Unemployed Parents Stand Out On Street Corner With A Sign: 'Please Take My Resumé'

Four and a half weeks ago, Josie Wilson of Grand Junction, Colorado, and her husband, Josh, were sitting at their local workforce center brainstorming for new ways to look for jobs. Josie had been unemployed since January, Josh since July, and neither of them had had any luck with the traditional route of applying and waiting. They had exhausted all their savings trying to pay rent and keep food on the table and were quickly running out of ways to support their two daughters.

"Up until that point, I had applied for every job I could find in any place you could think of: newspapers, Craigslist, Monster.com. For every job thats available, there are 80 people who apply for it," Wilson told Huffpost.

Almost at the point of giving up, Wilson, 31, says she and her husband finally decided to swallow their pride and try something most people wouldn't: standing out on a street corner with a pile of resumés and a cardboard sign.

"We take three-hour shifts," she said. "I try not to leave until I've at least talked to ten people, whether they stop and talk to me about a job or I give them my resumé. And while I'm standing out there getting ideas, my husband walks around business to business getting our resumés out. You never know where you're gonna find something."

Wilson said she started out with a plain cardboard sign that said, simply, "I need a job, please take my resumé," but she has since upgraded to a white posterboard with a more attention-grabbing declaration: "Scariest Halloween Costume: Mother of 2 and Unemployed."

"I have stood out in the rain," she said. "The weather's not gonna deter me from finding a career that puts a roof over our heads and food on the table."

While the couple's efforts have yet to lead to any viable job opportunities in Colorado, where the unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent in August, they have handed out hundreds of resumés, received a couple of job leads and recently caught the attention of their local news station.

"My kids didn't know about it until it came on the news," Wilson said. "It's not something I wanted them to know, but it was actually not embarrassing to them-- they were kind of proud."

What's most encouraging, Wilson said, is the outpouring of support she has received from her community.

"I've had from police officers give me high fives and thumbs up, I've had business people stop on their way to work and tell me good luck and that they're praying for me," she said. "I felt like I had no pride left when I started doing this, but now it's like, you know what? No, I'm doing what I have to do to find a way to take care of my family."

As part of its Impact 2.0 project, HuffPost is rounding up stories of people who are struggling to stay afloat in the recession. If you have a story to tell, e-mail [e-mail].

Comments

[spinotter11]

10:47 AM on 10/10/2010

The United States is not different from or better than any other country in the world. We are now going through a bad patch, and the qualities which were advantageous to us in the past (frontiersman ethic, resistance to social cohesion) are now proving to be disadvantageous. We can't even adopt the metric system, for cripes sake. We are rapidly becoming the redneck of the world. Let's all enjoy the ride!

[Mike Terryberry]

01:19 PM on 10/07/2010

I think it's absolutely disgraceful that so many Americans are out of work and yet the government won't help them. Yet at the same time, the Obama administration has no qualms about pouring tens of billions of dollars into a senseless war, with no end in sight. Just imagine how much good that money could do for all those unemployed and struggling to keep a roof over their head. I'm Canadian and although we have a lot of unemployed as well, our numbers pale in comparison to the millions left without a job in America. I feel terrible for all those men and women that just want to provide for their families. Why are the government's priorities so skewed? Ours is no better. We have thousands of unemployed and yet the government is more interested in helping newcomers to Canada than those that were born and raised here.

[Red45]

09:00 PM on 10/04/2010

She said it. You do what you have to do. I hope they both get good jobs. I hope everyone who's looking for a job gets a good one---and soon.

[Kenz300]

11:16 PM on 10/03/2010

With an unemployment rate of 9.6% it is time to get real about immigration.

Both legal and illegal immigration needs to be reduced. For too long
big business has wanted cheap labor and has ignored the persons
status to be in this country. Cheap labor is sometimes paid cash and therefore
does not add to the tax base and also the employer is breaking the law.

H1b visa's that employers use to bring workers into this country need to
be questioned. What do we need to do to fill those jobs with Americans?

Why are we importing workers when so many Americans are unemployed.

