenix Jewish Community Study, in 20 percent of responding households, a household member had sought help in finding a job or choosing an occupation in the 12 months preceding the survey.
In younger households, ages 18-34, 38 percent of respondents said that a household member had sought occupational assistance. Among total households seeking employment assistance, 44 percent reported that they were "just managing to make ends meet."
Along with the challenge of serving this new kind of client, many Jewish agencies face budget cuts from a significant source of revenue, the state and federal government.
"States are facing an unprecedented budget crisis" with the largest deficits since the Great Depression, says Diana Aviv, vice president for public policy of the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella of the federation movement in Washington, D.C.
Aviv ascribed the problem to the poor economy, the failure of states to plan "rainy-day funds" and rocketing health care costs.
| Not business as usual for family foundations |
California suffers the largest state budget deficit in the country - nearly $35 billion - and one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, due, in part, to the demise of the high-tech industry and an energy crisis.
What that means for Jewish vocational agencies, Cohen says, is that "while dollars are going down, the need for services continues to increase."
Jewish social-service agencies are devising new approaches to aid their clients.
In several cities, including Los Angeles and Baltimore, Jewish vocational agencies have launched networking programs for previously high-income earners.
The strain on the agencies is taking its toll on - and in some cases, scaring away - the clients.
In New York, one unemployed man said he is not turning to social-service agencies because he feels he'll get "lost in the shuffle."
Out of work for a year since he lost his job in the high-tech industry, he says he has been "basically burning up all my assets" to support himself, his wife, who does not work outside the home, and his elementary school-aged daughter.
His entire savings are now depleted, he says, but he's trying to be optimistic about the networking he is doing.
For many, the painstaking process of finding a job is taking a mental toll as well.
Career counselors note the emotional instability and depression that accompanies joblessness.
And several Jewish vocational agencies offer psychological counseling in addition to job support and training.
"I feel such embarrassment, that's the worst part," says Epstein, the California accountant. "As you go through this process, one begins to doubt one's own ability."
Jewish agencies are feeling similarly impotent.
"We run out of what we can do for them, but we keep trying," says Jennie Rothschild, executive director of Career Center at Jewish Vocational Service in Baltimore.
Local resources
Jewish Family and Children's Service
602-279-7655
www.jfcsarizona.org
Phoenix Jewish Free Loan Association
602-230-7983
freeloan@qwest.net