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Doing whatever it takes to make money
Job seekers stand in a long line.
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TEXT OF STORY
TESS VIGELAND: We've reported before on some of the ways folks are supporting themselves while they're looking for work. Today we feature a story of creativity, mixed with not a little desperation.
From San Francisco, Heidi Pickman profiles someone close to her who's used to living on the edge.
Heidi Pickman: My friend Kat Beight will do almost anything to earn a buck in this economy. One recent Monday night, she picked up a bed.
Kat Beight to client: The mattress... I think the mattress is a little big, so it'll have to hang over a little bit.
The bed didn't fit in the client's new apartment in San Francisco. He offered $125 on Craigslist to move it to his mother's house in Las Vegas. Kat was headed to Vegas anyway, if she could round up some cash. Out of 15 responses, she got the gig.
I've witnessed more than three years of her unemployment spell. After a personal tragedy, she sold everything and left her customer service job at a jewelry manufacturer after 10 years.
Kat: I went to wandering for a little while, and when I came back, it was just the wrong time to re-enter civilization.
Yeah, like trying to find a job at the beginning of a major recession. For now, Kat's doing what she's done on and off for 20 years.
Kat: I will street vend until I find a job.
She's earned a decent living selling crafts at street fairs, like this one in Berkeley, and she's traveled cross-country to work music festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonaroo. She's traded hair wraps for wrapping hula hoops in colorful tape. It takes her 15 minutes to make a hoop. They sell for $25 and up.
Kat: I did not mean it to turn into a money-making enterprise full time, but it's actually paid my rent over the summer.
A year and a half ago at big concerts, Kat would net an average of $700 a day; this year, she averaged about $200. After paying vendor fees, some days she was lucky to break even.
Kat tells me she that she really does want a job with benefits, but finding a regular stream of income has been tough. For every available job, six people want it, even entry-level positions.
Kirill Elistratov works for Rubicon Programs, a job placement organization. He says professionals are squeezing out those with fewer credentials, like Kat, who doesn't have a college degree.
Kirill Elistratov: Places like movie theaters and customer service and work in cafes, coffee shops... You know, there's much more competition and people who are more experienced are willing to take those positions.
Last year, I helped Kat re-vamp her resume. She applied to over a 100 job openings -- warehouse work, taxi companies, waitressing, and of course, customer service jobs. Nada. She can't even get a minimum wage job at a convenience store.
Kat: My economic situation is in the toilet. I am literally living hand to mouth.
She had to get creative.
Kat: In life, my experience has taught me how to hustle up small gigs and random odd jobs.
She's stood on corners counting foot traffic -- that paid 20 bucks an hour. She's bartended at the occasional party. About once a month, Kat does product demos for beauty care products. And she's participated in market research studies, which often pay $75 an hour. One time, she had a bunch of wires attached to her head with gel.
Kat: I felt like a Borg. And they would have you watch a screen and respond by pressing a button. I believe they were testing subliminal messages.
Kat's seen the headlines that the economy is on the upswing. But until the good times become more than a number on a page, people like her will keep cobbling together small jobs to get by, even if it means hauling a bed to Vegas.
Client: Here's a portion of cash. My mom will give you the rest.
Kat: OK.
In San Francisco, I'm Heidi Pickman for Marketplace.
I have done paid surveys and paid programs online, I scrounge for money on streets and sidewalks, I collect recyclables to turn in for cash, I scrounge for money around the entrances of stores and vending machines, I collect found items to resell.
Didn't Americans and Europeans resort to general strikes to improve working conditions way back when? Is everybody too scared to organize protests to annoy big business and the government into doing something about this? It worked before . . . so many people have nothing to lose now ...why not?
