Desire, months of searching haven’t landed woman a job

Sam Morris

Paula Gray, 51, prepares to fax her resume to potential employers Friday at a local FedEx office. After a Sun story in April about Gray’s handing out business cards on a highway off-ramp, she gained several job leads, but they went nowhere.

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Job search

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On the road back to work (4-11-2009)

Download Paula Gray's resume (Some personal information has been removed)

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Paula Gray on her new job search tactic
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Paula Gray on people's reaction to her tactic
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Paula Gray on what she is doing to make ends meet
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Paula Gray on what people should know about her
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Report: Las Vegas area lost 14,400 construction jobs (6-5-2009)
Start of a positive trend in unemployment figures? (5-29-2009)
Las Vegas jobless rate holds steady at 10.4 percent (5-22-2009)
Career fair draws thousands for CityCenter, other jobs (5-19-2009)
Budget panel releases $6 million for worker training (4-3-2009)
Bill advances to increase jobless benefits (4-1-2009)
Building, casino job losses fuel jobless rate (3-27-2009)
Manpower opens new branch, program (3-20-2009)
State jobless rate jumps; numbers worse in Las Vegas (3-13-2009)

Out of work this spring, 51-year-old Paula Gray decided to stand on a highway off-ramp and hand out business cards to passing drivers.

But the former administrative assistant remained unemployed at the end of each day, even after an April 11 Las Vegas Sun story highlighted her efforts.

Her search then began folding back onto her past. The newspaper story circulated through cyberspace, bringing forth a cousin, an aunt and Gray’s brother, who “was furious” when he found out about her situation. “He said, ‘If you are in dire straits, you should have told me,’ ” Gray recalled.

On a whim, or perhaps at wit’s end, she also e-mailed a college friend, 30 years after they had last seen each other in Wisconsin. To her surprise, the woman soon answered, and consoled and supported, as if the two were still cramming for finals.

Gray broke down recently as she described these and other shows of support, including checks for amounts ranging from $50 to $1,000 arriving in the mail, and strangers promising to pray for her success.

Unfortunately, as the gritty, gabby redhead noted after concluding a 2 1/2-hour phone call to the state unemployment benefits office last week, none of that has resulted in a job.

Despite her 15 minutes of fame in the newspaper, her experience has been similar to that of many among the 147,000 out-of-work Nevadans.

She interviews, gets the don’t-call-us routine, considers jobs she would never have given a second thought to in the past, stumbles through the state unemployment benefits system, gets up each day and does it again. And like many of the people who make up the county’s 10.4 percent unemployment rate, she is doing it all for the first time. Gray was recruited for her last two jobs and hasn’t been unemployed for this long since high school.

Also, like many, she was drawn to the valley by a job. Her family and friends are elsewhere. So now she faces her 12th month of unemployment with little support at hand. The long-distance contacts renewed through this spring’s publicity are her main source of succor.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow,” Gray said at the end of another day, exhaling. “I’m really trying to put out good vibes. But it’s not easy.”

She had just finished summing up the last two months of her search.

Companies with sales jobs have called: Amway, Mary Kay, Avon. “But I want a real job!”

People call to tell her she is in their prayers. Someone in recruitment at the Venetian saw her story in the Sun, called to say he was impressed with her tenacity. But interviews afterward went nowhere. She took tests with the state Personnel Department, passed, and is eligible for administrative assistant jobs. But there are none. She says she was one of 10 chosen for an interview among 165 applicants at MGM Mirage. The company sent her an e-mail afterward complimenting her “true dedication to ... employment desires” before dropping the bad news: “At this time I have selected another candidate to fill this position.”

She also discovered that she had been sending paperwork to the wrong office to extend her unemployment benefits beyond the first 26 weeks. The next 20 weeks are handled by the federal government, not the state. “The Web site is very confusing,” Gray said. And, she has fallen two months behind in her health insurance payments.

