Chicago: not the worst place for the unemployed
DePaul student from Grand Rapids, Michigan puts Chicago's unemployment in perspective
Greg Schumaker- Graduate, Writing & Publishing
Issue date: 1/25/10 Section: Two Cents
I mentioned to my new classmates during our cheesy introductions that I'm looking for a job. A few of them responded with a cynical grunt, that phlegmy, guttural groan that we're all using to defend ourselves against optimism in this Great Recession.
However, what they didn't seem to grasp was that I'd just told them I moved here from Michigan. Yeah, that Michigan. The one so broke that it and California are lumped together in the press as examples of the financially ruined.
I moved here the day before New Year's Eve. I quit my job, packed up my life, accepted a ton of graduate loan money and threw it all in a U-Haul. Why?
Well, this'll involve a "Star Trek" analogy. From the new movie -- so it's cool.
There's a suspenseful moment where the Enterprise is inches from getting sucked into a black hole and the crew's whole mission is seconds from being in vain when -- hallelujah! -- someone blows up a nuke behind the ship and they're able to hop into hyperspace and away from certain death.
But in my story the Enterprise is a U-Haul and my M.A. program at DePaul is the nuke. Michigan is the black hole.
You think it's hard to find a job here? You don't know anything.
I was born and grew up in Grand Rapids. My heart's there, always. I went to high school there and got my bachelor's in English at Grand Valley State University. But when I got that degree last August there was only one thing I could keep doing: working for $8.50 an hour at Schuler Books, a Borders-style store.
I pulled in luxurious pay compared to my coworkers. Entry-level wage is $7.50 per hour. One staff member was an elementary school counselor with a Ph.D. working part time to pay her family's bills. We also had several would-be art professors with master's degrees.
I've worked in retail since 15, and the only open jobs in Michigan-even for people with college degrees-are slave-grade peon jobs. The only thriving industry in Grand Rapids is health care with its growing "Medical Mile" where cancer could very well be cured some day soon. Yet, most of us don't have what it takes to be doctors, nurses.
Here's your reality check: On Chicago's Craigslist Web site there are hundreds of jobs posted daily, several under "Writing/Editing" for artsy folk like myself. The last post on the same page for Grand Rapids' Craigslist site is this: "Jan 4 - Funeral Professional / Writer Needed." Sounds inspiring.
The numbers don't lie. According to a new report from the Brookings Institution, Grand Rapids' metro area had the steepest increase in poverty in the United States over the last decade-up 8.9 percent. Chicago was only up 0.8 percent.
I've come here for my education to become-hopefully-a professor, maybe a published author. I've come to this city so I won't end up unemployed at 47 like my mother or, like my father, have to search for a new job after 20 loyal years at a manufacturer.
So stop that pessimism right now. Things aren't so bad. Don't take this city or this state for granted for one more second. Or you and I might be forced to escape another black hole.
However, what they didn't seem to grasp was that I'd just told them I moved here from Michigan. Yeah, that Michigan. The one so broke that it and California are lumped together in the press as examples of the financially ruined.
I moved here the day before New Year's Eve. I quit my job, packed up my life, accepted a ton of graduate loan money and threw it all in a U-Haul. Why?
Well, this'll involve a "Star Trek" analogy. From the new movie -- so it's cool.
There's a suspenseful moment where the Enterprise is inches from getting sucked into a black hole and the crew's whole mission is seconds from being in vain when -- hallelujah! -- someone blows up a nuke behind the ship and they're able to hop into hyperspace and away from certain death.
But in my story the Enterprise is a U-Haul and my M.A. program at DePaul is the nuke. Michigan is the black hole.
You think it's hard to find a job here? You don't know anything.
I was born and grew up in Grand Rapids. My heart's there, always. I went to high school there and got my bachelor's in English at Grand Valley State University. But when I got that degree last August there was only one thing I could keep doing: working for $8.50 an hour at Schuler Books, a Borders-style store.
I pulled in luxurious pay compared to my coworkers. Entry-level wage is $7.50 per hour. One staff member was an elementary school counselor with a Ph.D. working part time to pay her family's bills. We also had several would-be art professors with master's degrees.
I've worked in retail since 15, and the only open jobs in Michigan-even for people with college degrees-are slave-grade peon jobs. The only thriving industry in Grand Rapids is health care with its growing "Medical Mile" where cancer could very well be cured some day soon. Yet, most of us don't have what it takes to be doctors, nurses.
Here's your reality check: On Chicago's Craigslist Web site there are hundreds of jobs posted daily, several under "Writing/Editing" for artsy folk like myself. The last post on the same page for Grand Rapids' Craigslist site is this: "Jan 4 - Funeral Professional / Writer Needed." Sounds inspiring.
The numbers don't lie. According to a new report from the Brookings Institution, Grand Rapids' metro area had the steepest increase in poverty in the United States over the last decade-up 8.9 percent. Chicago was only up 0.8 percent.
I've come here for my education to become-hopefully-a professor, maybe a published author. I've come to this city so I won't end up unemployed at 47 like my mother or, like my father, have to search for a new job after 20 loyal years at a manufacturer.
So stop that pessimism right now. Things aren't so bad. Don't take this city or this state for granted for one more second. Or you and I might be forced to escape another black hole.
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