| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| April 30, 2008 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 11 Number 25 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| New Vietnam Film Reveals an Unknown Side of the War |
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During and after the Vietnam War, the American public was
accustomed to hearing horrific tales of torture and combat from faraway jungles in the East. Few news reports detailed countless humanitarian efforts that American troops spearheaded once they met Vietnam face-to-face. Early this month, Pennsylvania Veterans Museum board chairman and Media mayor Bob McMahon, among a handful of others, unveiled a film that fills the gap.
Titled, The American Humanitarian Effort: Outtakes from Vietnam, the museum’s inspiring account of US troops' efforts to bring needed medicine, clothes, food, and daily necessities to Vietnam describes a side of the war that many documentaries omit. The film documents how American troops were so touched by the plight of the Vietnamese -- malnutrition, poor sanitation, lack of medical care -- that they launched a massive humanitarian effort that evolved as the war thickened. Medical helicopter missions, known as dustoffs, rescued 9,000 people by the war’s end. When the war officially ended, 2,600 children were transported from Vietnam to the US as part of a rescue mission known as Operation Baby Lift. More than 20,000 Vietnamese were transported to refugee camps, and later to the US, several years after the war. The film owes its origins to the efforts of Delaware County natives and men who served as Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, who wanted to share their stories with schoolchildren in the late 1990s. Since then, several films have followed, and the museum is putting the educational pieces together into a program that will show in schools across the state and across the country. Dan Burkholder, one of the rescued Baby Lift orphans, agreed with the film's promoters that his story was one every American child should learn about. Transported from the An Lac Orphanage in a handmade basket and blanket, Burkholder was flown to the US and raised by an American family who gave him a life his natural mother would have wanted for him. Burkholder presented one of the leaders of Operation Baby Lift with the museum’s Lifetime of Caring Award after the film’s premiere. Nurse Betty Tisdale was known as the "Angel of Saigon" to residents and children she helped rescue. She helped fly 219 children to the US; each of them was adopted within one month. Source: Delaware County Times |
| Inflation Drives Workers Out of Phnom Penh |
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The music and dancing usually found in labor communities ringing factories around Khmer New Year has faded. It’s been silenced by a struggle with inflation so severe that some workers are returning to their rural homelands as the cost of living in Phnom Penh rises beyond their salaries.
"In past years, as Khmer New Year approached, workers would always gather along the road near the factories in Chak Angre for dancing at night," said Hok Setha, who represents workers at the USA factory there. "But now it’s been very quiet. Many of the workers in the area returned to their homeland because of inflation." He said five workers from his factory have already quit and he will join them to return to his home in Saang district, Kandal, to farm. "Working on rice harvests, we can earn $3 or more a day, but working in the factory we get less than $2." Sim Sophal, from Kampong Cham, has worked at the CIT New garment factory nearly a decade and still receives the minimum monthly wage of $50. Her 1,000-riel meals now cost 1,500 or 2,000 riel, and her rent that used to be $5 has climbed by 50%. She said she will look for another job, along with ten of her co-workers, because she can no longer afford to live in Phnom Penh, let alone save money to send to her family in the countryside. Chhan Sreymao, a worker at the Hat Enterprise factory, said about ten workers were quitting each month to return to their villages or to look for higher paying jobs in the city. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said about 2,000 workers left in March as soaring inflation made living in Phnom Penh impossible. In 50 factories in the provinces of Phnom Penh, Kandal, and Kampong Speu, he said, "20 to 50 workers per month have quit at each factory because their salary couldn't pay for their living expenses. 80% to 90% of them returned to their homelands, and a small number have remained in Phnom Penh looking for a new job." Free Trade Union president Chea Mony said, "I’ve found many female workers have gone to restaurants after they left the factories. This job can give them more income than factory work, so I don't blame them." Alonzo Suson, country director of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, said some factory owners are complaining of labor shortages and are considering relocating their factories to the countryside where costs are lower. While inflation has created hardship for many workers, it is unlikely they can simply flee to the countryside in droves, said Tuomo Poutiainen, an advisor for the International Labor Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia program. "You already have some 250,000 people joining the labor force every year," Poutiainen said. "What will the departing workers do? It’s not the favored work of Cambodians to be in the field." Source: Phnom Penh Post |
| Medicaid Co-Pay Proposal Causes Concern for Poor |
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The human services commissioner of New Jersey on Monday said it was a "valid concern" that poor people would avoid medical care if Gov Corzine's proposal to charge them new fees for prescription drugs and some hospital visits is approved. Corzine proposed co-payments for Medicaid recipients to raise $7.55 million for the cash-strapped
state budget. Legislators fear the payments could prompt poor people to forgo health care, especially senior citizens, the disabled, and the mentally ill.
