Community Corner

Stamford Job-Seekers Still Struggle Despite Improving Labor Market

One of Stamford's foremost staffing counselors details the obstacles local job hunters face, but recommends that job hunters stay positive about their search.

Reports persist about the unemployment rate dropping nationwide, but the experience of unemployment for Stamford residents is still a harsh one.

"For every 50 resumes that someone sends out, they're lucky to get one response, so if they think that sending out a couple of resumes is going to land them a job, they have as much chance as getting the job with a 'couple' of resumes as they do hitting the lottery. There's a chance, not to say it won't happen, but it's not likely," Family Centers director Donna Spellman said. "Nobody gets hired just from a resume. It's making that connection with the employer, and being able to market yourself."

Through Family Centers' Reaching Independence Through Employment program, located in Stamford, Spellman helped well over two hundred Stamford residents obtain work between February 2011 and February 2012. In that time, the unemployment rate for Connecticut fell from 9.0% to 8.3%, in keeping with the national average.

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"I would say that the unemployment right has gone down slightly," Spellman said. "I can tell you that what we've seen, from people that we're serving, we've seen more than 83% percent of them are able to find work within 2-3 months...what that's meant is that people have to work much harder at finding employment."

However, Spellman can't place full blame on the nation's struggling labor market for the situation of some of the clients she counsels in finding work. Many of the people who visit RITE have been employed for long periods of time, and do not have a practical understanding of job hunting in 2012.

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"We tell people that it's more than a full-time job. You have to eat and sleep finding a job; it has to become your everything," Spellman said, also suggesting that local job-seekers should involve themselves in work similiar to the field, even if they weren't pursuing the same position as the one they either lost or left.

"Working somewhere and staying current is a lot better than not working at all," Spellman said. 

According to Spellman, many job seekers come to her without knowing how to take "extra steps" in making a connection with an employer, which largely involves learning how to sell themselves. However, Spellman suggests that a negative mindset can prevent a job-seeker from connecting with an employer, and have an impact on the job hunt itself.

"The other piece to this is that the longer somebody is unemployed, the more anxious they tend to become, the more depressed. It's very depressing to be out of work, and you lose your self-esteem," Spellman said.

Spellman did not deny that job-seekers could have difficulty in establishing connections due to wariness on the part of people who could give them full-time positions.

"You're putting yourself out on a limb when you're recommending somebody for a job," Spellman said.

RITE held a with and six local job seekers late last year. Some of the attendees have since found full-time employment.


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