Nations unemployed professional workforce growing desperate

Op-Ed by Edward Foxworth III/Tell Us USA

During this time of the year, it gets darker earlier, much like the prospect of finding gainful employment! This is not another conversation on the working poor or those who are on welfare and being threatened of being cut off. This time it’s about America’s “overachievers”. The individuals with MBA’s, Doctoral degrees or those who have earned huge success after years of working in their industry. Today, some are small business owners, while others are simply skilled at what they do. In most cases, they have exhausted their unemployment benefits, spent much of their savings or buyouts, with not much to hang their hat on, and now wondering what’s next.

Like a lot of unemployed Americans, freelancers and struggling entrepreneurs these days, “Show me the Money”, borrowed from the Jerry Maguire movie, is a common phrase. The faces of those in the unemployment line, attending job fairs and applying for State assistance, has changed. Some have taken to occupying New York’s Wall Street to show their disdain for banks that were bailed out along with the high commissions paid to executives in the financial industry.

For the most part, growing tension in households of so many, is also reaching a tipping point! Rent/mortgage, electricity bills that promise to increase, car payments, child support/cost of raising a child, and the rising price of food top the most basic of expenses, leaving very little for anything else. “My unemployment ran out 14 months ago”, says Eric Hunter, a graphic artist by trade. “I am about to lose my apartment and just took a job as a busboy at AppleBee’s, in an effort to bring in some kind of income.” At the age of 41, having worked as the Creative Services Director, designing websites and graphics for a major Automotive supplier in Troy, Michigan, this isn’t the life he expected to be living.

Temptation to do something, anything, eats at the psyche of out-of-work professionals every day. While most have decided to become entrepreneur’s, the cost for startup and/or maintaining a business can also be overwhelming. Core expenses, even for a service-oriented company, includes equipment & supplies on top of business development costs of telephone service, internet connection, marketing, and attending networking events.

Relocation or moving back home is a less desired but often necessary option. “When you are in your 40’s and 50’s, moving in with your kids or back home with mom is not the ideal scenario”, says Tangela Owens, a former Marketing Executive in Detroit. “I’m not totally caught up on what President Obama’s Jobs Bill is all about or if it will trickle down to people like me, but I’ve applied for several jobs with no luck and simply need for something to happen, soon.”

Statistics show that at the end of August 2011, there were more than 3 million jobs available across the nation. Often requiring specialized training, that number is not comforting to people who will be required to go back to school to learn a new trade, an option that not only requires transportation and energy, but patience and time. Attributes, when rent is past due along with so many other bills, that simply can’t be afforded.

Edward Foxworth III is a Entrepreneur, Author and National Speaker. His book “The Six Routines of Self-Discovery” is available at www.edwardfoxworth.com, Amazon.com or wherever books are sold.