Columnist Benjamin Grove: A lot of talk, but where are the jobs?

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 4:12 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- In the nation's capital, lots of people talk about the economy. Politicians, pundits, economists, reporters. It's people with jobs, mostly, who get attention for talking about the economy.

People like Jewel Jackson live it.

As the nation's leaders gathered in the House chambers to hear President Bush outline plans for the war and the economy in his State of the Union speech, Jackson was in her Las Vegas apartment.

She hopes to keep the place where she lives with her 16- and 17-year-old daughters. It's home.

Jackson used to work 32 hours a week at Burlington Coat Factory plus 40 hours as a laundry valet at the Four Seasons hotel-casino. She didn't mind the hard work. Jackson, 46, moved from Los Angeles six years ago because there were so many jobs in Nevada -- so many jobs some could have two.

Shortly before Sept. 11, though, Jackson had to dump her hours at Burlington due to scheduling problems. No matter. She could find another job that fit around her Four Seasons shifts. There were plenty of jobs out there -- until the terrorist attacks. Four Seasons let her go a few days after Sept. 11.

Jackson looked for other jobs, but there were none -- certainly no other $12-an-hour jobs for a union worker, she said.

So she began collecting unemployment checks by the end of September, $301 a week. But the monthly bills add up: $739 for rent; $180 in car payments; $189 for electricity -- double what she paid before power costs spiked. The Culinary Union covers Jackson's health care, for $97 a month.

In March Jackson will run out of unemployment eligibility, rent money and luck.

"A lot of people, they tell me it's picking up," Jackson said. "I have been out every day. But I haven't even gotten a courtesy call -- 'Thanks for applying.' "

Meanwhile Washington is still talking about the economy. After she lost her job, the Culinary Union paid for Jackson to bring her story to Congress.

At the invitation of Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., Jackson testified at an October hearing here with House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt. He vowed action. She left feeling better. Hopeful even.

But President Bush and lawmakers have not been able to piece together an economic stimulus package that would extend unemployment or health care benefits for workers like Jackson.

"It sounds good and all, but actions speak louder than words," Jackson said.

A few months after her trip to the nation's capital, Jackson was back in her apartment last Tuesday watching the president. He asked Congress for massive new defense spending and tax cuts that probably won't help her.

Jackson supports the expensive war on terrorism, the spending in Afghanistan. But she wonders: Where's the help for thousands of other laid-off workers -- roughly 65,000 in Nevada, up 2 percent in recent months?

"What about us?" Jackson asked when I called last week. She had had cereal for dinner.

"We didn't ask for this. We're suffering, too. And there are a lot of people who feel the same way I do."

Jackson's friend who lost her job at the Aladdin is still looking for work, too. Jackson baby-sits her 2 1/2-year-old son. The two women take turns job hunting.

Jackson is trying to be more marketable. She just finished a 30-day course on casino cashiering.

"I'm doing whatever I can," Jackson said. "I'm being very optimistic. I don't have a choice."

But Jackson is also scared.

"Whoever said, 'You can't know someone until you walk around in his shoes' was so right," Jackson said. "That is so right. I didn't know how it felt to be this close to homeless."

Jackson has friends who were laid off from noncasino jobs, too. She's afraid Kmarts could close. That would mean more job hunters.

Last week politicians, pundits, economists and reporters focused on new government data that indicates the nation may be emerging from a recession. Jewel Jackson focused on finding a job.

"Washington doesn't know the whole story," she said. "It's really bad out here."com