It was reported by ABC News that thousand of unemployed workers showed up for an Atlanta, GA regional job fair. Some slept in line, overnight, wearing their business suits. I find this heart wrenching and in some ways disgusting. Mind you, I don’t find their waiting and sleeping in line disgusting, but the fact that this is where we are with this economy, in this nation, that thousands have to line up for jobs. Any jobs.
Georgia’s unemployment rate has recently increased, a bad sign, and in Georgia minority groups have unemployment rates in the double digit range. Black people alone have an unemployment rate of more than 15 %. The national rate for unemployment, overall, is just over nine percent.
Ninety employers were present at the job fair. Good for them. Truly. There were seminars at the job fair on interview techniques and resume writing. The Congressional Black Caucus sponsored the job fair in hopes of getting people out of the unemployment lines and back into the workforce. I applaud the Congressional Black Caucus for its efforts. I also applaud the unemployed workers who did stand in line overnight, who slept in their business clothes, for not giving up. You have to praise them for hanging in there, even in the face of an economic downturn and a very competitive job mart.
It is high time we restore confidence in the business community so they can move forward and start hiring people again. There are many approaches to restoring this confidence, and they are being argued from both sides of the aisle. And probably there are several approaches that may well work. So, do something, and get this show back on the road.
