WASHINGTON, July 3 (UPI) -- The unemployment level in the United States jumped to 6.4 percent in June, indicative of a stalled economy which has lost almost a million jobs in the last three months.
U.S. Labor Department's statistics also show that the jump from May's 6.1 percent unemployment rate to the current figure was the largest month-to-month leap since the loss of jobs that occurred after the devastating Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Unemployment remains at the highest it's been since March, 1994, a nine year high.
Currently 9.4 million Americans are unemployed and seeking work, according to Labor.
As part of a three part series on unemployment, UPI previously reported on Nancy Miller, a San Francisco native who was laid off as a telecom project manager at the MCI division of WorldCom Inc. in July of last year. She was unemployed for nine months and finally got a job, only to be laid off from a second telecom job just last week.
UPI's series also reported on Alexandria, Va., sisters Lori and Lisa Porcher. Both have been unemployed since last year and have been doing temporary work to make ends meet.
Lori Porcher, 40, worked in advertising as an accounts manager before she lost her job. She has been unemployed now for close to 11 months. Her sister Lisa, 36, had been working as an operations manager for an e-learning company. She was laid off 10 months ago.
Today, UPI focuses on Crys Sulivan and Jane Banfield, two more of the millions of unemployed.
Jane Banfield worked at AT&T for the past 22 years at various sales positions. Most recently she worked in customs sales, a management position.
Since becoming unemployed, Banfield reports that she has had to cut back on expenses.
"I am in a relatively expensive area in New Jersey, where taxes are very high. I've been living on unemployment. I've cut out a lot of things that I've normally done. I haven't sold anything, but I haven't bought anything either," Banfield said.
Laid off last November, she had been living off unemployment benefits, but they ended June 30th.
"I will now have to dip into my savings. I don't really want to move. Several of my colleagues have had to move," she said.
She said she has not been not been doing part-time or temporary work because she is constantly looking for a full time position, in management, operations or sales.
"I don't want to just find something for today," she said. "I'm also interested in changing careers. I'm interested in taking paralegal program or some other education (at her local community college)."
She already holds a Masters in Sales Administration from Rutgers.
Banfield took evening courses in January -- 6 credits of legal research and accounting. "I expect to continue to do that. I think it keeps you abreast of what's happening. It helps with networking as well," she said.
New Jersey has a tuition reimbursement for state colleges, something she said was an advantage for her. Banfield said she is planning on taking more courses, not only to learn more but to keep her mind occupied.
"I think it also keeps you from getting too overly depressed. It keeps you focused," she said.
Banfield has also become an activist because of post-layoff pension cuts by AT&T. She is a member of the AT&T Concerned Employees For Pension Protection group to try to fight it.
"I will never be able to survive on what I was planning on," she said.
Banfield thinks it's important to be flexible when applying. "Just looking for a job is a full time job," she said.
"I think a lot of people equate unemployed with low esteem. You're not a failure just because you're unemployed," she said, lamenting that "people have become numbers."
Crys Sulivan is a flight attendant with United Airlines. She is technically on furlough, the equivalent to a layoff with a potentially planned rehiring date. In the case of her and many other United attendants, the rehiring date keeps changing.
Her various upheavals with the commercial airline industry first began in the chaotic weeks after Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks when airline travel was grounded for a week, and then suffered a precipitate drop upon resuming business. No one wanted to fly.
She was let go in October, 2001 for six months. After starting work again, Sulivan was laid of on Feb. 22 of this year. Since her most recent furlough, Sulivan has been training for certification in the exercise program Pilates to become an instructor.
Based in Boston before her February furlough, Sulivan has pulled up stakes and moved to the Dallas area "where a good friend has taken me in."
She describes the experience of being without work as "excruciating."
It ranges from such little things as "not being able to buy the extras you enjoy, such as perfume" and having a "girlfriend cut my hair" to having to make such decisions as whether to put gas in the car on certain days.
The worst, Sulivan said, is the experience of visiting her grown children and not being able to buy them things like she once did.
"Unemployment (benefits) pays the bills, but not much more," she said.
While its uncertain when her furlough may end, she has mixed feelings about returning to the career of flight work, including both the economic problems of the industry and the danger.
She said that ever since Sept. 11, flight work "is not what it was."
Always a "gutsy" woman, Sulivan said that unemployment has further taught her to "roll with the punches."
"Things can change in the blink of an eye," she said. But, Sulivan added that she is optimistic that she "will make everything work out."
(Reported with correspondent Jennifer Mehigan)
(Workforce is a monthly labor and workplace column that highlights issues of key importance to American workers of all occupations. Send comments to: [email protected])
(Since Tuesday, UPI has featured profiles of average unemployed Americans, which concludes with today's reporting of the monthly unemployment number from the U.S. Labor Department.)