"I do think it's a valid concern," Jennifer Velez, the state human services chief, told senators during a hearing. "I couldn't tell you that it's not." NJ is among eight states that currently don't charge Medicaid co-payments for prescription drugs. Corzine proposes a $6 co-payment on emergency-room visits that aren't a true emergency, to raise $550,000, and a $2 co-payment on prescription drugs, to raise $7 million. The prescription drug co-payment would be capped at $10 per month per person. Corzine proposes spending $33 billion next fiscal year, but legislators and advocates for the poor fear the co-payments, even if small, could be too painful for people with little margin for extra expenses but serious medical problems. Senator Dana Redd (D-Camden) said, "They obviously will make a choice, whether it's food, clothing, or shelter, as opposed to pursuing their meds." "There are very few, if any, really good options," Velez said. "This is not a particularly good option, but the reason why it's in the budget this year is the dire situation." Mary Lynne Reynolds, executive director of The Mental Health Association in Southwestern NJ, said 5,000 New Jerseyans with mental illnesses live in boarding homes. She said most of those people receive Medicaid and Social Security insurance that pays for room and board and a $50-per-month personal allowance to buy amenities such as snacks and newspapers. "Boarding home residents barely get by now. Forcing them to pay up to $10 a month will make their lives more difficult, and many will have to choose between medications and other important basics." This is the third time Corzine has proposed Medicaid co-payments since becoming governor in 2006. His fellow Democrats who control the Legislature rejected them the first two times. Source: Associated Press |
| In India, Even the Gods are Going Hungry |
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Every morning, Hindu devotees haul buckets of fresh, creamy milk into this neighborhood temple, then close their eyes and bow in prayer as the milk is used to bathe a Hindu deity. At the foot of the statue, they leave small baskets of bananas, coconuts, incense sticks, and marigolds.
But recently, Ram Gopal Atrey, the head priest here at Prachin Hanuman Mandir, noticed donations thinning for the morning prayers. He knew exactly why: inflation. With prices soaring for staples such as cooking oils, wheat, lentils, milk, and rice across the globe, priests like Atrey say they are seeing the consequences in their neighborhood temples, where even the poorest of the poor have long made donations. "Today the common man is tortured by the increases in prices," Atrey lamented during one early morning prayer, adding that donations of milk were down by as much as 50%. He had recently met with colleagues from other temples, along with imams from local mosques, who reported similar experiences. "If poor people don't even have enough for bread, how will they donate milk to the gods?" Milk is literally the nectar of the gods in India. Most temples in the south use it at least twice a day to bathe Hindu statues, since it symbolizes the eternal goodness of human beings and is seen as a generous offering. Across the country, milk also symbolizes life and death. Bodies are anointed with purified butter before cremation. Milk is a main ingredient in paneer -- a cheese-cube dish known here as the king of all foods -- as well as yogurt, curries, tea, and sweets. While poverty rates in South Asia have decreased in recent years, more than 400 million people remain under the poverty line and account for nearly 40% of the world's poor, according to the UN. Although India's soaring economy has generated service-sector jobs, most of the workforce is still made up of men who lay bricks, sell fruit, or are hired as day laborers, making them among the most vulnerable to a price spike. Source: Washington Post |
| Foreclosure Crisis Has Wider Effects on Cities |
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The mortgage foreclosure crisis has caused a drop in cities' revenues, a spike in crime, more homelessness, and an increase in vacant properties, a survey of elected local officials shows. About two-thirds of 211 officials surveyed by the National League of Cities (NLC) reported an increase in foreclosures in their cities in the past year, according to the online and e-mail questionnaire. A third of them reported a drop in revenues and an increase in abandoned and vacant properties and urban blight.