Gray recently considered hitting the street again with the hundreds of business cards she has left. But the desert heat keeps her indoors, following up on leads online, in the newspaper, from her first stint outdoors.

Gray said it has been hard to explain to her family in Baltimore why finding a job has been so difficult.

“I told them, ‘You just don’t understand,’ ” she said. “You really have to do something to stand out in Las Vegas — and even then nothing happens.”

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By annienonymouse

6/9/09 at 6:40 a.m.

Suggest removal

I see no mention that she's tried a temp agency.
By stevem

6/9/09 at 6:51 a.m.

Suggest removal

she needs go from real estate office to real estate office to pizza place to pizza place and offer to put flyers on homes.

she'll make some money doing that.

i also think her attitude of "i want a real job" is killing her. look, lady...take what you can get.
By rejco100

6/9/09 at 7:52 a.m.

Suggest removal

All she has to do is walk into a homeless agency. Just walking through the door she will be automatically diagnosed mentally ill & alcoholic/addicted and on her way to the JACKPOT: The Disability Lottery
By Wolfdog

6/9/09 at 8:44 a.m.

Suggest removal

She should try burger king.
By davidwayneosedach

6/9/09 at 9:06 a.m.

Suggest removal

As a las resort there's always bill collecting. It may be a lousy job but it is a real one.
By revtomperl

6/9/09 at 11:50 a.m.

Suggest removal

I am amazed by the judgmental and self-righteous comments here and the idle advice. I am sad almost as much for some of the commenters as for the difficulties experienced by thousands these days in the job market.
By wakeup

6/9/09 at 12:21 p.m.

Suggest removal

typical las vegas no empathy, no compassion. exactly where is the "homeless agency" ? obviously, you have never had to file for social security or unemployment or any kind of help because there are no free rides, easy applications or swift benefits given. I have been to four temp agencies in this town, each involved taking tests, applications, each took a week, without results. I'm sure she tried burger king or whatever, Im sure she likes to eat. some of you don't seem to get it THERE ARE NO JOBS! the only jobs out there are sales jobs, where you don't get a salary but have to find customers with money to buy products and then a commission is given. How many of you have time to work for free? or how many of you have money for insurance, avon products, stocks (all sales jobs)?

I am in her position. I have a master's degree. I was told yeah I pasted all the tests with higher than average marks at temp agencies and yeah they still advertise for open positions but a year later nothing but the offer to sell insurance-no salary just commission. what don't you self righteous people not understand about the 10.4% unemployment rate, one of the highest in the nation?
By bdm

6/9/09 at 1:10 p.m.

Suggest removal

Where was the mayor and governor? Did anybody in government every try to bring industry of any kind to the valley? I must see 30 commercials a day from Michigan touting them as business friendly and with a well trained workforce - yet Nevada and Las Vegas remains more concerned with showmanship and sleeping with casinos than doing ANYTHING to help the region weather this storm and prepare for tomorrow.
By Bertsos

6/9/09 at 1:31 p.m.

Suggest removal

To bdm:

Nevada is last in anything good and first in anything bad..........low taxes have a good side and a bad side...........and the clown governor wants even less government services.

if the current governor had his way, Nevada would be like it was in 1870.......no need for government outside of setting a few laws.....no roads, no services, no untilities, etc., etc.

When the governors idea is to slash the university system 50% (or more), you can see why no company that requires anything over a HS diploma won't locate in Nevada.
By odeman

6/9/09 at 10:09 p.m.

Suggest removal

Michigan may be business friendly, but it's dying along with the automakers. The weather sucks 8 months out of the year. That's the reason companies locate in the south and west. Vegas can be a hot place during the summer, but the summer nights are beautiful and the rest of the year is great. Up here in the snowbelt we can go months without getting above freezing. You can imagine how frosty our winter nights are. If Vegas people can't figure out how to drive on a few lousy inches of snow just think of the fun you'll have on our hardpack, snow drifts, and ice. If next winter is like the last two, we will be shoveling another hundred inches of snow.