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8/6/2019 Disappearing DC Jobs
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T H U R S DAY ,A U G U
S T 4 ,2 0 1 1
T HE W
A S HI N G T O NE X A MI NE R
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ByLizFarmer ExaminerStaff Writer
Nearly 30,000 Washington-area workers joinedthe jobless ranksoverthe past two months as the unem-ployment rate inched up almost anentire percentage point — and allsigns point to morebadnews onthehorizon.
May and June’s unemploymentrate marked the first time this yeartheregion sawupticksin joblessness
according to data released Wednes-day by the U.S. Bureau of LaborStatistics. And more job cuts are onthe way, positioning Washington tohave theworst jobgrowth ina single year sincethe recession ended.
“We’re just catching up with therest of the nation in terms of badeconomicperformance,” saidUniver-sity of Baltimore economist RichardClinch. “This regionhas been highlydependent on the federal govern-ment, which hasbeen in delay mode... and the national economy isn’tgrowing so there’s nothing to moveus forward.”
More than 18,000 people filed forunemploymentbenefitsin theWash-ington region in June, pushing thearea up to 6.2 percent after hitting a12-month lowof 5.4 percent in April.June’snewlyunemployedrepresenta64percentincreaseoverMay’s11,000newunemployment filingsandbringsthenumberof unemployedpeopleinthe D.C. areato about194,000.
A separate report released
Wednesday shows more job lossesare to come. Washington, Marylandand Virginia are on pace to matchlast year’s job cuts by October, com- biningfor morethan 37,000 throughJuly, accordingto theconsultingfirmChallenger, Gray& Christmas.
Theincrease injob cuts isin directoppositionto therest of thecountry.
“In fact,job cuts have dropped forthe rest of the county by 8 percent[over] last year’s total through July,”saidJohnChallenger, chiefexecutiveofficerof theChicagoconsultingfirm.
“The resolve of the country to cutthe size of the government is goingto affecttheWashington,D.C.,metro[area] disproportionately.”
Theresult isa shaky futurefortheregion’s more than 300,000 federal workers and contractors, who havereaped the benefits of federalspend-ingmorethananystatein thenation,accordingto theGreaterWashingtonInitiative.
June also marked the first timeWashington didn’t post an annual job gain, losing 2,700 jobs compared
with June 2010. Meanwhile, othermajorcitieslikeBostonandNewYorkpostedannualized gains.
Federal workers said the cutsalready had them tired of hiringfreezes.
“It’s horrible,” said Carolyn
McDonald, who has spent 40 years withvarious agencies. “A lotof peopleare putting in for government posi-
tions and not even being consideredor looked at.”
In Maryland, employers said theyplanned to lay off ordid lay off morethan 6,700 workers in July — about900 shy of the state’s total for all of last year. Challenger said layoffs in
July were largely because of cuts intraditionally stable industries likepharmaceuticals, retail andcomputer
technology.A&P/Superfresh, Allen Family
Foods and Lockheed Martin Corp.have all laid off hundreds of Mary-landemployees. Lastyear thefederalgovernment was a culprit as D.C.lost thousands of temporary Census
Bureau workers.Clinch said the uncertainty
created by the upcoming federalspending cuts will hit thearea’s con-tractorsthehardest. Anatmosphere
ofuncertaintyhas beenhangingoverWashington for the better part of a year between the near-governmentshutdown in April and the threat of the United States defaulting on itsdebt over thepast several weeks.“Everythingsloweddownbecause
no one knew what was going on,”Clinch said. “A lot of contractingactivity has been delayed so we’regetting a short-term effect in Wash-ington.”
Alan Chvotkin, executive vicepresident of the Professional Ser-
vices Council, said contractors are just looking for a little predictabilitythesedays.
“Anythingwe cando to urge somestability in the process,” he said. “Ithinkourmemberswouldacceptless[money] to knowmore.”
LOCAL NEWS
ByLiz FarmerandAmyMyers ExaminerStaff Writers
Federalworkers saythe upcom-ingspending cuts will bea thornintheir side but they think the pain willstop short at losingtheirjobs.
