Gazes of Unemployment

The unemployed or those unhappy with their current job status queued up to almost 200 job seekers in either direction as they waited to enter a 3-hour job fair. A Renaissance hotel in Iselin, New Jersey, could be the launching point to a new career for one of those waiting to enter the banquet hall. Scattered throughout the corridor was a miscellany of employers from New Jersey Transit and Prudential to financial institutions and technological and vocationally schools. Schools like the Stenotech Career Institute that boasts a 0% unemployment rate in the field of stenography - but before the students make the potential 6-figure salary they have to spend cash they don't have on a 3-year education. The recruitment associate from the school wasn't hesitate to say that she will likely not have a new student come out of this job fair, or fairs like it. The would-be students need income now.

For some it is hard to look when the United States has 8.1% unemployment rate, down from 8.3% the month before in part due to people retiring from a career of looking for their lost jobs back. But at these jobs fairs, looks, stares, and gazes defines the faces of seekers. Eyes are glued to job listings, looking ahead in the lines and stares that size up other job seekers.

At the same time is is irksome to stare back to document the pain of discontent and the waning patience of the displeased workforce.