Fair helps ‘frustrated’ job seekers

• Reprints

Alex Woyner, Lockport, goes through an interview during the job fair sponsored by the City of Lockport and U.S. Rep. Lipinski at the high school in Lockport, IL on Monday February 20, 2012. . | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Article Extras

Updated: March 22, 2012 8:09AM

LOCKPORT — Alex Woyner of Lockport walked around a job fair on Monday morning clutching a green folder filled with copies of his resume.

The 26-year-old graduated from college with a teaching degree in December 2008, a year after the Great Recession officially started in December 2007. The odds of him finding a job were slim from the beginning.

Other than a few stints filling in at school districts, he has been unable to find a full-time job teaching high school math. He’s living at home, but now that he’s 26, he can no longer be covered by his parents’ health insurance. His fiancee is unemployed, too, and his college graduate friends are having trouble finding jobs as well.

His life, in essence, is on hold.

In October, he took a job at a company that does verifications for background checks, but he was laid off in January.

“I was a temp, and they only hired temps. Then they said, ‘OK, we’re getting rid of all of our temps right now,’” he said.

So Woyner donned a tie and walked around the East Campus of Lockport Township High School with an earnest, serious expression on his face.

“Last year I don’t think I got a single teaching interview even though I applied for numerous teaching interviews,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging.”

At an interview he had shortly after he graduated, he was told that more than 100 people applied and only eight to 12 were selected for interviews.

“I’m very frustrated. I just felt it was somewhat of a waste,” he said of his college degree. “At this point, almost four years later, I still don’t have anything going with my life.”

He wasn’t alone. But he was one of the few younger faces in the crowd at the job fair. Most were in their 50s, people who had been laid off and needed to find a new job.

But it’s not easy.

John Turrentine of Crest Hill, said the fact that he does not have a college degree is hurting him. He was “surplused” from AT&T after 31 years of employment. He was forced out, but able to retire, he said.

But Turrentine is only 51, so he needs to keep working to build up his retirement savings.

He recently was laid off from a telecommunications job, but hasn’t had any luck finding a new job.

“I probably have about 300 applications out there and I hear nothing, absolutely nothing,” he said.

He is skeptical of reports that the economy is starting to turn around.

“Do I think the economy is getting better? No. Do I think the job market is getting better? No.”

The job fair was sponsored by U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Western Springs.

“It’s a shame we live in a time when we have to have job fairs like this,” Lipinski said as he addressed the crowd milling around the gym.

Lipinski said he doesn’t feel it’s enough to just work on job-creation legislation in Congress. He also feels he has to do something back in the district to help job seekers.

“There are still a lot of people out of work,” he said. “Even the unemployment numbers don’t show the true numbers of people who have just given up looking for work.”

Lockport Mayor Dev Trivedi said job creation had been “dead” for the past three years in his city. But this year is different.

“A lot more calls are coming in to the city,” he said. “ ... I do see a lot more momentum.”

Trivedi said it is important to connect unemployed residents with jobs.

“These people when you look into their eyes, you see that ... they are looking for some help. They could be our family, friends, relatives, you know,” he said. “Some of them have been looking for a long time.”