Job Market

At the end of October, 111 industrial workers at the Struthers-Dunn Inc. plant in Mantua Township lost their jobs. The company makes electromagnetic relays for commercial, industrial and military applications. The layoffs of light-industrial, assembly-line workers came when the company streamlined its manufacturing operation. About 40 of the laid-off employees re-entered the job market recently, equipped with a heightened knowledge of their aptitudes and interests, an awareness of the kinds of jobs available, and the job search skills necessary to instill confidence in prospective employers.

With just weeks to go before graduation, law students are bracing for a job market that has seen cutbacks at Center City firms. Saddled with debt, some have seen job offers put on hold. Others are considering options such as public service jobs, or working in a coffee shop, or baby-sitting. In recent months, law firms in Philadelphia and across the country have been shedding lawyers and staff, leaving jobs in short supply. The District Attorney's Office rescinded 12 jobs in February due to budget cuts; Wolf Block partners recently voted to shut down the practice after 106 years; and Dechert, one of the city's largest firms, recently laid off 63 lawyers.

STOCKHOLM - Two Americans and a British-Cypriot economist won the 2010 Nobel economics prize Monday for developing a theory that helps explain why many people can remain unemployed despite a large number of job vacancies. Federal Reserve board nominee Peter Diamond was honored along with Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides with the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.5 million) prize for their analysis of the obstacles that prevent buyers and sellers from efficiently pairing up in markets.

Most of the damage inflicted on the U.S. labor market by the recession is reversible, according to Federal Reserve research, leaving open the possibility that additional stimulus will be effective in reducing joblessness. About one-third, or 1.5 percentage points, of the jump in unemployment from 5 percent as the economic slump began to its 10 percent peak in October 2009 can be traced to a mismatch between the supply of labor and job openings, according to a study released this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

As director of job placement at Delaware County Community College, Carolanne Sloss is responsible for helping graduating students find work. That's no easy task in 1991. "It's the worst job market I've seen since I've been here, and that's including the last recession," said Sloss, who has been there since 1981. "The bottom has dropped out. " Hammered by the recession, concerned about the Persian Gulf war and worried about the federal budget deficit, corporate recruiters are canceling job interview sessions or scheduling fewer interviews with graduating seniors, say development counselors at colleges across the region and the nation.

Ted Staub graduated from college more than 20 years ago, taught for a while and then got into the home-remodeling business. But in August, when the recession forced his Philadelphia-area construction company to shut its doors, Staub returned to school. He enrolled as a full- time graduate student at Pennsylvania State University's Great Valley campus in Malvern. "I wanted to do something I liked, but I also wanted to make sure I'd be employable when I got out of school," said Staub, 46, who is studying for a master's degree - and eyeing a doctorate - in industrial engineering.

Economists always say that employment is a lagging indicator, with an increase in jobs always following an improvement in the economy. But with the economy poised to tumble into a double-dip recession, the question must be asked: When does lagging turn into left behind in this endless coda to the deepest and most painful recession since the 1930s? Nearly 14 million people remain unemployed, part of the 16 million who are either underemployed or too discouraged about their prospects to seek work.

As a recruitment package aimed at college graduates, the brochures have the slick look of those produced by major corporations. Titled in letters of gold on covers colored navy blue, burgundy and gray, they tout an open door to opportunities ranging "from agronomy to zoology," excellent benefits, the lure of travel and access to the "latest technologies. " "Career America," says the raised lettering on the cover. "The U.S. Government. Find out why it's becoming the first choice.

Just last year, the 7-Eleven on the corner of Welsh Road and Old Bustleton Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia couldn't attract enough applicants to fill the vacancies, so Michael Quinn, one of the cashiers, helped a 16-year-old high-school buddy get a job. "At one point, we couldn't get anybody to work here," Quinn said. "We were going crazy trying to do everything with so few people. " This summer, the 7-Eleven is swamped with applications. And Quinn, 17, finds himself handing out jobs not to teenagers, but to 30-year-olds.

When Don Grillet lost his job in the mortgage industry in October, he went through many of the standard stages of unemployment. There was the "whew, I need a break period. " There was the "sitting looking at the television period," in which he was too depressed and too worried to move. Now Grillet, 30, is in the "omigod, my unemployment insurance runs out in two months phase. " Today, the closely watched federal monthly jobs numbers will come out to let analysts and economists know what people like Grillet already know - it's getting harder to find work, especially for people in financial services, a sector that has been shedding jobs for months as the extent of the subprime-mortgage crisis widens.