Published: January 28, 2009 10:20 am      

Out of a job for five months, Goshen man could use support

A few weeks ago Mike Grant and his wife went to the store and saw a man holding a sign that read, “will work for food.” They were moved enough by the plea to buy a sack of hamburgers and take it to the man.

He didn’t want it, Grant said, and asked for money instead.

“We just left,” Grant said with a sad smile and a shake of his head. “My wife and I ate the hamburgers.”

On Monday Grant found some wood and cardboard that was lying around his home in the Colonial Farms subdivision on the northwest side of town and made his own sign. It reads, “Will work 4 job.”

Grant staked the sign into his front yard in what he calls a political statement. Yet, through his own tongue-and-cheek intent, there is a truth that Grant struggles with daily in these grim economic times.

“I haven’t worked in five months,” Grant said Tuesday, the same day statewide unemployment figures were released by Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development. “It’s really bad. I’ve lived in Goshen all my life and have never seen it this bad.”

Nowhere in Indiana, is it worse than here in Elkhart County. With a 15.3 percent unemployment rate, Elkhart County has the most joblessness in the entire state. Neighboring LaGrange and Noble counties are numbers two and three on that dubious list.

For people like Grant, who have held jobs, bought homes and paid bills, this gamy economic purgatory is especially hard to swallow.

Has always worked

Grant worked 17 years for the Triangle Rubber Co., where his wife still is employed. However, she has been cut back to just four days a week, he said. He left before times got bad because he wanted to try something new.

He went to Cequent Towing Products, a hitch and towing accessory manufacturer southeast of town. Grant was a general laborer there and thought it was a good shop to work in. He was laid off during the company’s fourth round of cuts back in October 2008 and was told he would have a callback date of Jan. 5.

He never did get a call and hasn’t worked since.

“I’ve never been out of work before,” Grant said. “Whenever things got bad at work I’d just go out and get another job. Now there just aren’t any more jobs to get.”

He attended a job fair at the Concord Mall last week and the line was so long it snaked through the mall and out the door. He waited two hours at the back of the line that barely moved. He finally gave up and went home.

‘I’ll take any job’

Meanwhile, the days add up and drag on for Grant. There aren’t enough household chores to keep him busy day after day. It’s gotten to the point that he hopes it will snow so he can clear his neighbors’ driveways for them, just for something to do.

“I’ve swallowed enough of my pride that I’ll take any job just to feel productive again,” Grant said. “I feel terrible that my wife is the only one working. She’s the greatest wife in the world, but I feel so bad. I’d rather work than take unemployment.”

Grant said he has trouble dealing with all the emotions his unemployment stirs. He wishes there was a support group he could attend to talk about what’s going on in his head and heart.

Until then, the sign in his front yard, even with its playful wink, adequately chronicles how Grant and so many others are feeling.

“This is a wonderful neighborhood and Goshen is a great community where people stick together and help each other,” Grant said somberly. “But people just feel helpless right now.”