New York: Tent City Springs Up as Over One Thousand People Try to Receive an Application for a Single Elevator Mechanic Job
April 27th, 2010Can you feel the Recovery?
Via: CBS:
Desperate times call for desperate measures – even if it means camping out in the rain for a chance at a job application.
Hundreds of job-seekers did just that in Queens in the hopes of landing a coveted union job.
Construction workers, engineers, electricians — hundreds spent the weekend right here. Many left with a job application, while many others walked away empty-handed.
“The sky’s the limit after this!” said Aaron Johnson of Mount Vernon.
Johnson is living month-to-month, struggling to pay the bills, with a 4-year-old daughter to support — and he was one of the lucky ones.
After three days of sleeping on the street, he left with one of just 750 job applications handed out for a position as an elevator technician apprentice — a secure job with pension and benefits and an earning potential up to $40 an hour.
“You don’t wanna keep working these dead-end jobs, check to check to check to check. I don’t want to do that anymore,” Johnson said.
More than 1,000 eager applicants began lining up as early as Friday morning armed with a variety of skills — and warm blankets.
Though many near the end of the line knew they probably wouldn’t even get an application, desperation to land a job fueled their determination to stand on line anyway — and hope for the best.
