Jobless Economy

With help from Catholic Charities, Binh Nguyen took a job last week packing containers of medicine into boxes at Merical Distributors in Anaheim, thus returning to the work force for the first time since he was laid off from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in July, 1992. Nguyen, 46, says he's glad to be working again, especially since he recently exhausted his state unemployment benefits. "This is survival," he says. But Nguyen is hardly celebrating.

Jobless Californians applying for first-time unemployment insurance claims this week have swamped the phone lines and offices of the state's Employment Development Department, which is struggling to keep up with the flood of applicants. State officials link this week's surge to a recent hike in unemployment benefits that will boost the checks of some out-of-work Californians by as much as $100 a week beginning this month. Because the higher benefits apply only to new claims filed after Jan.

Neeltje Mack didn't have to see a pink slip to know that her days were numbered--she had been watching the ranks thin at TRW's space and electronics group in Redondo Beach for more than a year. "They'd started laying off in my department," said the certified industrial hygienist, "so I knew it was just a matter of time." Instead of waiting for the recession to push her onto the jobless rolls, Mack, 37, decided to attack.

Despite slight cuts in government jobs, continued growth in the service and construction sectors helped push Ventura County's unemployment rate down slightly in August. The local jobless rate stood at 5.5% last month, down from 5.8% in July, according to a report released Friday by the state's Employment Development Department. "Overall, the growth rate is very strong," said EDD labor market analyst Dee Johnson. "Pretty much all sectors of the economy are doing very well and adding workers."

Virginia Barnes' recession started in December, 1991, when she was laid off from an electronics assembly job at Rockwell International Corp.'s defense plant in Anaheim. It may have ended last Tuesday, when she started work at an expanding Anaheim electronics manufacturer, QLP Laminates Inc. "It was a real struggle," Barnes says. "I'm so happy that it's over."

An aggressive sales drive by car dealers drove retail sales up 1.2% in December, the Commerce Department said Thursday. At the same time, a sharp rise in unemployment claims provided a reminder that more jobs are needed to fuel an economic recovery. Analysts said it appeared that consumers were finally beginning to spend the country into better times. They said the spending rise reflected increased consumer confidence that began right after the November election.

When Anaheim-based QLP Laminates started expanding its payroll last month, one of the people hired was Virginia Barnes. The 42-year-old former aerospace worker says the job didn't come a moment too soon. "I'd gotten so desperate I'd gone down and applied at the local Del Taco three weeks earlier," she said, "and they didn't call me back, either." Barnes, who was making $14.42 an hour as a senior electronics assembler at Rockwell International Corp.'

Ending months of deadlock, House Democrats reached agreement in principle Tuesday with the Bush Administration on a new version of a bill that would extend jobless payments to an estimated 3 million unemployed workers who have exhausted their regular benefits. Barring a last-minute snag over the cost, the bill appeared headed for a House vote Thursday, followed by Senate action that would forward the measure to President Bush by this weekend. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.

Dick Hsu, general manager of Tustin Acura, believes he has ridden out Southern California's worst recession--an economic downturn that has claimed 22% of the new car dealerships in Orange County over the past four years. Hsu said that while things have been tough, he is seeing signs of recovery--sales at his dealership in the Tustin Auto Center have picked up in recent months.

Travel agent Stephanie Pullen had one special reason for changing jobs last week: a big boost in pay. For people like Pullen, the beginning of the economic recovery has opened doors to advance careers--and salaries. Pullen, 28, began a job last week as an agent at Corporate Travel Unlimited in Dana Point. By changing jobs, Pullen boosted her salary by 20%--about as much of an increase as she received during five years with her previous employer, Associated Travel Management in Santa Ana.

In her darkest moments last year, after getting laid off from a job as human resources administrator for Endevco Corp. in July, Susie Lewis often walked up and down the Laguna beach, trying to fight despair. It wasn't easy. When she lost the job she had held for 4 1/2 years, Lewis also was on the verge of losing her 83-year-old mother in Denver to cancer. Lewis made five trips in her '89 Oldsmobile to Colorado to visit her mother last year.

When Anaheim-based QLP Laminates started expanding its payroll last month, one of the people hired was Virginia Barnes. The 42-year-old former aerospace worker says the job didn't come a moment too soon. "I'd gotten so desperate I'd gone down and applied at the local Del Taco three weeks earlier," she said, "and they didn't call me back, either." Barnes, who was making $14.42 an hour as a senior electronics assembler at Rockwell International Corp.'

Virginia Barnes' recession started in December, 1991, when she was laid off from an electronics assembly job at Rockwell International Corp.'s defense plant in Anaheim. It may have ended last Tuesday, when she started work at an expanding Anaheim electronics manufacturer, QLP Laminates Inc. "It was a real struggle," Barnes says. "I'm so happy that it's over."

With help from Catholic Charities, Binh Nguyen took a job last week packing containers of medicine into boxes at Merical Distributors in Anaheim, thus returning to the work force for the first time since he was laid off from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in July, 1992. Nguyen, 46, says he's glad to be working again, especially since he recently exhausted his state unemployment benefits. "This is survival," he says. But Nguyen is hardly celebrating.