Local 99ers hoping job searches pay off soon

One week after the stock market crash of 1929, a club for female pilots was founded and elected Amelia Earhart as the organization's first president. Passing over names such as the Gadflies, the Homing Pigeons and the Noisy Birdwomen, the women called themselves “The Ninety-Nines” because their initial meeting drew 99 members.

The Ninety-Nines now have thousands of members spread across 36 countries. But the numbers in their name remind folks of a different, recently formed club that has millions of members, all recruited against their will.

The 99 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits just ran out for Michael, who never dreamed he'd be a member of this unfortunate group known as The 99ers. Michael, who, as did others in this column, asked that we not use his last name, used to make a six-figure salary as a comptroller for a manufacturing company. He lost his job way back in 2009 right after the Bears, on their way to a losing season, got beat by the Atlanta Falcons when new quarterback Jay Cutler threw two costly interceptions and slumping running back Matt Forte rushed for only 23 yards on 15 carries.

Fortunes have changed for those Bears, but not for Michael's job status.

“It's just been dry as a bone,” says Michael, a 59-year-old Wauconda man who went back to school last summer at Duke University for training in running nonprofit organizations. While he's hoping politicians will act soon to extend unemployment benefits for people who haven't found work after 99 weeks of looking, that is not his goal.

“If people think unemployment is what I want, they are out of their mind,” he says. “All it's doing is keeping me from filing for bankruptcy.”

The $654 in unemployment benefits that Chuck, a Lake Villa man in his 60s, gets every two weeks should run out in a few weeks, initiating the business intelligence professional into The 99ers.

“I've only had two in-person interviews in the last eight months,” says Chuck. “Even the companies that are doing better want to do much better, and their first response is to make the people they have do more. It's frightening.”

While Chuck gets health insurance through his wife's job, Michael and his self-employed wife spend $900 a month on their insurance. Just to keep busy and bring in a little money, Michael recently applied for a low-level job at a local grocer. He didn't get it. Businesses don't want to hire an overqualified person who will leave as soon as anything better comes around, and lots of unemployed people say that, while age discrimination is illegal, they sense that people are reluctant to hire anyone older than 50.

“When you are interviewing with someone who is 27 years old, you walk in the door and their face just changes,” Michael says.

Some of the keys for older workers is keeping their training up to date, willingly learning new skills and keeping their energy levels high, says Sherry Leginski, operations director at CareerPlace, (www.mycareerplace.org) the former Barrington Career Center in Barrington.

“A lot of what we do here is keep people going,” says Monica Keane, executive director of the nonprofit agency that helps job-seekers from 80 communities across the suburbs.

Acknowledging that sometimes a person can “do everything right and sometimes there's just not a job for them,” Leginski says the center teaches people the skills they need to win jobs, and uses networking to help people find those jobs.

“I got my job through networking,” says Kevin, a 54-year-old dad who attended meetings and volunteered at CareerPlace during his year-and-a-half without a job. He sent his resume to a company in January and didn't hear a thing, but when another executive that he had been networking with recommended him to that same company in April, the company called him, Kevin says.

“I'm making what I was making 20 years ago, and I'm OK with that,” says Kevin, who has been working in sales for the last six weeks. “You say, ‘I know I'm a good fit for somebody out there,' and that's what the career center does for people. You've got to believe there's a spot out there for you. You're always talking about yourself. You're always pushing it.”

That is a lesson Michael takes to heart, as this 99er strives to get his career flying high again.

“If you hear of anything,” Michael says, “you've got my number.”