Georgia's jobless rise hits the traditional, two-income family [The Atlanta Journal-Constitution] 01/21 06:56 AM
Jan. 21--The Walkers of Suwanee lived the good suburban life before the Great Recession hit. Tom and Mary Walker raised three boys, traveled freely, golfed regularly and dined without worry at Taste of Thai or LongHorn.
Then in June 2008 Tom lost his job with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Mary became the sole breadwinner, and their household dynamic eroded along with their standard of living.
No one knows exactly how many Georgia families with similar stories are encompassed by the state's stubbornly high unemployment rate, which reached 10.2 percent in December, according to figures released Thursday by the state labor department. But there's no doubt that the numbers are moving in the wrong direction.
December's jobless rate is an increase from November's 10 percent. Worse, the number of people who, like Tom Walker, have been without a job for at least 27 weeks rose to 260,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous year. Today, the long-term unemployed make up more than half of all jobless Georgians.
"The increase in unemployment and job loss in December is continued evidence that Georgia's job market is fragile," new Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a statement Thursday.
It's clear, too, that men like Walker, battered by the recession's assault on male-dominated industries --construction, manufacturing and finance --comprise a much larger portion of the long-term jobless than do women. This downturn is remarkable for the sharp rise in households where the wife supplants the husband as the main moneymaker.
"Through previous recessions I was always the dependable one. I'd bring home the bacon and her job was gravy," said Walker, 54, seated at the kitchen table in sweats. "Now, she's the only barrier between us and the street."
The recession may have technically ended a year-and-a-half ago, but Georgia families increasingly struggle with the financial fallout when a spouse is laid off. Homes are lost. Credit is ruined. Quality of life, as the male breadwinner becomes a financial albatross, suffers.
Anger and resentment have been building in the Scandrett household in Forest Park ever since Mariquez lost his elevator mechanic job last May. Monthly income dropped from $6,000 to $2,000, which is mostly Angela's salary.
They no longer have health insurance, and Angela has asthma. The mortgage company won't reduce their monthly payments. They worry they'll lose the house.
"We argue more. It's mainly about money and spending," said Angela, 39, a hair stylist. "I've told him, 'You need to step it up. Go work at McDonald's (MCD:$74.8281,$-0.3319,-0.44%) . You've got to swallow your pride.' "
Mariquez, for his part, said he is searching hard to find work and has even lowered his expectations. Angela sees her husband up early filling out applications on the computer, and she sees his growing frustration.
He said, "The more I try, the more it stays the same."
Nationwide, two-thirds of the 11 million jobs lost during this recession were held by men. The jobless gender gap is the largest since 1948, when the U.S. Department of Labor started tracking it.
Unlike traditional male occupations, typical women's work --teaching, nursing, retail, day care --has largely withstood the recession's ravages. And that means wives increasingly shoulder the household's financial weight.
Heather Boushey, senior economist with the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington, notes that the Great Recession is the first major downturn during which both husband and wife generally were employed. During the early 1980s recession, for example, most wives remained at home.
"Since the majority of mothers are breadwinners or co-breadwinners, unemployment plays out differently than it did during the era when women were stay-at-home moms," Boushey said. "Two million wives support unemployed husbands. That shows just how important women's earnings are to family well-being."
Just prior to the recession in 2007, 2.4 percent of working wives had an unemployed husband at home. Two years later, as the recession raged, 5.4 percent did, Boushey reported.
But because wives, on average, earned only 42 percent of a household's pre-layoff earnings, families struggle to make health insurance, mortgage and car payments, especially once the husband's unemployment benefits run out.
Tom Walker rides the unemployment roller-coaster of job-prospect highs followed by rejection lows. A former IT manager, Walker has networked, started a consultancy and applied for 800 jobs, including low-paying positions with Starbucks (SBUX:$33.39,00$0.21,000.63%) , Quik-Trip, Aldi and Kauffman Tire. No luck. A combined $150,000 income has dwindled to $60,000 a year. And Walker's weekly $330 unemployment benefits ran out in November.
"Satan will occasionally get in there and start talking to me: 'You ought to be angry. These are the prime working years of your life,' " Walker, a devout Catholic, said. "He tries to make you despondent and depressed and angry."
His distress deepened after Mary suffered a badly broken ankle in a February 2009 car accident.
A Gwinnett County middle school teacher, Mary returns home tired and sore. Tom prepares dinner and tries to make home-life as stress-free as possible.
"If I'd been working all this time, and the accident had happened, she'd probably be looking at early retirement," Walker said. "That's what's painful and leads to a sense of helplessness. She's having to wrap up her ankle tight and keep trucking because I'm not contributing financially."
At the Scandrett household, Angela said she's making more of the decisions. When she wants to talk, she said, Mariquez often seems busy searching for something on his phone. As for the arguing, the couple has decided to try a truce.
"It's kind of turned the tables. I'm kind of in charge," she said. "It's hard because you want to give the man the respect."
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