potrero view

May 2009

Potrero Hill Residents Feel the Pinch of Unemployment

By Herman Wong

Last month Natasha Miley sat alone at Thinkers Café with her white Mac Book.  For the past several weeks café visits have become rare; lattés no longer fit into Miley’s budget.  But her roommate, a teacher, was home on spring break, so Miley walked the short distance from her house on 20th and Mississippi streets to her local hang-out.  She sat at a table against a large window, white headphones dangling from her ears.  Like so many Americans, Miley was looking for work.

More than two million Americans have lost their jobs since the beginning of this year.  Last month, the state unemployment rate reached 11.2 percent, the highest since Germany invaded France, with 2.1 million Californians out of work, according to the state Employment Development Department (EDD).   With an 8.5 percent jobless rate, the Bay Area labor market is better off than the state average.  Still, more than 200,000 Bay Area residents are dependent on unemployment benefits.

On a weekday at noon Miley was the sole customer at Thinkers.  The 31 year old had quit her job as a manager of a small Mountain View biotech company last fall, just before the job market began to collapse.  Miley, who has a graduate degree from Stanford University, began actively job searching at the beginning of the year.  She combs through employment-related web sites – like Craigslist and Biospace – and visits the online sites of companies where she knows people.  So far she’s sent out upwards of 25 resumes.

Miley’s week is filled with networking lunches.  “Everyone in my field has basically told me that there’s no way I’m going to find a job in my field through listings,” she said.  She’s encouraged that most of her roughly 20 friends who’ve lost their jobs have found work, though their new positions are further away from the City.   Miley has been holding out for a shorter commute.  Asked whether she was worried about her situation, she replied,   “Definitely now.  I feel like, very anxious.  I mean there’s nothing I can do but keep doing what I’m doing.”

Because she quit her last job Miley has been living off savings and her credit card, rather than unemployment benefits.  She’s cut-back on café visits, and is generally more budget conscious, cooking instead of eating out, and buying wine at Trader Joe’s rather than bar hopping.  Her Gmail status is “laying low.”  But the new austerity is still a work in progress.  “Do you know if the Whole Foods café has wifi?” Miley asked.  “Not that I should go there.  I’m not going to Whole Foods. That’s like the worst possible place to go when you’re on a budget,” she said with a laugh.

According to View columnist Stacey Bartlett, the neighborhood parent rumor mill is replete with stories of mothers whose work hours have been cut, or whose husbands have been laid off.  The ripple effect has dislodged nannies from their jobs, prompting a steady stream of “situations wanted” notices.

At neighborhood hub Farley’s Café, the caffeine set has been cutting back on their beverage purchases.  According to owner Roger Hilliard, who has lived on the Hill for two decades, “My customer count is down a little bit but the shop looks and feels as busy as it always has been.  What that means is that is I have more people spending more time and spending less money.”  On a late afternoon weekday Farley’s did indeed look full.  Seventeen people were spread across the different tables and booths, each absorbed in their own conversation or laptop.  Farley’s tattooed assistant manager Joe Towery has see more people with laptops coming in, though he’s not sure if that’s because they’re looking for work or if they’ve discovered that Farley’s now has wifi.

Nick Kamps sat in the cafe with his headphones on playing with Biopython, a program for manipulating molecular biology data.  With blue eyes, mustache and beard, Kamps looks like a young Liev Schreiber. The 26 year old, who lives on 22nd and Rhode Island streets, quit his laboratory technician job at the University of California, San Francisco in January.  But he has a fellowship to start a doctoral program at the University of Oregon waiting for him in June, so he isn’t worried about the future.  Instead, he’s spending his free time studying a few hours a day, visiting the gym, and playing tennis or Frisbee golf in Golden Gate Park.  When his friends get off work his day really starts.  “Exactly,” Kamps responded, when questioned whether he was just going to cruise until starting graduate school.

Potrero Hill’s average household income is roughly $130,000.  But local lore has it that the uber rich and quite poor can find one another within a five-block radius.  The Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, affectionately known as the Nabe, caters mostly to the latter population, offering work assistance programs that focus on developing job leads, resume writing and interviewing skills.  According to Edward Hatter, the Nabe’s executive director, since last year demand for employment services has jumped by one-fifth.  Most of the increase has come from professionals; recently, a former human resources director came in for help.  

People without much experience have a particularly hard time finding work, as entry-level jobs, like security guard, have disappeared, Hatter said.  A listing of job openings sent by EDD included staff accountant and entry-level engineering.  The only work available to those with limited educational backgrounds or work history was as a $15 an hour part-time outreach worker job, or a pay by the day senior custodian.  And applicants would need to compete against a large pool of other jobseekers. “How do we get somebody ready when thousands of people are going for the same position,” Hatter asked.  In the past three months, the Nabe hasn’t been able to place a single person in a job.  The Nabe itself is suffering under the great recession.  Hatter recently had to let go his deputy director, and will lay off three outreach staff members next month.

Mauri Schwartz runs a resume and job search preparation business from her Potrero Hill home.  Most of her clients are mid- to senior-level professionals; last year upwards of 95 percent of them held jobs.  This year 40 percent are unemployed.  Similar to the Nabe, demand for Schwartz’s services is up by almost one-fifth.  And she’s seeing more dispirited people who’ve never been unemployed before.  “Their self-confidence is down a notch. And with everything they read in the news and about how the unemployment rate keeps going up and up they think ‘I know there’s no chance, I think it’s impossible,’” said Schwartz, who was dressed in a long red coat with a mustard yellow scarf wrapped around her neck.

Today’s recession has been unrelentingly broad, with layoffs in manufacturing, financial and professional services.  More than one million Americans with at least a bachelor’s degree are unemployed.  Swartz began her business in 2001, when the technology boom busted and dot-comers were her primary clients.  This time around she’s seeing attorneys, marketing and sales people, and, for the first time, a wave of professionals from the financial field.

In the midst of the torrent of bad economic news, Schwartz sees some rays of sunshine.   More employment-related support services have sprung up as the deteriorating situation becomes apparent.  And the unemployed need not feel that they are alone. “It’s not that I’m so horrible.  It’s happening to everybody.  That makes it easier.”

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