"There's a reduction in revenues at the same time that more services are needed," said NLC president Cynthia McCollum. "Because of foreclosures, people are stealing, crime is on the rise, and we don't have more money for cops on the street." More than a fifth of city officials responding said homelessness and the need for temporary and emergency housing increased in the past year. The ills of foreclosures dominated the agenda of last month's NLC meeting with congressional lawmakers in Washington DC to secure federal funding for local initiatives. "The American dream for individuals has now become the nightmare for cities," says James Mitchell, a Charlotte NC councilman and head of the group's National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials. Foreclosed homes are targets of vandalism, he says, and there's been an increase in police calls. In Peachtree Hills, one of the many neighborhoods of starter homes that sprouted around Charlotte this decade, 115 of the 123 homes are in foreclosure, he says. "The 12 residents left there can't sell their homes, and now their property values have decreased. It's starting to be a symbol of what we don't want to happen to Charlotte." Many of the buyers were African-Americans who were enticed by zero-down mortgages on moderately priced homes. The survey shows that lower-income families, single parents, seniors, and people of color are disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. Source: USA Today |
| Child Labor a Nationwide Problem in Saudi Arabia |
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Child labor is a serious social problem facing Saudi Arabia, where nearly 1.54% of the child population works, says a recent study. The study, the first of its kind in the kingdom, commissioned by the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology and conducted by Dr Mohammad Abdullah Al Naji, showed that the Eastern Province tops the list in child labor, at 2.3%, followed by Makkah, Madinah, Asir, and Riyadh.
Common prominent social characteristics among working children include parents' low professional and educational status, large family size, inadequate support for children by families, and low levels of achievement in school. The study also indicated that economic issues are the primary driving factors for child labor, followed by other factors that include dropping out of school and domestic pressure. Some 2,000 Saudi children were either interviewed by Naji or asked to fill out questionnaires he designed. Researchers say child labor has spread all over Saudi cities. "You can see them in front of the Two Holy Mosques as well as at public parks, traffic intersections, and corniches," said Saudi researcher Saud Fahd Al Shahri. Major factors in this phenomenon, according to Shahri, are poverty and the low standard of living of a large number of illegal foreigners who overstay in the kingdom, especially in major cities. "Family disintegration, low cultural awareness, ignorance about provisions of laws regarding child labor, and trafficking of children from neighboring countries, especially Yemen, are the contributing factors." Children, according to the study, are mostly employed in the business sector followed by agriculture. Naji wrote in his conclusions that Saudi Arabia has enacted a number of laws on child labor. Referring to another study, Shahri said that nearly 69% of child beggars in Riyadh are Saudis. "About 88% of mothers of child beggars are illiterate, and only 9% of them hold even an elementary school certificate." "Poverty breeds a poor culture for these children," he added, "and it forces them to resort to begging and street jobs to make a living." Source: Gulf News |
| Burmese Job Seekers Die in Thailand |
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The death by suffocation early this month of 54 migrant workers from Myanmar, while being transported in an enclosed container truck in southern Thailand, was a tragedy waiting to happen, say labor rights activists. The victims, whose bodies were found when the cramped truck was opened, were among a group of 122 people from Myanmar who had slipped into Thailand to secure jobs in the resort areas of Phang-nga and Phuket. The dead included 36 women, 17 men, and an 8-year-old girl.
