Saturday, May 25, 2013

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Are Alaska Employers Overlooking Unemployed Job Applicants?
In a tough economy, many job seekers say finding a job has essentially become a job-but are the hiring powers passing over the unemployed?
By Alexis Fernandez


Across Alaska, nearly 50,000 people are unemployed and actively looking for work.

The Anchorage Midtown Job Center helps nearly 8,000 unemployed Alaskans every month with job seeker services, resume assistance and computer literacy.

“It’s very difficult because there’s lots of people competing for the same job, and they’re a lot younger [with] lots more experience,” said Jacqueline Ray, who has been unemployed for nine months.

Ray was working for a nonprofit organization and was let go with less than a month’s notice.

She thought it would “be a piece of cake” to find a new job, but instead the search has been “very difficult.”

William Payne, 59, is also unemployed and has been for two years.

“It’s been a great deal more difficult and I can just only attribute that Alaska is feeling what the rest of the United States is feeling,” he said.

Payne, a teacher by trade, moved to Alaska two years ago to teach and anticipated an easy transition.

“I have many years of previous experience and they financially tell me that they can’t afford to pay that—that’s my dilemma,” he said.

He’s been unsuccessful finding a job so far, and says the only discrimination he feels the unemployment population faces is ageism.

“I think the age factor might be one of the bigger ones, bigger issues,” he said.