More seek day-labor jobs, but work is scarce

By Emily Bazar, USA TODAY

ARLINGTON, Va. — When mechanic Donald Thee used to arrive at his job every morning, he would glance at the day laborers gathering across the street jostling for work when a pickup rolled by.
Over time, he befriended some, buying them meals from a taco truck when they were hungry.

Three months ago, he joined them.

“That’s how quick things can change, especially in an economy this poor,” he says.

Thee, 39, was laid off from the gas station where he worked and needed a way to make money. He applied for jobs at more than 100 businesses — “even McDonald’s, and they’re not hiring,” he says — and finally decided to try to get pick-up work as a day laborer.

TRENDS: Unemployed U.S.-born workers seek day-labor jobs

Thee’s story, like that of other U.S. citizens who never expected to become day laborers, is one of economic desperation. Job openings are scarce, so the unemployed are starting their days at busy intersections and home improvement stores where, if they’re lucky, someone will drive up and offer work that could last a few hours or several weeks.

Landing a job as a day laborer isn’t easy.

As the economy has soured, fewer workers get picked up, says Andres Tobar, executive director of the Shirlington Employment and Education Center, which runs the day-labor site where Thee and about 100 other workers converge each morning.

About 10 to 15 workers land jobs each day, compared with 40 to 50 a few years ago, he says.

At the WeCount! Community Worker Center in Miami-Dade County, Fla., executive director Jonathan Fried agrees it’s hard for anyone to get work these days, regardless of their legal status.

More citizens are coming to the center seeking work, he says, including people who had previously offered jobs to day laborers. “About a year ago, we started seeing contractors coming into the center and trying to get jobs themselves,” he says.

“Everyone’s getting limited work right now because there’s not much out there.”

Marc Maida, a U.S. citizen, has been visiting the center a few times a week for two months. So far, he hasn’t gotten a day-labor job.

Maida, 38, has been working on and off at his father’s painting and pressure-cleaning business for more than 20 years. Over time, business has dropped off, he says. “This year is the worst of all,” he says. “People don’t want to spend money to keep their houses up.”

He lost the room he was renting about a year ago and has since been living with his parents or on the streets, and is trying anything he can to get work, including temp agencies.

“There’s so many people looking for work, they just don’t have enough work to get everybody out there,” he says.

In Arlington, Thee has earned a nickname among the day laborers as “el toro blanco,” or “the white bull.”

“As one of the largest and strongest, I’m one of the more favorable workers,” he says, waiting for work on a cold morning in jeans and a leather jacket.

The Arkansas native is at the hiring site seven days a week at 6:30 a.m. and lands a job about three days a week, he says. Among the jobs he has done: installing a lock on a door, mowing grass, working on a home under construction and helping people move.

Since Nov. 1, he has been living in a homeless shelter and remains hopeful he can land a permanent job. The competition is fierce, though, even at the day-labor site. “There’s more and more American citizens out here,” he says. “The way this economy is going, more of it is going to happen.” HERE