After getting laid off last year, David Fagerstrom is grateful for the part-time income he pulls in as an adjunct economics professor at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
“I’m not sitting at home crying in my beer sitting on the couch. I’m out doing things,” said Fagerstrom from his office.
“I’m teaching, doing some 10-99 contracting. I’m involved in a professional networking group. I’m doing everything I can to find real work.”
Fagerstrom spent 9 years working as a business operations analyst, making close to a six-figure salary.
Now he’s patching together teaching work and other contract gigs, earning roughly $30,000. With a son in college and foreclosure at the back of his mind, he says it’s not enough.
“All the debt collectors calling get to be a challenge,” said Fagerstrom.
According to the bureau of labor statistics, 8.3 million people across the country are holding down part time work for economic reasons, because their hours have been cut back or because they’ve been unable to find a full-time job.
The under-employed, like Fagerstom, live on the economic edge.
“There’s the initial unemployment rate, which counts people that have been looking for jobs in the past four weeks,” explains Alan Clayton-Matthews, an Economist at Northeastern University. “But, there’s also a wider measure called U-6 which also counts people that are employed part-time involuntarily and that unemployment rate is 17 percent right now in Massachusetts where as the official unemployment rate is 9.4% so there are a lot of people who are in the same position.”
Fagerstom knows the competition is tough, and the odds are against him.
“At my age, 63, if there was somebody else who was 54 and somebody else who was 48, all considered equally qualified, most companies are probably going to hire the younger person,” Fagerstrom said.
Still he holds out hope- From networking to on-line searching… aiming to find an employer who values experience.
Until then, Fagerstrom says he’ll stay positive and pass the lessons he’s learned onto the next generation.