Acton Responds to News of Slow Job Growth

Acton’s unemployment rate is well below recently released national statistics that indicated poor job growth for June—good news overall, but information that’s of little comfort to local job seekers who say they haven’t been able to find work despite dogged efforts in a continued sluggish economy.

According to recently released statistics, just 18,000 net jobs were created in June, the fewest in nine months, with an overall national unemployment average for June reaching 9.2 percent, the highest rate of the year—facts Vic Otero said he finds easy to believe.

Otero lost his job as a software sales representative two and a half years ago and said he thought he’d find a job easily enough after taking a few months off after the initial layoff.

“I was wrong, obviously,” said Otero, who’s lived in Acton for 11 years.

Since being laid off, Otero said he has been on numerous interviews, even reaching the “last stage when it’s between me and maybe one other person” a number of times.

“Sometimes I’m extremely frustrated and it’s obviously put my family in a difficult situation," he said.

In the interim, Otero said he’s “mixed and matched” various endeavors, including consulting and coaching baseball and basketball, to cobble together an income--efforts he says are enjoyable and help him feel productive, but are not nearly lucrative enough to keep things afloat for the long term.

However, said Otero, “At this point, I don’t really have the same expectations I started with. I just want the opportunity to perform.”

For Acton resident Cathy von Jess, who also grew up in town, losing her job in January started as a potential “blessing in disguise” that hasn’t materialized in the way she imagined. A nurse with some 25 years of experience, she said her hours were gradually cut to the point that she thought being laid off would give her the chance to find full-time work again—but she hasn’t found such an opportunity yet.

“The typical response (to her job loss) is ‘They’re laying off nurses?’” von Jess said. “And what I’ve found out since then is that the way to find a job now isn’t the way it was 20 years ago.”

Instead of mailing out resumes, said von Jess, today’s job seekers must commit to “serious networking” for the best chance at landing a job.

“The bottom line is, you can’t find a job the same way you used to,” she said.

According to per-town data from the Massachusetts Labor and Workforce Development, Acton’s rate of unemployment was 4.7 percent as of May, well below the national average—but von Jess said she feels those statistics don’t tell the whole story.

“I know a good number of people looking for work,” she said. “Maybe it doesn’t seem that way to some people (in Acton) because you don’t really know until you’re there yourself.”

Both Otero and von Jess feel their age puts them at a disadvantage to finding new jobs, with new graduates and “so many qualified candidates” vying for the same positions at much lower salaries than those longer established in their careers—a sentiment Sam Williams, co-moderator of the Acton Networkers group, said he hears frequently.

“Frankly, I think the problem is not age per se, rather the assumption that an older person requires or expects a higher salary, which generally is true,” said Williams.

Though overall membership and members’ ages vary, said Williams, those who attend meetings most often are “predominantly over 50, certainly over 40”—numbers that “clearly reflect the greater state of the economy and the workforce.”

“It’s hard not to feel like my age is a factor when I reach that last stage of the game and the job goes to someone with the exact same qualifications who is 10 years younger,” said Otero.

Still, both job-seekers and Williams expressed varying degrees of optimism, with Williams saying that despite the frustrations expressed, the overall tone in his group is one of hopefulness.

“People see the big picture and know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, so they persevere,” said Williams, adding that part of the networkers group’s agenda always includes the announcement of “landings,” or jobs found by members. Letting job seekers in the group know about members’ new jobs, he said, “helps keep the tenor of the group upbeat and optimistic. And you have to be upbeat because if you’re not, that’s a dead end in itself.”

For his part, Otero said that despite his frustration, he also tries hard to take the long view as well as maintain perspective on his situation.

“I don’t really feel sorry for myself. I’m healthy, my family’s healthy, worse things happen,” he said.

Still, he said, “It’s not easy. Looking for a job really takes its toll.”