Brighter job picture, little relief for unemployed

By David Runk Associated Press DETROIT (AP) -- Since losing his job doing technical work for a Detroit-area television station more than two years ago, Ronnie Brewster has worked part-time as a lunch assistant at his daughter's elementary school, completed a yearlong graphics design training program and searched exhaustively for work. He recently got word that about 5 months remain before his unemployment assistance runs out, and he's trying his best to remain optimistic as his job hunt continues. Despite the state's lingering economic troubles, Michigan is his home -- and it's where he wants to stay. "I'm one of those people who are totally pro-Michigan," said Brewster, 45 of Madison Heights. "I love the state. I never want to leave the state. I'm going to make it work. I'm just not sure how." The employment picture has generally brightened in Michigan over the past year, with the January unemployment rate released last week declining to 10.7 percent -- three full percentage points below its January 2010 level of 13.7 percent. But with 508,000 people looking for jobs in Michigan, and half of them unemployed for six months or more, there's little relief for the long-term unemployed. Of the 13.9 million Americans unemployed in January, about 1.8 million had been without work for 99 weeks, or essentially two years, according to government data. That number of unemployed is nearly double from January 2010. Michigan tracks its long-term unemployed by a shorter 27 week period, and the state reports that the percentage of those out of work for that time or longer has remained relatively stable over the past year. "That's obviously a real problem," said Jim Rhein, a labor market analyst with the state's Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth. Still, he added: "It's a lot better than it was. ... We're headed in the right direction, but we're nowhere near where we need to be." In January, Michigan added a net total of 39,700 jobs, the second-largest gain among states, while its labor force edged down by 5,000. Michigan's declining labor force over the past year -- down by 74,000, or 1.5 percent -- has helped push its unemployment rate lower. And those who find work can be faced with having to leave a career they've spend decades developing. People like Chris Schim. After 27 years as a librarian for an advertising agency in Detroit, Schim saw his job get cut. He spent 18 months looking for work -- something in his field, anything -- before taking a job in March 2010 as a property manager for a 221-unit apartment building. It pays less than half as much as his old job and doesn't include health benefits, but he's happy to be working. "I looked for work the whole time," said Schim, 59, of Detroit. "It was very disillusioning." After about six months of looking for a job, Schim recalled that it became clear that he wasn't going to find work again as a librarian. He said his age and experience likely made things more difficult -- and there was "just nothing out there." Rooted to a Detroit home he owns with his partner in one of the worst real estate markets in the country, moving wasn't an option to find work. While the analytical skills he developed as a librarian aren't being used in his current job, he's found that his attention to detail and ability to deal with people have helped. And he's learning a new set of skills, including how to manage a staff of five. "I'm coming to peace with what I'm doing," Schim said. Michigan's economy remains worse than most of the rest of the nation, but there's been a lot of improvement -- including 16 months of declining unemployment. Michigan State University economics professor Charles Ballard said the state's month-to-month employment increase in January was the biggest since the summer of 1998. The overall trend, he said, offers a psychological boost. "What we've been through recently has been by far the scariest economic situation in the lifetime of most people," Ballard said of the recent recession. "I had a stable job, but it was scary for me. For people who are teetering on the brink of losing a job, this was by far the scariest." Brewster had worked in broadcasting for 22 years, doing master control work for TV stations. When the company he worked for moved its operations to Indiana in January 2009, he got severance and was thrust into a job market that would see Michigan's unemployment rate soar that summer. Out of work, he enrolled in a graphics design training program that was subsidized by the state's Michigan Works! job training agency. He looked at losing his job as a chance to train for a career that might allow him to use his creative side, but the work hasn't materialized. Born and raised in Michigan, he bought his childhood home from his siblings after his parents died and has put a lot of money into repairs. The single father of a 9-year-old girl, the prospect of his unemployment benefits running out before finds work, he said, is "terrifying." They would have run out sooner, but the part-time school job helped extend his eligibility for assistance. "I'm trying not to get pessimistic, since that doesn't help me," he said. Published: Thu, Mar 17, 2011