Faces of Unemployment | Sticking to the search

Editor's note: This is the first in an occasional series following four Grand Stranders as they search for work amid record high unemployment rates and the worst job market in decades.

Like so many other job seekers, David Doiley never thought he'd be in this situation.

He worked at the Georgetown steel mill for 37 years and always thought he would retire from his job there. But the mill closed last year, and now he finds himself pounding the pavement in search of work.

At 60 years old and with an education that ended in the third grade, he is facing a daunting job search instead of preparing himself for retirement in a few years. He's already had to give up on some of his dreams for the future and is just trying to make it - financially and emotionally - through each day.

"I was hoping that I could just find a job anywhere," Doiley said. "I just want to work right now. Just anything to do just to ease some of the pressure."

Doiley and others like him are the faces behind the skyrocketing unemployment rates, which shot up to 16.5 percent in Horry County and 15.3 percent in Georgetown in January. Experts say that the future is pretty bleak for Doiley and the thousands of others who are unemployed.

Unemployment along the Grand Strand is expected to stay in the double digits throughout the year and into next year, said Don Schunk, a research economist at Coastal Carolina University.

"We will see some economic growth, but not enough growth and not fast enough growth to spur job creation," he said.

There will be new jobs and likely additional layoffs as some businesses struggle while others do well. Those applying for jobs will face fierce competition for the openings that exist, and that isn't likely to change for several years, Schunk said.

"Even as jobs slowly return, the workers that successfully land those jobs will do so because their skills, experience and work ethic set them apart from the large number of other unemployed individuals," he said.

The unemployment rate is the highest Mary Nell Smith, the area director of the Coastal Workforce Center, has ever seen, and it's getting harder for the unemployed to find jobs, she said.

Employers are making do with fewer workers to cut costs so they aren't hiring. Those businesses that are hiring can set higher standards because the pool of applicants is larger.

"What we're seeing is the look on people's faces is kind of blank," Smith said. "I think [some] people have just given up. They don't have an answer of what's going to happen. They're tired of being turned down."

Searching after decades of employment

Doiley worked most of his life at the steel mill, landing the job in his early 20s and working through the years to support his six children. A few more years of saving and paying off bills, and he would have been able to retire and spend his days hunting and fishing.

But the down economy changed everything for Doiley - who has worked since he was about 10 years old, when he left school to take odd jobs to support his family.

"The hardest thing for me is when I [go] out there and I find out they're hiring and they turn me down," Doiley said. "I feel like no one wants to hire me because of my age and my education."

But Doiley still goes out a few times a week and spends hours looking for a job the old-fashioned way - pounding the pavement in search of some type of labor work.

"I'm just trying to live one day at a time," he said. "It's so stressful for me."

He is living with his mother so he doesn't have a mortgage, but it has been hard keeping up with other payments with the check he gets from the mill and some of his retirement savings.

Doiley is diabetic and has struggled to pay for health insurance. He has cut back on some of his medication, taking it every other day instead of daily, to make each prescription last longer.

Doiley separated from his wife, had surgery and got laid off last year, all combining to make an already challenging employment search that much harder.

He said after 21 years with his wife, his inability to provide and the financial stresses were the main reason the marriage fell apart.

"It seems like someone stuck me with a sword in my heart," Doiley said. "It hurts. One time it hurt me so much that I almost wanted to give up everything, mainly life itself because I felt I had no reason to even be here."

Help from his pastor and prayer pulled him through, he said. His kids - three daughters and three sons who are all grown - have also helped him.

"I always feel by me, [as] the man of the house I was the bread winner; I don't want to impose on my kids," he said. "But my kids say they understand what I'm going through."

His daughter has helped him look for some jobs online and has encouraged him to go back to school, which he is considering.

Getting laid off has meant giving up some dreams. He had always hoped to travel after retiring - he's never been more than about 120 miles from Georgetown - and now that seems unlikely.

"To anyone who never been in this situation: Whatever money that you have, try to use it wisely because it's not easy being out on the street and looking for a job ... don't take anything for granted," he said.

A job and a career

Like many recent graduates, Todd Hausmann is searching for a job that will pave a way to his future. And along the way, as he spends more than six hours a day applying, he is learning some life lessons.

Hausmann graduated from Coastal Carolina University in 2007 with a degree in math and moved with Kristen, who is now his wife, to Virginia, where he worked as a designer for a power company. After a couple of years, they were unhappy and moved back to the Grand Strand.

He has been looking for a job since November. Initially he wanted to work for a utility company, but none were hiring, so he is applying for any job from marketing to management to customer service.

Hausmann, 25, treats his job search like a full-time job: He gets up early and sits at the computer where he has a routine of Web sites he goes to in search of work. He'll go through each new posting and e-mail himself the ones he's qualified for. Then once he has sorted through it all, he will sit and tailor a resume for each job and submit an application. Hausmann estimates he submits about 10 resumes a day.

On some applications he'll have to answer several hundred questions, which takes hours, only to get an automated message 10 minutes later saying he doesn't match what the company is looking for.

"It does seem sometimes like it's a waste of time, but if it's a job that you get and it leads to your future then it's worth it," he said.

Kristen Hausmann was looking alongside her husband until this week when she finally got a job offer as a regional sales manager. Though she will no longer be on the computer next to him searching herself, she'll continue to support him and encourage him to stay positive, she said.

The two have been living off the savings they had from their previous jobs, where they made a combined $100,000 a year, and are living rent-free in Kristen Hausmann's parent's condo.