Survivors told the Thai media that the only air that circulated in the sealed truck was through an air-conditioning system. But early in the journey the flow of air dropped and breathing became difficult, they added. Banging on the sides of the truck had failed to draw the driver's attention. The driver fled the scene after he eventually stopped the truck and discovered what had happened to the migrants. "This is the largest number of deaths of Burmese migrant workers we have recorded in one incident," said Htoo Chit, director of a Burmese migrant rights group. "What happened is very sad, but these kind of terrible deaths of migrant workers happen often in Thailand." "This tragic accident reveals a problem that goes much deeper," said Bill Salter of the International Labor Organization. "There are networks involved in the movement of migrant workers in some instances. Some cases are outright trafficking." The migrants who were being trucked to the two resort provinces along the Andaman coast were following a route that tens of thousands of others from the military-ruled country had taken before them. They are drawn to work in jobs described as "dirty and dangerous" in the fisheries industry, the construction sector, and in plantations such as rubber and palm oil. Migrant labor from Myanmar has been the main work force behind the construction of the many hotels that dot the beaches of Phang-nga and Phuket, mainstays of Thailand's vibrant tourist industry. In the fisheries sector, men are employed on boats, while women work in factories to process the catch. "There is a lot of exploitation in the fisheries sector. The Burmese have to work for long hours and with low pay," said Sutphiphong Khongkathon of the Migrant Action Program Foundation. "And Thai labor law does not offer any protection for them." In recent months, "more and more Burmese are coming for jobs despite the heavy costs", Sutphiphong said. "They have been given the impression that they can work legally here at some point. That is a wrong impression." Source: Inter Press Service |
| How to Buy Happiness |
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Bad news for the luxury goods market: Spending money on tchochkes doesn't make you happier, but giving money away just might. That conclusion, in a study published in the journal Science, flies in the face of what most people -- and, certainly, advertisers -- typically believe.
It's far easier to measure income than happiness. Even so, researchers around the world have reported that even though real income has surged around the globe, reported "happiness" levels have stayed relatively flat. That spurred Elizabeth Dunn, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia (UBC), to explore ways that more money might lead to more happiness. Working with graduate student Lara Aknin and Harvard Business School assistant professor Michael Norton, Dunn began by asking 632 Americans to rate their general level of happiness, as well as to report their income, how much they spent on themselves, and how much they donated to charity. As researchers sifted through the numbers, they found that happiness didn't correlate with personal spending but with how much they gave away. Not that anyone was giving very much away. Personal spending -- for pleasure and out of necessity -- topped donations by a factor of 10. The typical income of participants in the study was modest, roughly ranging from $20,000 to $50,000. The researchers figured it was worth trying to test the hypothesis a bit further. They found a group of 16 people in the Boston area who were due to receive a profit-sharing bonus at work. A month before getting the bonus, the researchers asked them to rate their happiness. Then, six to eight weeks after the workers received their $3,000 to $8,000 bonuses, the researchers asked what they did with the money and how they felt. Once again, Dunn reports, giving away money seemed to nudge many people up the happiness scale, increasing the number of people who said that they were happy "most of the time" rather than just "some of the time". Then the researchers took yet another step: They handed out sealed envelopes containing $5 or $20 to 46 people on the UBC campus. They instructed half the people to spend the money on themselves -- either on necessities or indulgences -- and then told the other half to give the money away, all by 5pm. Once again, those who gave the money away were happier by the end of the day -- and just as happy whether they gave away $5 or $20. Source: Forbes |
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| Divorced Female, 8 Years Old |
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Human rights activists and lawyers should put pressure on the government to ban marriage of young girls, said a Yemeni lawyer, Shatha Nasser, who defended an 8-year-old girl who was divorced earlier this month in a Yemeni court. Shatha called on all civil society organizations and human rights activists to form a coalition for amending the current law which allows marriage of children under 15.