This morning, Mar 6, Marketplace Money aired a short piece about a woman doing whatever it takes to survive the recession � selling event tickets, making craft items, moving furniture, etc. It was an engaging tale. That was followed by a listener call from a woman who lives on a hobby farm and some casual chat about backyard chickens before she got on to her main points. The juxtaposition was interesting. I, for one, have been struggling in this economy since Polaroid filed for Chapter 11 and laid off 8,000. That makes me an early adopter in the downturn. I have worked in a call center ($11.50/hr.) at Home Depot ($10/hr.) gone without insurance coverage, built web sites for small businesses and applied for every job in sight. With 30 years in journalism and 10 more in corporate communications, I am �overqualified� for just about everything. How flattering. And being 60 may hvae something to do with it too. That doesn�t put oil in the tank so I make do with wood stoves. Anyway. I seem to have combined the �do whatever it takes� department and the backyard chicken departments. I designed and am making and selling chicken tractors. (www.chicktrac.com). (safer daycare for chickens) I have sold nearly 60 in 12 states and am now starting year three. The chicken tractors that I make are now advertised nationally in Backyard Poultry magazine and got prominent placement in the premier issue of Chickens magazine this month. Two national resellers carry the item and I am talking with a third. They take the orders and I ship to their customers from here. The Western Mass Enterprise Fund liked my business plan enough to provide a microloan so I could cut the cost of materials by purchasing larger quantities. I was astonished at how complicated and difficult it really is to get from concept to �product.� I can now dependably ship one day after an order is placed and paid for. I have real shipping boxes now. Every unit is finally the same as every other unit. All are designed to be affordable, durable, mobile and practical and assemble without tools. Everything is made in America. No blue tarps and ratty used 2 x 4s here, though many folks seem to think that Do It Yourself is the lesser cost way to go. I could still get buried and fail if a company like Tractor Supply ordered hundreds of units for their stores. Or a Chinese factory could start banging out something similar for less cost. But for now, sales volume and production capacity are balanced. I have engaged a local welder, a stitching factory and a box maker (they all needed the work) to help make the parts, so I guess I am contributing to the local economy. There are folks all over the country trying to get zoning laws relaxed so they can keep chickens. Who knew? Maybe there are more stories for you in the �What people are doing to survive� nook? If so, I�d be happy to be a small part of it. Roy Nilson roynilson@verizon.net office: 978-724-6662 www.chicktrac.com www.roynilson.com PO Box 854 Petersham MA 01366
Kat is still doing fairly well considering her personal finiancial situation and the economy. Somehow she has managed to find situations in which she had been hired (however randomly or temporarialy) by people to do certain work for pay, or she somehow found a way to carry out something of a very small business of her own selling items at street fairs. Some people whom lose their job, just become homeless, and have to start finding shelters and soup kitchens since they have no way of investing some money into a business, or to travel to a place where they might get hired at least for a seasonal job.
It seems that Kat has a car. She has to be paying insurance and/or gas and whatever else a car needs, but she can earn money driving others to their destination or taking their belongings somewhere else. Many people don't have a car so as to use as a money-making asset. It is certainly true that a lot of higher educated people whom had lost their jobs or have been downsized are now competing for lower-skill jobs with people whom have only or less than a high school education and diploma. I had applied to work for the Census 2010 in NYC. The recruiters said that a lot of people whom would not have been seen trying for the job decades ago, such as wall street bankers and others whom make good money, have been applying to work as Census takers in 2010 because a lot of Wall Street workers or executives of companies, lost their jobs or were given fewer hours to work and they all need to make extra money. Furthermore, a greater number of people much older than about 35 have been applying and a lot of young people whom are just out of high school or whom need to earn some money for college are going to be competing with much more educated and skilled workers and the Census department thus has higher standards this year and people whom pass the test with a score of no less than 85 have the best chance of being considered and people whom score higher are even more likely to be considered for Census work. It is also true that in other jobs people with college degrees and advanced job skills and experience are making it tougher for people with lower skills and less schooling to get jobs that actually do not require a lot of skill or knowledge, such as parking lot attendant, waiter or waitress, etc. Nevertheless, another side of the coin is that for a few decades already, not everyone with a college education has been doing particularly well economically. Since approximately the late 1970s it has progressively gotten to where people out of college could not expect to have a general middle class existance. I myself graduated with an AAS in Liberal Arts back in the late 80's. I have been job hopping ever since and it looks like, more and more, people will still have to persue higher education as people have had to do in the past, but it cannot be so as to hope to get get the proverbial white collar or even blue collar job. It will have to be just to get a job as a mailroom clerk, or a fast food worker, or as a porter or doorman, and that is if one is lucky.
