Jobs were scarce, but HIRED helped them back

Let's hear it for Kay Frandsen, Paul Fagerberg, Kyoko Morimura and Bill Engeman.

They lost jobs to the Great Recession that put them on the street for up to two years. And they've recently been hired or started a business.

It's my hope that they are a harbinger of better days ahead for several million other unemployed Americans anxious to get back to work.

U.S. nonfarm payroll employment crept up by 162,000 jobs in March, but not enough to improve the unemployment rate from 9.7 percent. Minnesota lost 3,400 jobs in February, mostly in construction, hospitality and government, after an uptick of 1,600 jobs in January. The state unemployment rate remained at 7.3 percent. Still, it sure beats the loss of 14,000 Minnesota jobs last February.

"Hiring is picking up a bit," said Jane Samargia, the veteran executive director of HIRED, the nonprofit agency that this year will assist about 11,000 unemployed folks. "It was taking up to two years for dislocated workers who had good work experience to find jobs. Now, it's more like 30 to 40 weeks on average."

The economy appears to be growing stronger. The Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index, to be released Tuesday morning, suggests that economic growth in the first quarter was 4 percent, better than consensus economic-output forecasts of 2.9 percent.

"The good news in March is that the economy is recovering at a pace that should support job growth, although unfortunately not at a pace that will drive rapid improvement in the unemployment rate," said UCLA economist Ed Leamer. "GDP needs to grow at a 5 to 6 percent rate to drive meaningful change in unemployment."

President Obama signed a jobs bill recently that included modest tax credits of up to $1,000 for every new hire who lasts a year. There also is hope in some quarters, led by research by Upjohn Institute economist Tim Bartic, that the most cost-effective government plan to add more than 1 million working-class jobs is through wage subsidies of up to several thousand bucks over six months targeted at small businesses. Small businesses create up to 75 percent of the new jobs. And the cost is soon paid back in lower unemployment compensation and increased payroll taxes.

Regaining confidence

Regardless, the economy hasn't fully recovered until we can put everybody who needs one back in a tax-paying job and off the public tab. And I was heartened recently by the stories of these four people:

Kyoko Morimura came to HIRED after she was laid off as a corporate trainer by Wilson Learning in 2009. HIRED, funded by government contracts, fees and philanthropy, helped her get additional training and several job interviews, and she landed a position as a senior talent management specialist with Alliant Techsystems.