Todd Hausmann said he wants to have a job before college students graduate and is somewhat encouraged because there seem to be more openings now than there were a few months ago.

"I don't even know what the career is, so I'm open to anything," Todd Hausmann said. "Sometimes it's discouraging. [But] I've got hundreds of resumes out there, something's got to come through."

There was one job that showed some promise but ended up falling through, which was disappointing, he said.

"It's definitely a downer," Todd Hausmann said. "You've just got to keep going. It's going to happen. You've just got to stay positive, or else you'd sit at the computer pissed off."

Hausmann has made money working part-time on weekend nights at Fox TV but doesn't consider it a long-term job and continues to spend upward of six hours a day looking.

The Hausmanns said that the lessons they have learned weathering their unemployment will stick with them for a lifetime and they expect to build up a healthy safety net for the future once they are both employed.

"When we do get a job in an economy like this further on down the line when the economy is better, there will be tons of doors open because we know how to apply for jobs," Todd Hausmann said.

Going back to school

to gain new skills

After losing her job 18 months ago, Sandra Nolen went back to school to gain skills and open up new work opportunities.

Nolen, 59, had worked for AVX Corp. as an operator setting up and running a machine that made electronic chips for about 10 years before she was laid off in September 2008.

In May, about 40 years after finishing high school, she graduated from Horry-Georgetown Technical College with an associate degree in administrative office technology and she has been looking for a job since. Nolen filed for her third unemployment extension last week and tries not to dwell on what will happen when that money - her only income - runs out.

"I think if this recession hadn't happened when it did I think I would have [found a job]," she said, adding that she had never been without a job for more than a week or two at a time until 2008.

The fun of not having to get up early every morning disappears and the reality of needing a job sets in quickly.

She has applied to about 500 jobs in the past year and a half and has yet to even get an interview, Nolen said.

"I never dreamed I'd be out of work for this long," she said. "The frustrating part about it is I don't hear back from anybody."

Nolen's house - where she lives with her husband, John, and 16-year-old son, Steven Merritt - is paid for, as are all her vehicles.

"I'm not worried about a roof over my head ... but it's a struggle at times. We just live week to week," Nolen said.

She had about six months of savings, but that is long gone now and the family is adjusting to getting by with less.

Nolen searches every day - looking in the newspaper and checking Web sites for job postings. And just in case she might come across an opportunity while she is out, she always carries a black folder filled with resumes to hand out, she said.

She will likely have to put off retirement now, Nolen said, but she's not ready to leave the work force yet.

"I miss having something to do every day and getting involved with other people that I work with," Nolen said.

She had planned to retire from AVX and enjoy life, but now she wonders what will happen when she retires because the 401(k) and savings are not there to fall back on.

"I tend not to dwell on that too much because it really depresses me," Nolen said.

One of the biggest challenges has been losing health benefits, especially because her husband has had health issues related to his high blood pressure and weight. He tries to get by with sample medications and is in pain, which makes it difficult for him to get a job, John Nolen said.

"It's heartbreaking ...to see her go out there day after day after day and there's nothing," he said. "You scratch by the best you can."

Working part-time with an advanced degree

Rich Grogan is one of those job seekers who will take any job, and about a year and a half ago - despite having a master's degree in business - he started working part time at Sears selling large appliances on a commission basis. He never expected to still be working there 18 months later and still be just eking by.

Grogan, 42, was working as a business development manager for a company in Milwaukee, Wis., when he was laid off along with about 80 percent of the staff more than two years ago.

He moved first to West Virginia and then to the Myrtle Beach area to take care of his mother as her health began to decline. Grogan, his wife, Kendall, and their son Johnny, 2, live with his mother.

Grogan is a Coastal Carolina University graduate and has a master's degree in business administration from DeVry University's Keller Graduate School of Management.

"It's hard to find a job doing my line of work here," he said. "A lot of people are not willing to hire someone with a master's degree because they don't think you're going to stay there very long."

But Grogan said he would be willing to sweep floors or cut grass or do basically any job - even if it didn't match up with his background - if it meant he could provide for his family.

He earned about $14,000 last year, compared to $65,000 he was making at his last full-time job. Some days he doesn't even earn enough to cover the gas it takes to get to work.

Grogan has applied to hundreds of jobs in the past couple years and received so many letters turning him down that he can quote the formulaic texts from memory. That is for the jobs he even hears back from.

"There's also the frustration of putting in an application to the proverbial black hole," he said. "A lot of it is a fruitless search. You have to weed through a lot."

Despite having savings to cover several months of expenses, like the financial experts recommend, he has had to tap into his retirement savings to make ends meet. His retirement savings has dwindled by about 50 percent, he said.

They buy bargain groceries and only get clothes on sale. His mother's retirement money covers the mortgage, utility bills and some of the food costs.

There have been moments of hope - like a job where after several interviews he was one of three finalists. But it turned out the company chose not to fill the job.

"It's probably harder emotionally than it is financially," Grogan said. "The frustration, the disappointment, the confusion, tempered with a little bit of anger."

It's been tough on his wife Kendall, too, who has thought about going to work, but likely wouldn't make enough to cover the child care costs.

"I never imagined we'd be in this situation," she said. "I've spent a lot of the past two years encouraging him."

And there have definitely been days in the past two years where Grogan has wanted to do nothing more than pull the covers over his head and stay in bed, he said. But then he sees his wife's face and hears his son say, "hi Daddy" and realizes it's about more than just him.

"The thing that keeps me going is even in the worst of situations there is that one job and I might be that one," he said.