President’s ‘fair shot’ an elusive goal for some job seekers

• Reprints

Updated: February 26, 2012 8:09AM

With President Barack Obama talking in Tuesday’s State of the Union address about resurrecting an economy “where everyone gets a fair shot,” Grace Jenkins talks about a long line of people who don’t think they have any shot at all.

They’ve been out of work for months — some for more than a year — and their age and lack of competitive, 21st century job skills make them an afterthought in the eyes of potential employers. They come to places such as National Able Network, where Jenkins is president and chief executive officer, to try to improve their chances.

“We’re going to look back and see that we’ve created this entire underclass” of people, Jenkins said of a recession that turned life upside down for many comfortable, middle-class wage earners.

More than 21/2 years after the Great Recession ended, job growth has been improving but hasn’t been robust enough to make much of a dent in unemployment statistics.

And the numbers don’t reflect the people who Chicago-based Able, which offers training and other assistance to job seekers, works to help, Jenkins said. So frustrated in their job search that they’ve given up, they’re no longer counted among the rolls of the active labor force.

It’s not that jobs aren’t out there.

Manufacturers in the Chicago area are desperate for workers with training in welding or electrical work, but “there is a real shortage of skilled help,” and some of those skills are no longer being taught at area high schools and community colleges, Ted Stalnos, president of the Calumet Area Industrial Commission, said.

Employers don’t want to shoulder the cost of training non-skilled workers, although Stalnos said his group has gotten grant money to help manufacturing companies, particularly in the south suburbs, cover some of those costs.

Older workers who want to learn new skills are having a hard time because funds for training programs to organizations such as Able have been dramatically reduced, Jenkins said.

“It’s not a small problem,” she said.

On the whole, companies are reluctant to hire in large numbers because “there’s so much uncertainty still out there,” said Hilary Burkinshaw, director of CenterPoint, a small-business development center at Governors State University.

Until businesses see stronger demand from customers, they’ll get along with the employees they have now and make do, she said.

“An employee is an expensive investment, and you (the business owners) need to be able to see some sort of return on that investment or at least the potential for a return,” Burkinshaw said.