Study finds 1 in 5 workers were laid off during recession

TRENTON, N.J. -- Serge Kher had never been unemployed until his job as general manager of a car dealership in Virginia Beach, Va., was eliminated in March.

After sending out 107 resumes, trolling Internet job sites and looking into different fields, the 48-year-old father of four had only one interview.

"I'm starting to go crazy," he said last week in a telephone interview. "There are days when I feel that I'm worthless."

Kher, now a stay-at-home dad, got one month's severance pay and is collecting $300 per week in unemployment benefits. His family went without health benefits for two months until his wife found a job offering the insurance.

Still, he's received more aid than most Americans laid off since 2000, according to a new study by researchers at Rutgers University and the University of Connecticut.

Two-thirds of workers laid off in the last three years received no severance package or other compensation from their employer, according to the survey titled "The Disposable Worker: Living in a Job-Loss Economy."

The study found that one in five, or about 18 percent, of those interviewed had been laid off during the 2000-2003 period. The study randomly targeted 1,015 working-age adults.

And of those who lost their jobs, only 49 percent of the ones who had earned $40,000 or more annually said they received unemployment insurance. For those who made under $40,000 a year, the number with unemployment insurance shrinks to 35 percent.

"There's neither private sector nor government support that's going to most people," said Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, which conducted the study.

Few extended benefitsBarely one-fourth of those surveyed said their employer extended their health benefits after they were laid off, and less than one-fifth said they received help finding a job, career counseling or skills training.

Despite the National Bureau of Economic Research's July 17 proclamation that the recession ended in November 2001 -- because gross domestic product began rising then -- Van Horn says he and plenty of other economists disagree.

"There are still a lot of people unemployed," he said. "If you're a typical person and not an economist, you don't really care about the GDP."

Businesses continue to announce thousands of layoffs. The national unemployment rate hit a nine-year high of 6.4 percent in June, and many economists think it could hit 6.6 percent before starting to decline, which probably won't be until at least the end of this year.

In addition, workers are remaining unemployed longer than in previous recessions, write Van Horn and the study's co-author, Kenneth Dautrich, director of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis.

Thirty percent of those surveyed got only one to two weeks' notice their job was being cut, and 34 percent got no warning.

The survey also found that 40 percent of those who lost their jobs worry it will happen again in the next three to five years.

Since James Malloy, 58, was laid off as a truck driver in September 2000, he's washed cars and mowed lawns, then worked part-time for the Durham, N.C., transit company with no benefits to keep up with his mortgage and car loan.

"I was just scratching for pennies. It was tough times," said Malloy, whose brother also hasn't had steady work for about three years.

Married with two grown children, Malloy finally got a full-time supervisory job working nights with the transit system on July 1. But a new company just took over the transit system and quickly cut four of its 130 jobs.

Does he feel secure? "Not very," Malloy said.

------On the Net:

Rutgers' Heldrich Center: http://www.heldrich.rutgers.edu

BY THE NUMBERS

A look at some of the findings of the study, "The Disposable Worker: Living in a Job-Loss Economy," by researchers at Rutgers University and University of Connecticut:

Percent of those surveyed:

Laid off during the 2000-2003 recession: 18

Making under $40,000 and laid off during the period: 23

White workers who found a new full-time job during the period: 68

Black workers who found a new full-time job during the period: 44

Workers of other races who found a new full-time job during the period: 54

Concerned about the current unemployment rate: 36 (61 percent among blacks and 31 percent among whites)

Concerned about job security: 43

Who think they can do little to prevent being laid off: 61 among women, 45 percent among men

Who collected unemployment benefits while out of work: 51

Who remained unemployed 6-12 months during the current recession: 23

Who remained unemployed more than 12 months during the current recession: 7

Who think the government should help those laid off keep health insurance: 57

Who think the government should help furloughed workers pay for education or new career training: 39

Who think President Bush is doing an excellent job on job-related issues: 8

Who think Congress is doing an excellent job on job-related issues: 2