By Joyce Gramza
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wrvo/local-wrvo-937476.mp3
Syracuse, NY – On a recent afternoon at Syracuse's Carousel Center mall, it isn't a sale that's drawing a crowd.
These people are at a job fair organized by Cornell University Cooperative Extension.
With the latest wave of people on "short-term" unemployment starting to exhaust their six months of benefits, we're looking for folks who might be affected.
Paralegal Virginia Hartley is one.
"My benefits will be running out shortly after Christmas day, so Tiny Tim's not going to get that operation he's been saving for," Hartley laughs.
Tiny Tim's got plenty of company.
"About 190-thousand people will be exhausting their benefits by the end of this year alone this is no time to cut off benefits," says New York State Labor Commissioner Colleen Gardner.
While "short-term unemployment" benefits last 26 weeks and are paid for by states, emergency benefits are federally funded.
Gardner says it's currently taking new yorkers an average of 32 weeks to find work, and is calling on Congress to vote an extension.
Hartley moved here from New York City two months ago. She says the job climate is similar here.
"I find it's the same everywhere maybe one job opening and 300 applicants. So it's very competitive," she says.
She says she's lucky to be staying with mom for a while.
"I got one response back from Lockheed Martin, so if you're listening Lockheed Martin, give me a call!" Hartley says.
In the Syracuse area, job growth has been slightly up and the unemployment rate, slightly down from the same time last year, for five months running.
State Department of Labor Economist Karen Knapik-Scalzo says it's the start of a recovery.
"We have seen some small improvement," she says. "We've gained 2500 private sector jobs over the year but when we look two years ago we're still down 7800 jobs."
That reason-- not enough jobs-- is why all of the job-seekers willing to talk to us say they favor extensions.
Like Ann Dallalah, whose career in financial management ran 31 years before she was down-sized.
"With 9.6, 9.7 percent unemployment, definitely needed," Dallalah says. "I'm lucky in that I was somewhat prepared, but there are people who have been living hand to mouth."
And people can't survive even four months without work," she adds. "I got paid pretty well before this and unemployment is very meager, believe me. If that's all I had to live on, we wouldn't be surviving."
That's become a reality for John Melnick, who's due to exhaust his latest 26 weeks.
He says he's currently only making ends meet with the help of food stamps
"Fortunately, I'm a veteran, so the VA has picked up on the medical situation which I'm thankful for," Melnick says.
"Aside from that, I became homeless earlier this year. The building I was staying at was condemned, so I'm currently at the Y."
Melnick says his first career, at a once-well-off Rochester company, was out-sourced away. And his next, consulting for the computer industry, got hit by the dot-com bust.
He says he's been over-qualified and under-employed ever since and has seen a whole lot of company turnover.
He does not expect to see an extension of benefits.
"There's not going to be any renewal of those benefits and people like myself will be moving off onto the welfare rolls," he says.
Staffing agency owner Tom Fletcher also predicts there'll be no extension.
"I think fact they've extended it for almost two years its been good, it's been needed," says Fletcher. "I don't know if they need to extend it another six months.
Fletcher's firm handles permanent and temporary staffing. He says states are now so under-water from paying out benefits that they're going to have to raise taxes on employers, who in turn will avoid those costs by hiring temps.
He suggests the only solution for workers is taking whatever jobs they can get right now.
Job-seekers at this event say that is their plan.
Laurie Maddaloni is a former bank branch manager who's been out of work for more than a year.
"When people ask me what I do, I want to have an answer: this is where I work and this is what I do," she says. "For 15 years I took great pride in that every single day."
Maddaloni excited about the chance of a full-time job that would last until March.
"It will absolutely be less than half of what I used to make, and that's going to have to be OK for now," she says.
When we call to check on Dallalah, she's also found something-- a school-district job that could turn secure if she aces a civil service test.
"I would have to take the exam and be one of the top three candidates on top of the exam in order to keep my job on a permanent basis, but for now it's provisional," Dallalah says. "But it's a job and it's good and it starts next week, so I'm very happy!
Hartley does get that call from Lockheed Martin for a phone interview.
And Melnick gets at least the chance to work and maybe even a foot in the door to a job at Cornell. He's taking an unpaid internship with the Cooperative Extension program that brought him to the job fair.
Encouraging outcomes for the folks who turn out, but these are the people who haven't given up.
And even here, anyone willing to talk into our microphone is clearly feeling both outwardly and inwardly presentable.
Not everyone does.
One woman dressed in her business best wears a posture and expression of defeat. We try and persuade her to talk to us but she says she is just too sad.