More workers fall back on part-time ‘survival’ jobs

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

MINNEAPOLIS — Debb Carlson may be the new face of the American worker.

After a layoff, the former special-education teacher’s aide is stitching together a living from four part-time jobs. They don’t pay all the bills, but they help her survive.

“I have been doing this since late September, and I have still not found a full-time job. It’s terrifying. I am in the fourth month of arrears on my home,” said Carlson, 59.

So she works in a day-care center, then as a fitness instructor and a personal trainer, plus she’s a personal-care attendant for a health-care facility. She’s hoping to get more hours, maybe cleaning toilets or prepping food for the elderly.

Carlson’s far from alone, say employment counselors and state officials. Though the nation’s unemployment rate is 9.7 percent, the Labor Department reports that the actual number of people out of work climbs if you factor in laid-off workers who are forced into part-time jobs or who’ve given up looking altogether.

So it’s survival time for Carlson and thousands of other laid-off workers who now find themselves leaping at part-time or low-wage “survival” jobs outside their profession to make ends meet as the recession drags on.

Former printers, teachers, real-estate agents and IT workers around the state say they now pay the bills by working as substitute teachers, fitness instructors, bartenders, grocery clerks, coffee baristas, hoagie and burger makers and anything else that brings in a steady check. It’s not their chosen profession, but the jobs offer an economic lifeline that few are willing to shun.

“Taking part-time jobs when you can’t find something else is not a new phenomenon, it’s just more prevalent now because of the high unemployment rate,” said Ken Root, co-author of the book “Forced Out: Older Workers Confront Job Loss.” He added, “so far the stimulus money has not translated into a lot of new jobs.”

Displaced workers fitting Carlson’s demographic—older than 45 — are more likely to have to stitch together income by working multiple or highly undesired jobs, Root said, because they are having difficulty getting good jobs that pay health care and an adequate wage. “

When so few are hiring, you plan for the best but sometimes are forced to cling to whatever survival job you can get, said Heidi Stardig Stay, a case manager for the Minnesota Workforce Center in Minneapolis. She sees lots of clients in that situation. “Sometimes you have to create a career out of many different jobs to make it work,” she said, adding that she speaks from experience.

Stardig Stay was laid off from a full-time job seven years ago in Oregon. “At one point, I had three part-time jobs.” Now she’s advising clients how to do the same if they don’t find doors opening in their chosen profession, despite relentless networking, retraining and r sum submissions.

But, it’s not easy, said Carlson, who teaches five exercise classes a week at LA Fitness in St. Paul for about $17 an hour, while also working in its day-care room for $8 an hour a few times a week. She does personal training on the side, and for another 16 hours a week works for an agency as a personal-care attendant, tending to a client with Down syndrome.

The four jobs bring in $750 a month. Her mortgage is $1,000.

So, she’s also searching for additional personal training clients, but they are harder to find when many people are cutting back.

Vietnam veteran Rick Pirtle, 59, worked as a pressman at River Point Media for 31 years until he was laid off in December. Now his only income is his unemployment check and the 28 hours a week he works for Cub Foods.

He used to make $18.75 an hour and has had to make a major adjustment. Cub Foods just increased his pay as a cashier from $7.50 to $9.50 an hour.