Mary Swain has a high school education, a husband who is retired and a stack of bills that grows daily. That wouldn’t be so bad if she hadn’t been laid off in June from a packing and assembly job five minutes from her South Side home.
Swain, 56, says after two months with no callbacks, she’s starting to get nervous. “Are there any jobs left?” she wonders.
Swain, who has nearly 20 years of warehouse and factory experience, is in the same boat as thousands of Chicago-area workers who have been laid off, particularly in manufacturing.
The headlines have centered around layoffs at major corporations like Motorola and Lucent Technologies, and on the dot-com downturn. But low-, middle-wage and unskilled workers have also felt the boot, and some of them lack the connections and training to find another job before sinking into debt.
Yet, the word on the street is that there are plenty of jobs out there. Displaced workers like Swain want to know where.
Landing some jobs is as simple as being the first to grab a “help wanted” sign out of a store window. Some are practically reserved for you–if you’re willing to commute. Still others are pending completion of new construction, relocation to a larger facility or finalization of expansion plans.
Take Paket Corp., which packages sample items and recently relocated to 9165 S. Harbor Ave. It expects to hire between 18 and 60 people from its Southeast Side neighborhood.
Paket is hiring part-time workers to do packaging, starting at $6 an hour. The positions become full-time after six months with full benefits.
In a first-time program, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development has contracted with a group called the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago to help fill a variety of jobs in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor, a tax increment finance district established in 1998. The industrial corridor is bounded by Lake Street on the south, Grand Avenue on the north, Halsted Street on the east and Central Park Avenue on the west.
There are 90 job listings from 40 corridor businesses, with an average salary of $9.50 an hour. Travis Sullivan, a project coordinator for the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development said there is an effort to do most of the hiring from the 27th Ward.
“It’s a model we’re having a lot of success with,” Sullivan said.
In the Chicago area, there are entry-level and low-skills jobs to be found if you know where and when to look.
“There are plenty of jobs out there. The challenge most job seekers have is where they fit in the job market,” said Jeff Furst, president of Furst Person, a Chicago-based recruiting and training company specializing in personnel for corporate call centers.
With a high turnover rate, call centers are almost always looking for workers who are motivated, interested in helping people and who, frankly, don’t bore easily.
“There are plenty of people who don’t want to sit for seven hours a day and take calls. It is very routine,” said Furst, who described call centers as “a sea of cubicles and a wave of conversations.”
But the pay is good. In Chicago, the average wage for entry-level workers is $12 to $14 an hour. Call-center managers can make anywhere from $65,000 to $95,000 a year, Furst said.
A large number of call centers are concentrated along Interstate Highway 88 in Oak Brook, Naperville and Aurora.
“People who live in that area could have their pick of 10 jobs tomorrow,” Furst said, adding that a majority of those workers come from the city’s South Side and south suburbs.
If you’re up to the drive, here are some catchphrases to look for in the classifieds for call-center openings: customer care/service; collections, inside sales, market research, technical support/help desk, Web enabled agent, or contact center agent.
It’s worth noting that the job you want might not come with the salary you seek. You may have to take a pay cut, said Jeff Joerres, president and CEO of Manpower Inc.
Layoffs that occurred in May and June are only now starting to take effect as severance packages begin to run out.
Entry-level jobs that now pay $9 to $13 an hour will begin to dry up, leaving those that pay $7 or $8, Joerres said.
“Consider yourself on a bit of an egg timer. Over the next four or five months, it will get worse finding the job you want,” Joerres said.
More recession-proof industries, such as grocery, health care, pharmaceutical and hospitality, are rife with opportunities. Jewel-Osco, which opened a new store on Wabash Avenue and Roosevelt Road earlier this month, is also planning to open two more stores in Chicago. The grocer is also opening stores in Aurora, Elmhurst and Chesterton, Ind., and will be hiring about 1,400 new employees by year’s end, said Karen Ramos, a spokeswoman. Each new store will employ about 300, including some part-time positions.
Peapod, a Web-based grocery service, saw a hiring blitz in July after the demise of its competitor Webvan. Another 100 positions are expected to be created with the opening of a new facility in Lake Zurich by the end of August, said Nancy Kazarian, director of human resources for Peapod.
Pay starts around $9 an hour, with a premium for third-shift employees, Kazarian said.
Hiring is ongoing for the new Embassy Suites Chicago Downtown-Lakefront, part of the $1.5 billion River East project. The hotel opened Wednesday but housekeeping and food and beverage jobs, with salaries ranging from $5.25 to $12 an hour, are available, said Sandra Neely, director of human resources. Training is available.
Keep an eye on the progress of the River East complex, which will include high-rise residential facilities, a number of new retail shops, a 21-screen AMC Theater, a European health spa by Bally’s, restaurants and lounges, said Bill Figel, spokesman for MCL Companies, River East developer.
Figel could not provide projected opening dates for the rest of the complex.
The Staybridge Hotel, 200 Royce Blvd., an extended-stay facility in Oakbrook Terrace, is hiring housekeepers, front desk agents and maintenance workers starting at $7.50 to $10 an hour. Supervisory positions pay from $10 to $15 an hour, said Jacqueline Bancroft, general manager. The hotel is slated to open before year’s end.
Stylemaster, a maker of plastic storage containers at 76th Street and Columbus Avenue, will be hiring 400 new employees over the next couple of years as part of a combination relocation/expansion, said David Hughes, controller and human resources manager.
The company plans to add 100 employees by year’s end. It has hired about 20 so far, Hughes said.
Jobs at Stylemaster include forklift operator, machine operator, dye setters, packers and shift and maintenance supervisors, as well as some administrative positions. Entry level jobs start at $6.50 an hour but a skilled technician can make $15 an hour, Hughes said.
Swain said she’s trying to hold out for a job at Stylemaster because it’s not far from her home and she’s confident.
“I can get a job because I have experience in packing, when they get everything together,” she said.
