Many Bronxites still struggle to find work

Unemployment numbers in the Bronx continued their steady decline in April, according to stats from the New York State Department of Labor, but that is little comfort to Riverdale resident Sabrina Yaw.

“I am looking for a good job with decent hours, pay and benefits,” Ms. Yaw, 45, said at a June 3 job fair featuring 50 employers at Lehman College. “I am looking for something that I can retire from with a pension.”

She was among some 400 people seeking to take advantage of a wave of new jobs in the borough. Unemployment here dipped to 6.6 percent in April, down from 7.9 percent the previous month. The news came even as the country saw disappointing employment numbers — just 38,000 new jobs in May, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Ms. Yaw left her and her son’s resumes at employers such as Fresh Direct, the New York Department of Labor, Sprint and Century 21. She said she has been unemployed since July, when her position as a wheelchair agent at John F. Kennedy International Airport ended.

“I took advantage of the whole room, so I was all over,” Ms. Yaw said at the job fair.

Marlene Cintron, president of the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC), cited a number of reasons for the borough’s drop in unemployment numbers.

“We have been rebranding the Bronx. We have been supporting businesses by providing low-market rate loans,” she said in a phone interview.

She added that her office has touted the benefits of setting up in the Bronx to companies, saying the borough is the last area where they can “grow and expand within the confines of the City of New York.”

Ms. Cintron cited FreshDirect’s recent move to relocate its headquarters to the Bronx as a success, notwithstanding opposition from grassroots activists. She said the online grocery provider has 2,800 employees, 600 of them Bronxites, and that the BOEDC expects FreshDirect to hire 1,000 drivers, meat cutters and food preparation workers in the future.

Still, Manhattan College sociology professor Cory Blad said job growth is not the only reason the Bronx’s unemployment rate has gone down.

“It’s an imperfect measure,” he said of the figure.

Mr. Blad noted that it does not account for people who are not eligible for unemployment benefits, stopped looking for work or are under-employed.

He added that low-wage jobs mostly account for the Bronx’s job growth and said gains will be eaten away if employment only occurs in that sector.

The sociologist pointed to low-performing schools as a source of concern, saying, “If you have a community with under served schools, that creates problems in the long term.”

Mr. Blad called for partnerships between Bronx schools and institutes of higher education to make college and graduate school more accessible to low-income families.

“Getting to college and getting kids through college is the impediment in today’s job market,“ he said.

In the meantime, job seekers like Lisa Allen are hoping for the best. The Parkchester resident said she was laid off from her job as executive assistant to a senior vice president at the March of Dimes in December after working there for nine years.

“Now it’s ridiculously hard.  You are competing against people that have higher educational qualifications,” said Ms. Allen, 48, who has an associate’s degree. “They are willing to take a pay cut just to be employed.”

“It’s a job itself looking for a job,” she added. “A person just has to stay patient.”