'A Tough Time to be Looking For a Job'

Every Monday morning the Norwood Employment and Training Resources Center is the home to a program called "Get it Started," an ongoing networking group designed to help jobseekers meet others, share information, and learn tips and strategies, as well as practice their self sales pitch.

Unfortunately for many locals, in and outside of Norwood, "getting it started" is not an easy task.

"It's been tough," one local resident (who wished not to be named) said as he left the ETR Center. "This is a tough time to be looking around for a job, but there are resources like this."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state of Massachusetts has an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent of the workforce - that percentage seasonally adjusted for May 2011. That number is actually lower than the national rate which recently released numbers from the White House show has risen to 9.2 percent.

Despite a recovering stock market only 18,000 private sector jobs were created in June of this year, leaving many jobseekers without the necessary impetus.

Norwood resident Shannon MacDonald was laid off twice in the last five years, due to no lack of performance on her part but to restructuring, budgeting and management changes.

"The company went through several rounds of layoffs as well as senior level management changes," MacDonald said of the first position, which was with a technology company based in nearby Framingham.

She started with the company as an intern in 1999, and said that it was a company in which she considered becoming a "lifer."

"Times were good, and the economy was booming," she said of those early years. "Our company had outings and picnics and parties. We had award programs, incentives, training of all kinds, promotions and raises, and a game room."

MacDonald moved up through the company but was told in 2006 that, quite simply, her brand new role had been eliminated.

She was lucky. Her severance had included career counseling, and within a relatively short amount of time she had snagged another position - and something relevant to her previous field.

Years later, after another position change, she found herself in the same gut-wrenching situation. Restructuring was happening, and her job no longer existed.

"This is an abrupt way to end a job, and it’s unsettling to walk
away from colleagues, friends, routines, clients and projects cold turkey," MacDonald said.

In Massachusetts alone, an estimated 265,600 people were unemployed as of May 2011.

For the few locals that showed up to Monday morning's "Get it Started" session, having over 200,000 others in the same position as they are is of little comfort. The focus is on finding a job, and finding it fast.

"I might have something lined up for the future," said another resident (who wished to have his name unpublished). "But I don't know when they'll get back to me."

While the resources such as ETR, the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the Riley Guide, are there for jobseekers, the fact remains that despite a small decrease in the unemployment numbers for this state, the national numbers are a disconcerting factor.

And at the end of the day, even the local numbers are not at the forefront of an unemployed mind.

"I questioned and second guessed myself and wondered if there was anything I could have or should have done differently," MacDonald said. "My confidence had been rocked to the core."

The Norwood ETR Center's "Get it Started" program is open Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. No registration is required.