I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THERE ARE NOT ANY AMERICANS THAT WANT THOSE JOBS

American business need to look to partner with education programs to train
the American workers that they need

It is time for American corporations to look at all those jobs they have OUTSOURCED
and bring some of those jobs back home.

It is time for American agriculture to look at innovative ways to bus in workers.
PEOPLE WANT JOBS ! Try putting a bus at a local high school
or at a Home Depot parking lot and see how many fill it up to work

[Kate Stoune]

06:07 PM on 10/03/2010

This story made me cry and it made me very PROUD of these parents. Very brave people ~ others could learn from these two. I will be including them in my prayers with all the other unemployed and homeless in our country. America is a better country than this ... no one should ever be hungry or stuck in the rain. Please Lord help us to be better people and to better love our neighbors AND ourselves.

[pattyrenee]

05:47 PM on 10/03/2010

US Companies out source to the overseas cheap labor. We should all ban anything not made in the US.

[the mack]

09:19 AM on 10/03/2010

These F'n ue are the most negative people you will ever find!

[smitty101]

08:53 PM on 10/02/2010

Wow. Good for them. This economy is so tough. My heart goes out to all who are facing this dilemma. God bless them all.

[gogogadget]

10:45 PM on 09/30/2010

Hope and Change...nickels and dimes

[Weirdwriter]

02:26 AM on 10/01/2010

...up from that trickle down of pennies, so, yes, it's progress.

[Red45]

09:13 PM on 10/04/2010

I believe that neocon piss has been raining down on a lot of us. 

[ImagesAndAdjectives]

08:03 PM on 09/30/2010

Meanwhile, on Faux Newz...there was an article a few days ago about how businesses can save money and headaches by hiring freelancers through a website that connects them to designers and web developers in (wait for it....) INDIA and KOREA and MALAYSIA. Yep, that wonderful and patriotic network is encouraging people to outsource professional, skilled jobs overseas.

Nice.

[the mack]

09:23 AM on 10/03/2010

I have used virtual assistants from the PI. Very professional and motivated. If you're what I need you get the job.

[Red45]

09:11 PM on 10/04/2010

It's not just manufacturing that gets outsourced. A huge number of college educated people in Vietnam make $1 an hour and are among the highest paid profession in Vietnam. They're getting the work that was previously done by software developers and testers, and other technology jobs that require a college degree.

[ImagesAndAdjectives]

08:00 PM on 09/30/2010

Kudos! I would hire this woman if I were looking for help. She seems resourceful and unafraid to do what needs to be done.

[PanBaccha]

06:01 PM on 09/30/2010

This is an indictment against our failure as a once-proud nation of innovative minds and wealthy prospects. An indictment against 30 years of Republican rule, and an indictment against the current parties who choose to do nothing for their beloved America. The United States flag has been replaced by the omnipresent 'corporate banner.' And billowing in the wind and flapping against the flagpole are the tattered memories of a proud nation of red, white and blue, soon to be a footnote in history.

[PuffDragon]

05:48 PM on 09/30/2010

Wow. God Bless and Good Luck!!

This is a great story.

[catbite]

05:42 PM on 09/30/2010

This is so sad. She's trying this as a last effort, and yet nothing. There are limited jobs, with very very limited qualifications, and companies are still reluctant to hire. Everyone's life is on hold until after the election--that stinks.

[smitty101]

08:57 PM on 10/02/2010

Yes. I wish that Congress would have made their final decision on the Bush tax cuts before going home. This, I think is one of the reasons (along with not being sure of the hit from Obamacare) I think businesses are reluctant to hire. Whatever Congress chooses to do, they should just do it rather than making the country wait. To many good people are out of work. Something has got to change.

[Red45]

09:15 PM on 10/04/2010

They're playing political games. By not voting on this before they took their break, they've created an opportunity for themselves to be sucked up to, pandered to, bought off by lobbyists in the interim. I'm sure a lot of them are on expensive vacations right now or counting all the new money in their war chest.

[My Good Babushka]

05:35 PM on 09/30/2010

Nationwide, there are five too many applicants for every job. It doesn't matter how you spread them out. There aren't enough jobs. And moving is expensive.