"Our next step now is to do all that we can to make the minimum marriage age in Yemen 18 years," said Shatha. "But this cannot happen if there is no cooperation between lawyers and human right groups." Shatha said there were a lot of child marriages in Yemen. She said there isn't much that civil society organizations and lawyers can do to help under current law. Eight-year-old Nojoud was in the news after appearing in court requesting a divorce from her 32-year-old husband after a two-month marriage. On April 15, with support from Shatha and judge Aboud Al Khaleq Ghowber, she paid her way out of marriage. The amount of 100,000 Yemeni riyals was given by an anonymous donor in the UAE, and Nojoud happily became an 8-year-old divorcee. "This was the first time a girl came to us for a divorce," said Judge Ghowber. "We are going to do our best to push the parliament to change the marriage law." "I am so happy to be free and I will go back to school and will never think of getting married again," Nojoud said joyfully. "It is a good feeling to be rid of my husband and his bad treatment." According to 2007 statistics by the International Center for Research on Women, Yemen is one of 20 developing countries where child marriages are common. Nearly half of all Yemeni girls are married before the age of 18. Most women have their first child immediately after their first menstruation cycle and are likely to have many more. Yemen's fertility rate is very high, with an average of 6.3 children per woman, and the country also has some of the highest mother and infant mortality rates worldwide. According to research on early marriage in Yemen from Oxfam and the UN Population Fund, many girls like Nojoud develop irreparable psychological scarrings from early marriage and the forced sexual encounters that accompany it. "I hated nights because they usually meant that my husband would come to my bed. I used to run from him and he would chase me and beat me and do his thing," said Nojoud. "I pray that my younger sisters do not face the same fate." Source: Gulf News |
| Teen Honored for Giving Back |
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The way she tells it, La'Quicia Jones leads a simple life. Born and raised in Camden NJ, the 17-year-old walks to her part-time job at the Boys & Girls Club on Park Boulevard.
"Some guys are on the corner, doing what they do," Jones said. "But people fail to realize the positive aspects of Camden." The watchful, family-centered community that she knows here has inspired her loyalty and her service, much of it at the club. Now, seven years after Jones became a regular at the nonprofit venue, the Boys & Girls Club of Camden County has named her its 2008 Youth of the Year. The distinction honors a club member who has given generously to his or her family, school and community -- and who has overcome personal obstacles. Jones is slated to compete next in a statewide Boys & Girls Club scholarship contest. She could collect $1,000 if she wins on the state level, and as much as $25,000 more if she goes on to win regional and national awards. "I think you should never forget where you came from," Jones said. "Every day, I wake up and thank God for the life I have." By her own account, she comes from a strict home. Jones, the oldest of three children, lives with her parents and grandmother, does chores, and even volunteers to watch her little brothers. She doesn't party all that much. Just about every day she goes to the club, where she helped establish a drill team. She tutors and mentors younger kids and helps lead a Keystone Club that raises money for local causes. La'Quicia Jones' modesty belies her ambition. She has labored through four years at Brimm Medical Arts High School and is about to graduate this spring, with her sights set on a college career. She would be the first in her family to graduate from college. Her dream is to become a pediatrician, establish a practice in Camden, and moderate her rates for the needy, she said. She also plans to reinvest time and money in the Boys & Girls Club and other local causes. "I'd like to better (the city) so I can come back and live here comfortably." That drive to give back, La'Quicia Jones said, arose largely from the Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team and the Almighty Percussion Sound Drum Line, both founded by her parents. The whole approach to giving back is a Jones family philosophy. "You can't leave and expect Camden to grow on its own," said La'Quicia's mother Tawanda Jones. "We need these good people to stay here." Source: Courier-Post |
| Man Plans 65-Mile Run for Education for Veterans |
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William Dennis Brown Jr knows how to make a statement. On May 3, the 30-year-old former Navy SEAL will run 65 miles from Rutgers University's campus in Camden to the school's campus in New Brunswick, with a classmate, to raise awareness and funds for veterans education. Brown is vice president and co-founder of Veterans for Education, a student organization at Rutgers-Camden that has created a scholarship fund for veterans and active military members.
