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September 02. 2012 1:38AM
Amalia Bracera of Manchester, who's is working two jobs and applying for a third to get by, shown outside of the state department of Employment Security Street in Manchester on Thursday. (DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER)
For many in NH,1 job is not enough
Amalia Bracera of Manchester, who's is working two jobs and applying for a third to get by, shown outside of the state department of Employment Security Street in Manchester on Thursday. (DAVID LANE/UNION LEADER)
MANCHESTER — When she noticed work orders slowing at her full-time employer and heard rumors swirling about the company’s future, Amalia Bracero took on a part-time job last Halloween as insurance.
Her worries came true before Christmas when her main employer, Flo-Pro, announced it would close its Bedford plant. And she put in her last day at the car-parts plant a week before Valentine’s Day.
On the eve of Labor Day, the Manchester woman works two part-time jobs — one at a dry cleaner in the morning and a second cleaning a courthouse at night — and brings in less than half the money she did last winter.
“I started searching today for a third job because I need to bring at least food to the table,” she said last week. “I hardly make it as it is.”
Tens of thousands of Granite Staters are laboring to find more hours of work to replace full-time jobs they lost or never found.
New Hampshire has averaged 84,500 residents considered underemployed monthly — including 35,300 working part time but wanting full-time work, according to federal figures for the year ending in June.
“That’s a sign of how difficult this economic downturn has been for everybody,” said Dennis Delay, an economist at the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies in Concord.
“Frankly, employers are still somewhat reluctant in certain sectors of the economy to hire people,” Delay said. “If someone is working for you part time, as an employer, you’re not obligated to pay for their health care.”
In another measure, New Hampshire was home to 46,000 people working multiple jobs in 2010, the most recent year available. With 7 percent of those employed holding down at least one more job, New Hampshire outpaced New England (6.2 percent) and the nation (4.9 percent), according to federal figures.
Before the recession struck, underemployment in New Hampshire was about half as much as it was in 2011.
For the year ending June 2006, the underemployed numbered 46,400, including 25,300 unemployed residents and 15,600 part-timers looking for full-time work. At the peak, the total swelled to 92,500 underemployed for the year ending June 2010, including 47,100 residents unemployed and 36,900 part-time workers seeking full-time employment.
Count Peter Pavlopoulos, 37, among the underemployed.
The Manchester man estimated he filled out “way more” than 200 resumes in the 3 1/2 years he’s been actively looking for a full-time job.
“You get offended after awhile. Everyone tells you not to take it personal, but a part of you does,” he said. “I’m not looking to make millions. I’m looking to pay the bills.”
He holds a college degree in international business, but has received only one response: from UPS, where he has worked since September. He typically gets no more than 18 hours a week, sorting and loading packages starting at 4:20 a.m. each weekday.
His wife, Lisa, has a full-time job as an event manager, which allows them to pay their bills.
“We don’t go out to eat anymore,” he said. And no vacations since his honeymoon three years ago.
Pavlopoulos said the jobs market becomes a blur after awhile with many job openings calling for part-time work or a specific skill.
“When you’re looking for a job, it doesn’t matter whether a welding position opens up. You’re still looking,” he said.
Arlene Murphy, an employer services representative at New Hampshire Employment Security, said she sees more job openings this year compared with a year ago.
“We’re seeing more in the blue-collar field than white-collar jobs,” she said.
State unemployment figures for July showed the unadjusted unemployment rate stood at 5.7 percent, compared with 5.5 percent in July 2011. Compared with July 2011, last July had 350 more people employed, 1,940 more people unemployed and a labor force that was 2,290 people larger.
Murphy said unemployed workers can receive free training working at a business for up to six weeks while collecting unemployment checks under a state return-to-work program.
“To be eligible, they have to be unemployed or underemployed,” Murphy said. “They basically go in and learn a job.”
Since 2010, 259 people under the program were hired full time and an additional 475 received training but didn’t end up with a job because one or both sides bowed out, Murphy said.
“People who have been out of work for a significant amount of time have been able to get re-employed,” she said.
Ray Boissoneau, president of Electropac in Manchester, said the printed circuit-board maker participates in the return-to-work program as well as a second one that provides federal funds to pay for a portion of the new workers’ wages.
Boissoneau said the federal reimbursement helps cover the lost productivity of an employee training the new worker, who can make $10 to $17 per hour. His company received $2,907 in federal reimbursement for July for five workers.
The money also “accelerates the ability to bring them on sooner to fill some slots,” he said.
Michael Power, community outreach administrator in the state Office of Workforce Opportunity, which administers the reimbursement program, said the state received a stimulus grant of $972,474 in 2010 and two additional grants from the U.S. Department of Labor totaling $2.7 million.
Power said he thinks employers are more active in the state’s jobs market than they were a year ago.
More employers are applying for job training funds than did a year ago to upgrade skills of existing workers.
