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Clayton News Daily: A struggle to find work

Unemployed Riverdale man hopes congressman’s job fair will give him a lift

Jonesboro, April 26, 2006 | Chandra Harris (770-210-5073)
News Daily: A struggle to find work
The following article appeared in the News Daily and was authored by Justin Boron.

Gregory Adams hasn’t had regular work in almost two years.

His house is dark inside and the 54-year-old, a master-licensed plumber, is beset with injury and medical problems — so much that he can barely walk after waking each day.

“In the morning when I get up, if I don’t walk on the treadmill, it’s like I’ve been drinking alcohol.”

Surgery on his neck, Adams explained, has left him with lasting neurological problems as well as pain, fatigue, and depression that have made it difficult for him work full time.

It’s fair to say he’s down on his luck.

Like Adams, much of Clayton County — at least in terms of its unemployment and job market — also is on hard times.

But U.S. Rep. David Scott, D, GA-13, said there is sun on the horizon and hopes the job fair he is hosting for the second straight year will help.

The fair is open to anyone living in Scott’s district, which is composed of several metro Atlanta counties including Clayton where unemployment is at 6 percent — the highest rate in the 10-county Atlanta region, according to the most recent unemployment figures at the state’s Labor Department.

“Clayton County, of course, we are suffering from a downturn, we have one of the higher unemployment rates,” he said but added that new jobs are opening up. “We’ve got Wal-Marts opening out here, we’ve got Home Depots opening up here. We’ve got a lot of new kinds of businesses that are opening up in our district.”

For Adams, his financial instability has resulted from a mix of the economy’s slide and a personal downturn.

Once the work that his plumbers union offered shrunk following the terrorist attacks in 2001, Adams of Riverdale decided to go it alone and started his own business.

Then injury struck.

In the course of a year, Adams has lost his house, separated from his wife, and had to depend on the help of others to scrape by.

Recently, the thought came to him to ask his congressman for help. Adams said Scott’s office was a Godsend, helping him and suggesting he visit Scott’s job fair.

Adams, who has moved into his aunt’s home, hasn’t been sitting back on his laurels.

Although he has applied for disability pay, every chance he gets, Adams said, he takes on an odd job like fixing a leaky sink for money that helps him pay his bills or buy groceries.

But still, he said he deserves something.

“I spent 30 years in the plumbing and pipe fitting industry,” he said. “It ain’t like I’ve been working two years and am expecting something.”

Adams said he also isn’t planning on much results to come out of the job fair. But at least, he said he’ll be getting out there to see what his options are.

Last year, the job fair turned out to be a big success, Scott said. Attracting just under 10,000 people in last year, he said the job fair stopped traffic outside the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park.

“You can’t do anything better for a constituent than to help him make money,” Scott said.

More than 150 companies and employers like Lockheed-Martin, Comcast Cable, Home Depot, FedEx, Clayton County Public Schools, Douglas County Police Department, Sun Trust Bank, WellStar Health Systems, Georgia Power, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, City of Smyrna and many others have agreed to participate in the Jobs Fair.

Job-seekers should come prepared in professional dress with résumé.