Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Underemployment | Many 'downsize' skills

Rich Grogan of Murrells Inlet is working as a sales associate at Sears for about 22 to 24 hours a week on 100 percent commission to help make ends meet for his wife and 2-year-old son.

Grogan, who holds an MBA and an undergraduate degree in finance, has worked for years in management, but his latest job at the United States Bowling Congress was cut in one of the first waves of layoffs last year.

He's now making about one-third of the income he brought in before, but he's happy to have a job.

Grogan is one of thousands of area residents who is considered to be underemployed, which means a person is either working part time when he or she previously worked full time, or that a person is working a full-time job, but using fewer or none of the skills he or she previously used in another career.

Nationwide, about 6 percent of the working population is underemployed, and across the state, about 6 percent, said Don Schunk, a research economist at Coastal Carolina University.

There aren't any numbers specific to the Grand Strand available, but he estimated that this number is even higher for the area.

With the Horry County unemployment rate at 10.9 percent, anywhere between 1 in 6 to 1 in 4 people could be either underemployed and unemployed, Schunk said.

"First of all, we don't have a very diverse economy; we are a tourism-based economy, we are trying to become more diversified, but we have a long ways to go," he said. "When you have an economy that's not very diverse, you can have people who moved to this area to get a job in finance, but ... if people lose a job within one of those industries, there's not many other businesses in that industry to absorb those workers, so they are then forced to take a job that they otherwise would not have."

In addition, a large segment of the workforce in the Myrtle Beach area is connected to the housing market and commercial development, which are working far fewer hours and earning less income than before the recession, he said.

The Coastal Workforce Center has seen an increase in its share of underemployed people coming through the doors, said director Mary Nell Smith.

"With full-time jobs not available, we have a lot of overqualified people, so they are taking whatever they can find - part-time, any hours available, temporary," she said. "There's a lot of people taking things to get by for right now."

Crystal Johnson of Conway, who previously worked as a booking and payroll specialist in Washington, D.C., moved to the Myrtle Beach area last year and struggled to find new employment.

She's now working an average of 16 hours a week as a substitute custodian and cafeteria worker for Horry County Schools.

"I went from making $21 dollars an hour to making $7.50 an hour," she said. "I like the area, but the job market is not the best."

Glenda Rowan of Myrtle Beach was laid off from her housekeeping job at Best Western in August, and for now, the best she can find is a once-a-week job through Able Body Labor, a temp service.

"Basically, I don't pay anything right now," she said. "Basically, my husband pays it all."

Although there's another income to hold up the family finances, it's still changed their lifestyle dramatically, Rowan said.

They don't go out to eat or for entertainment as much in the past, and she, her husband and 19-year-old son often opt to walk, rather than drive, to certain neighborhood stores to save money, she said.

Grogan said his family lifestyle has changed some as well.

"We went from having two cars to one. All of our possessions, from furniture to dishes to anything is in a storage chest because we're living at my mom's house with all of her furniture," he said.

"I still try and eat healthy because I need my wife and my child to be healthy. I try not to skimp too much than that ... We cut out the expensive cuts of meat, start working on the generic brands and things like that, and utilizing those as much as possible."

When trying to determine the true conditions of households right now, it's important to look past the unemployment rates, Schunk said.

"It tells the condition not just of households right now, but it's the underemployed who are going to have a real hard time spending and driving the economy out of the recession. You have to include that other population," he said.

"We need consumer spending to drive this economy forward, and when you're talking about numbers that are 20 percent or more, it becomes real difficult to find the ones that are going to spend us out of the recession."

Gary Cooper of North Myrtle Beach, who was working dishwashing jobs at two different Market Common restaurants, one full time and one part time, recently found out that he was laid off from his full-time job.

He said he's now spending the money from his 29-hour-a-week job "very, very wisely."

"As they say, I 'stretch a dollar from here to the door,'" he said.

Johnson said her part-time job with the school district is just enough to pay all of the bills.

In the meantime, she's working on her future. She's back in school and working on a bachelor's degree in middle school education at CCU.

She said her time as underemployed and unemployed has helped her to realize that she wants to do something that not just makes good money, like her former job as a bookkeeper, but also is something fulfilling.

Grogan said in addition to having a bigger nest egg, there are several other important life lessons he's picked up throughout his underemployment.

"I've grown stronger and had a deepening faith and a stronger relationship with my wife through this," he said. "Ten, 15, 20 years from now when I look back, it'll be like, gee it was tough, but there were some positives that have helped me grow and made things better in the broad perspective of things."