rss
mobile
Feeds
He had been working for an area concrete company for more than a year when he was laid off in mid-January.
Wilson, 39, has been unemployed before. But in the past, he's always been able to find something quickly. He was chasing work when he first came to the Lowcountry years ago from Jacksonville, Fla.
So he knew the economy was in bad shape when he couldn't find a way to make a living despite more than 20 years of experience building houses.
"I thought I'd always find work, even if it was low-paying, bottom-of-the-barrel type of stuff," he said.
"But not even the bottoms of the barrel are paying. Some of your fast food places are not hiring."
Though the economic downturn has hit the country hard, it's taken a particular toll on rural areas like Levy in Jasper County, where job opportunities were limited to begin with.
While Beaufort County's unemployment rate is the third lowest in the state, neighboring Jasper County is one of 35 in South Carolina with double-digit unemployment numbers. The Jasper County number is 10.1 percent.
In the region, Hampton and Colleton counties' jobless rates are up to 15.5 percent and 13.5 percent respectively.
Nearby Allendale County, where residents sometimes take two-and-a-half-hour bus trips to Hilton Head Island hotels for work, a staggering 23.4 percent are out of jobs, according to the latest data from the state Employment Security Commission.
PRAYER -- AND ACTION
During his first three weeks out of work, Wilson did a lot of praying, asking God for help finding employment. "But if you just sit there on that prayer, it doesn't get answered. That's faith without works," he said.
A combination of desperation, boredom and anxiety over how to provide for his live-in girlfriend and her two young children drove Wilson to try an approach that set him apart from the sea of job-seekers.
"The crazy concept came to me: 'Why don't you put up a sign that you need work?' " Wilson said. "So I found two pieces of plywood, cut them down, found some two-by-fours ... (painted) a dark background and lit it up with white and gold (lettering) so it would stand out."
One side of the sign reads "Multi-$killed MAN Will Work $50.00 Pr DAY."
The other side says "I'll LABOR! $50 Pr DAY."
Both have Wilson's cell phone number and arrows pointing to his home off S.C. 170.
That rate is a pay cut from the $150 to $200 a day Wilson was earning when he had steady work, but it's better than nothing.
"There's a moderate amount of cars that pass by, so if there's 3,000 to 5,000 cars coming through, it's a numbers game. But there's a percentage that's going to bite.
"I got a hit today," Wilson said in an interview last week, referring to a woman who needed some landscaping work done.
He said about 50 people have called. But that's more a sign of how tough the job market is: All but a handful of callers were unemployed and thought Wilson might need workers.
"I've had about four hits -- the other 46 were like, 'Are you hiring?' "
HAVING A PLAN B
Marjorie Thomas, Employment Security Commission area director for Beaufort and Jasper counties, said Wilson's situation is not unique.
"Because (the recession has) hit every strata of society, people have not been able to find that next job," she said. "We've seen some come in to the office who've never been unemployed before."
Rural areas, however, have traditionally had higher levels of unemployment than bigger town and cities, recession or not, she said.
And that's not likely to change any time soon.
State Sen. Tom Davis, who pushed for the creation of a port on the Jasper County side of the Savannah River as chief of staff for Gov. Mark Sanford, said the facility is a long-term solution for endemic joblessness locally.
"When you talk about what you're going to do about rural poverty, it all comes back to having high-paying jobs in the area," Davis said.
"We've got tourism and the servicesindustry and retirees (buying homes here). But you have to create jobs that'll survive in a downturn, and not jobs that are subject to disposable income."
Davis said the Jasper port will bring high-paying, high-skill jobs and stabilize the area's job base.
However, even the most optimistic estimates say the port is years away from being built.
Engineers compiling a feasibility report recently said that the port won't be up and running for at least a decade.
So for now, Wilson has some advice for others in situations similar to his.
"You think you're secure (at your job). You've been there a while. You're good at what you do, and you say, 'It won't happen to me.' But you better think again and have a plan B."