While the campus-to-campus trek is a fundraiser for the scholarship fund, Brown said it's more about making a statement to legislators that funding college educations for veterans should be a priority. "We really believe in education," he said. "We really believe men and women who risk their lives serving our country really deserve the opportunity an education provides." Brown is a combat veteran who served in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad, Najaf, Basra, and Al-Nasaria in 2004 and 2005. His classmate and May 3 running partner, Efren Cazales of Bridgeton, served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 in the Army's 25th Infantry Division. Brown said the GI Bill, which provides educational funding to veterans, barely covers half of his tuition at Rutgers. Members of the National Guard, however, receive free college educations, he said. Veterans for Education is calling on legislators to support new legislation introduced in both houses of Congress last year that would upgrade the GI Bill. Brown said he hopes the 13-hour run up Route 130 will send a message to Washington DC and to Trenton, where similar state legislation has been proposed. "We want the politicians to do the right thing." So far, they have raised $5,000 for the scholarship fund. Their goal is to raise $50,000 so it will become endowed and can be awarded annually to one veteran and one active-duty military member. "We've made sacrifices for this country," Brown said. "It breaks our hearts when we see veterans homeless. Things need to change." Source: Burlington County Times |
| Dangerous Wheat-Killing Fungus Detected in Iran |
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A dangerous new fungus with the ability to destroy entire wheat fields has been detected in Iran, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported on March 5. The wheat stem rust, whose spores are carried by wind across continents, was previously found in East Africa and Yemen and has moved to Iran, which said that laboratory tests have confirmed its presence in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in the country’s west.
Up to 80% of all Asian and African wheat varieties are susceptible to the fungus. Major wheat-producing nations to Iran’s east -- such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan -- should be on high alert, FAO warned. "The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk," said Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division. He urged the control of the rust’s spread to lower the risk to countries already hit by high food prices. Iran has said that it will bolster its research capacity to tackle the new fungus and develop wheat varieties that are rust-resistant. Called Ug99, the disease first surfaced in Uganda and subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia, with both countries experiencing serious crop yield losses due to a serious rust epidemic last year. Also in 2007, FAO confirmed that a more virulent strain was found in Yemen. The agency appealed to countries to bolster disease surveillance and step up efforts to control it. Source: United Nations |
| Ocean City Sees Influx of Older Job Applicants |
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It was a blustery April Sunday afternoon in Ocean City NJ, but businesses were already flooded with applications for summer jobs. Managers reported they are seeing older and more experienced applicants apply for posts typically held by 15- to 22-year-olds. Growing living expenses and corporate cost-cutting have been driving people to pick up part-time work, and the trend has manifested itself locally in summer job application pools that feature older, more experienced, better-qualified adults, local merchants say.
The influx of adults could help fill in the anticipated shortage of teen workers. Employment of 16- to 19-year-olds has been lower than ever during the past year, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. At Shriver's Salt Water Taffy at 9th and the Boardwalk, manager Lynne Breslin said middle-aged applicants -- including a teacher and others with full-time jobs -- were unlike the 17- to- 22-year-old staffers she's hired during the past eight summers. The number of part-time workers in the US has stayed steady at 24.3 million during the past year. But those who are working part-time for economic reasons increased nationwide by nearly 15% from 4.29 million in March 2007 to 4.91 million last month, according to the Labor Statistics Bureau. The latest numbers for New Jersey show that the part-time work force is increasing for economic reasons, but at a slower rate because the pool of part-timers as a whole has shrunk. Of 702,000 part-timers, 69,000 held their jobs in 2004 for economic reasons; two years later, 75,000 part-time workers out of 665,000 did so for economic reasons, according to the bureau. Hank Hood, owner of Shirts 'n Things, said that even though teenagers are the sole applicants for jobs at his store, he knows friends who are "looking for anything to pay their bills" after being laid off from their jobs in banking, real estate, and other fields known for their high compensation. As companies face rising costs, they often offer fewer overtime opportunities and opt to hire part-timers rather than full-time workers as a cautionary measure in a troubled economy. These factors create a greater need for part-timers, causing full-time workers to look for extra hours to seek part-time jobs elsewhere, said Carl Van Horn of the John J Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. At George's Candy, owner Bill Westerman said even retirees are applying this summer, a first in his 14 years of business. Source: Atlantic City Press |
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