Wednesday focus: The workplace

As the economy continues to weather massive job losses and a tightened job market, people like Julie Sizemore are finding it increasingly difficult to land employment.

The Danville, Ky., native is an ex-convict trying to re-enter the workforce during a severe recession after having spent several years at home caring for her three children.

Those hardly are the type of credentials that would ordinarily help her rise above the throngs of recent college graduates and middle managers with MBAs all clamoring for the same jobs as baristas or restaurant greeters.

“It’s rough. I prefer something in administration, but I would settle for anything I can find,” Sizemore said. “The economy right now, there’s so many people out of work and if there’s an opening at a place, it’s gone.”

Studies have found that within a year after release up to 75 percent of ex-convicts remain unemployed, said Devah Pager, an associate sociology professor at Princeton University and author of “Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration.”

“Often, ex-offenders are employed in small business, service industry and low-wage seasonal employment, and that’s exactly the areas where employers are cutting back,” Pager said.

Even before the economic downturn, programs designed to address barriers facing ex-offenders were barely making a dent, Pager said. “This economic downturn has affected management and blue collars. There are a lot of people hurting throughout the pay scale,” said Brian Poe, CEO of Hard 2 Hire, a Kentucky-based company that specializes in helping job seekers like Sizemore.

“If you have something on your record you’re at a disadvantage,” Poe said. “If you’re a military spouse you’re at a disadvantage. If you’re over 50 you’re at a disadvantage.”

After she was paroled in October, Sizemore immediately went on the job hunt, scouring classified ads and Web sites. She signed up with Hard 2 Hire, but so far she hasn’t netted a job.

The conditions of her probation for first-degree drug trafficking require that she be employed at least 30 days after parole, but her job hunt has lasted several months.

McClatchy