“It appears as though they’retryingto balance thebudgeton the backs of federal employees,” saidGerald Alston, who has spent 34 years at the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency and is two yearsaway from retirement.
Alston said he doesn’t fear forhis job, but some nonessentialtesting programs are getting cutanda three-year salaryfreeze has
him frustrated.“I deserve a pay raise, just
because the cost of living goesup,” he said.
Others are annoyed about cutsin business traveland being stuck with the same old computer pro-grams for another year.
Congress’ special cost-cut-ting committee, which has not been appointed, is tasked with
slashing the federal deficit by amammoth $1.5 trillion or moreover the next decade. But theuncertainty caused this year bythe near government shutdownand the last-minute deal to raisethe United States’ debt limit has
frozen spending.Many federal employees said
theatmosphere hasall buthaltednew hires, which means more work for current employees. Andalthoughmany havebeen throughthis before, some have reachedtheir limit.
“I just don’t think that [Con-gress] can relate to federalemployees,” said Bob Koston, a
longtime U.S. Agency for Inter-national Development employee.“‘We’re not taking payroll reduc-tions yet — when they startaddressing reducing the payroll,people will worry.”
Federal workers wary of spending cuts
COVER STORY
Washington’s employment bubble bursting
EXAMINER FILE
More than 30,000 workers joined the unemployment ranks over the past two months in the Washington area.
ByScottMcCabe andEmilyBabay ExaminerStaff Writers
Apsychiatrist andher teenageson were founddead in their Kensingtonhome in what Montgomery Countypoliceare calling a murder-suicide.
The bodies of 54-year-old Mar-garet Jensvold and 13-year-oldBenjamin Barnhard were discov-eredat their homeon the unit blockof Simms Court at about 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday. Police were called to thehome after Jensvold’s co-workercontactedauthorities, saying shehadnotbeenable toreachthewomanforseveral days.
Neighbor Lauren Anthone wasshocked by thenews.
“I feel sad that they slippedthrough cracks and none of us sawit coming,” Anthone told The Wash-ington Examiner . “No one reachedout for help and obviously someone was under a great deal of mentaldistress.”
Officers found Jensvold’s andBarnhard’s bodies in theirbedrooms,police said. It wasn’t immediatelyknown how long their bodies had been there.
Both had suffered trauma, saidOfficer Howard Hersh, a Montgom-ery County police spokesman. He would not say how Jensvold andBarnhard died,whetheranyweapon was found at the home or who initi-ated the killings.
He said he didn’t know whether
anyoneelse waslivingat the home.Theboy’s father, JamesBarnhard,told WRC-TV that Ben recentlygraduated from Wellspring Acad-emy, the school for overweight kidsin rural North Carolina that had been featured on the show “Too Fatfor 15: Fighting Back” on Style Net- work. The father said Jensvold wasa lovelymother.
Jensvold had co-edited the book“Psychopharmacology and Women:Sex, Gender, and Hormones” andcontributed to the book “Psycho-
pharmacology from a FeministPerspective.”She had previously practiced at
the Premenstrual Syndrome Clinicon St. Elmo Road in Bethesda,according to records.
Jensvold once sued the NationalInstitutes of Health for sex dis-crimination. Sheand anotherdoctorclaimed that they were forced to work in a male dominated, sexistatmosphere, andthat they hadbeendeniedmentoringopportunitiescon-sideredessentialto advancing intheir
careers. But in 1996, U.S. DistrictJudge Deborah K. Chasanow tossedout the claims, saying they were inpart “exaggerated”and “fabricated.”
Staff WriterFreemanKlopottcon-tributed to thisreport.
Mom, son deadin MontCo
murder-suicide
Bye, bye government spendingD.C. area jobless rates
June Unemployed May Unemployed April Unemployed
Metro area 6.2% 194,200 5.7% 175,800 5.4% 164,900July job Jan.-July Jan.-July
cuts 2011 2010District 210 15,981 35,040Virginia 120 7,112 3,184Maryland 6,746 14,470 2,240Region 7,076 37,563 40,464Nation 66,414 312,220 339,353
SOURCE: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS; CHALLENGER, GRAY & CHRISTMAS