“It means they’re back in the business of investing in their companies, which is a huge sign of a recovery,” he said.
But that recovery hasn’t reached Bracero.
“I don’t think anything’s getting better,” she said. “You take two steps forward and three steps back.”
Mike Cousineau may be reached at mcousineau@unionleader.com.
Her worries came true before Christmas when her main employer, Flo-Pro, announced it would close its Bedford plant. And she put in her last day at the car-parts plant a week before Valentine’s Day.
On the eve of Labor Day, the Manchester woman works two part-time jobs — one at a dry cleaner in the morning and a second cleaning a courthouse at night — and brings in less than half the money she did last winter.
“I started searching today for a third job because I need to bring at least food to the table,” she said last week. “I hardly make it as it is.”
Tens of thousands of Granite Staters are laboring to find more hours of work to replace full-time jobs they lost or never found.
New Hampshire has averaged 84,500 residents considered underemployed monthly — including 35,300 working part time but wanting full-time work, according to federal figures for the year ending in June.
“That’s a sign of how difficult this economic downturn has been for everybody,” said Dennis Delay, an economist at the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies in Concord.
“Frankly, employers are still somewhat reluctant in certain sectors of the economy to hire people,” Delay said. “If someone is working for you part time, as an employer, you’re not obligated to pay for their health care.”
In another measure, New Hampshire was home to 46,000 people working multiple jobs in 2010, the most recent year available. With 7 percent of those employed holding down at least one more job, New Hampshire outpaced New England (6.2 percent) and the nation (4.9 percent), according to federal figures.
Before the recession struck, underemployment in New Hampshire was about half as much as it was in 2011.
For the year ending June 2006, the underemployed numbered 46,400, including 25,300 unemployed residents and 15,600 part-timers looking for full-time work. At the peak, the total swelled to 92,500 underemployed for the year ending June 2010, including 47,100 residents unemployed and 36,900 part-time workers seeking full-time employment.
Count Peter Pavlopoulos, 37, among the underemployed.
The Manchester man estimated he filled out “way more” than 200 resumes in the 3 1/2 years he’s been actively looking for a full-time job.
“You get offended after awhile. Everyone tells you not to take it personal, but a part of you does,” he said. “I’m not looking to make millions. I’m looking to pay the bills.”
He holds a college degree in international business, but has received only one response: from UPS, where he has worked since September. He typically gets no more than 18 hours a week, sorting and loading packages starting at 4:20 a.m. each weekday.
His wife, Lisa, has a full-time job as an event manager, which allows them to pay their bills.
“We don’t go out to eat anymore,” he said. And no vacations since his honeymoon three years ago.
Pavlopoulos said the jobs market becomes a blur after awhile with many job openings calling for part-time work or a specific skill.
“When you’re looking for a job, it doesn’t matter whether a welding position opens up. You’re still looking,” he said.
Arlene Murphy, an employer services representative at New Hampshire Employment Security, said she sees more job openings this year compared with a year ago.
“We’re seeing more in the blue-collar field than white-collar jobs,” she said.
State unemployment figures for July showed the unadjusted unemployment rate stood at 5.7 percent, compared with 5.5 percent in July 2011. Compared with July 2011, last July had 350 more people employed, 1,940 more people unemployed and a labor force that was 2,290 people larger.
Murphy said unemployed workers can receive free training working at a business for up to six weeks while collecting unemployment checks under a state return-to-work program.
“To be eligible, they have to be unemployed or underemployed,” Murphy said. “They basically go in and learn a job.”
Since 2010, 259 people under the program were hired full time and an additional 475 received training but didn’t end up with a job because one or both sides bowed out, Murphy said.
“People who have been out of work for a significant amount of time have been able to get re-employed,” she said.
Ray Boissoneau, president of Electropac in Manchester, said the printed circuit-board maker participates in the return-to-work program as well as a second one that provides federal funds to pay for a portion of the new workers’ wages.
Boissoneau said the federal reimbursement helps cover the lost productivity of an employee training the new worker, who can make $10 to $17 per hour. His company received $2,907 in federal reimbursement for July for five workers.
The money also “accelerates the ability to bring them on sooner to fill some slots,” he said.
Michael Power, community outreach administrator in the state Office of Workforce Opportunity, which administers the reimbursement program, said the state received a stimulus grant of $972,474 in 2010 and two additional grants from the U.S. Department of Labor totaling $2.7 million.
Power said he thinks employers are more active in the state’s jobs market than they were a year ago.
More employers are applying for job training funds than did a year ago to upgrade skills of existing workers.
“It means they’re back in the business of investing in their companies, which is a huge sign of a recovery,” he said.
But that recovery hasn’t reached Bracero.
“I don’t think anything’s getting better,” she said. “You take two steps forward and three steps back.”
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Mike Cousineau may be reached at mcousineau@unionleader.com.