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Laid Off: Newly jobless try to grasp uncertain future
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
A job fair in Winston-Salem attracted (clockwise, from left) Lauren Benfield, Raffine Sandidge, Jakia Covert and April Couser.
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Published: January 24, 2009
On Wednesday, Clara Williams was laid off from her job of 20 years.
Yesterday, she was sitting in a waiting area at the N.C. Employment Security Commission, preparing to file her first unemployment claim.
In those two days, Williams said she has spent much of her time crying and fretting over an uncertain future.
Williams, 61, was one of 12 employees laid off from Endura Products in Colfax. In that job, she helped make door jambs and sills. "I've been shocked since Wednesday," said Williams, who lives in Germanton.
Her sister-in-law, Dorothy Southern, accompanied her at the employment-security commission to provide support. She confirmed that Williams has spent much of the last two days in tears.
"She doesn't know what to do with herself," Southern said.
Williams is one of the most recent victims of the souring economy. On a day when the employment-security commission reported the state's unemployment rate at its highest level since 1983, Williams and countless others in Forsyth County looked for jobs.
April Couser was among them.
Couser, 28, of Winston-Salem filled out job applications at a job fair sponsored by the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem and the Urban League.
Couser lost her janitorial job about a year ago when her contract was not renewed after a 90-day probation period. Since then, she has looked for jobs in customer service and housekeeping and come up empty.
"It's very frustrating," she said. "It's been the toughest time ever."
The job fair was supposed to be restricted to housing-authority tenants, but it attracted so many people that organizers decided to let anyone enter and talk to such employers as Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and Kelly Services, said Candace Edwards, the community and supportive services manager for HAWS.
In the fair's first two hours, about 200 people had stopped in, Edwards said.
"Once we found out that most of the people weren't tenants, we said, ‘You know what? Come on in,'" Edwards said. "This shows how important job fairs are."
Williams, meanwhile, worries that she doesn't have the skills for a lot of jobs.
""It's going to be hard to find a job at 61," she said. "I'm not as fast as I used to be."
Her severance package included three weeks of paid vacation. She will lose her insurance within 10 days. Her husband, who has heart problems, is disabled.
"We just have to trust in the Lord, you know?" she said. "I feel like he's going to look after me."
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lo'donnell@wsjournal.com.
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