Southern California Job Market : Transitions : What Do You Do When Your Job Disappears? : Add Skills, Marketing to Carpentry
When Dave Edilson finished his apprenticeship as a carpenter and became a journeyman five years ago, work came looking for him.
“I’d be building one house, and I’d get two or three calls a day for others. I could just walk down a street in the Valley and find a job,” he recalls.
Now work is scarce, pay is down, and little distinction is made between skilled and unskilled work. Edilson works 20 hours in a good week and rarely uses his framing or plan-reading skills.
“I hang doors, closets. I build fences. I never used to do stuff like that,” the 27-year-old carpenter says. “You’ve got to do everything now to make a living.”
His income has declined to the point that Edilson, his wife and two children had to move from their two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment to a one-bedroom apartment in Westchester. The savings he had hoped to spend on a home of his own is going to groceries, and Edilson spends most of his days driving his truck around in hopes of finding work.
With bills mounting and little encouragement, he is weighing his options.
“I learned everything I could about this trade for five or six years. But now I’m thinking about getting into another job.”
What the Experts Say
DIAGNOSIS: Edilson is another victim of the stagnant real estate market.
He’s looking for work in the same ways he’s always looked, with the same skills he’s always been able to market--but he’s not finding enough work for his family to live on.
PRESCRIPTION: The experts say Edilson needs to do two things to survive in construction: learn new skills and change the way he markets himself.
Take advantage of the growth in remodeling houses, says Bob Stevens, an instructor for Networking Experience Unlimited, a job club run by the state Employment Development Department. He suggests that Edilson take a course from Los Angeles Trade Technical College in cabinetry or electrical work.
Either skill would make him more salable.
“Things still need to get repaired,” Stevens says. “There is an ongoing need for handymen and small repair work.”
Learning to build specific items, such as closet organizers, would also help. Edilson might also consider getting his contractor’s license.
“Normally tradesmen do not have a resume or a business card,” Stevens says, “but people do retain those, and sometimes they follow up in one or two months.”
As part of an ongoing networking effort, in which Edilson should canvas everyone from the lumber yard employee to local union representatives for work suggestions, Stevens recommends that Edilson have a resume or card made up to leave with contacts.
PROGNOSIS: On his course now, Edilson’s outlook is dim. But if he markets himself with mass mailings, mailbox stuffings, business cards and refurbished skills, Edilson can weather this storm.
Construction Outlook
The number of jobs in the building industry fell fjrom a peak of 681,000 in the first quarter of 1990 to 497,000 in this year’s first quarter--a 27% drop. For most of the 184,000 laid off, the likelihood of returning to work before 1995 is slim.
Source: UCLA Business Forecasting Project
