Layoffs are taking a toll on some of Jacksonville’s suburban and most affluent neighborhoods.
In the first three months of this year, new unemployment claims have more than doubled from the same time last year among residents in areas such as the Beaches, Mandarin, San Jose and Chaffee Road. Experts say it’s all a product of this unusually deep recession. And it’s creating a whole new class of the unemployed that is in shock, some for the first time.
Although two ZIP codes on the Westside and one in North Jacksonville still had the highest total unemployment numbers, the rate for the first three months of 2009 grew faster — in some cases, nearly twice as fast — in Neptune Beach, Mandarin and San Jose.
Ana Amaro, 49, was one of more than 8,000 Jacksonville workers who made new unemployment claims in January, the largest number ever tracked by the state. Amaro had been a sales representative at Cort, a furniture company, had just finished additional training and won an award, she said. When the news came, it hit hard.
“I was heartbroken,” she said.
But she wasn’t alone. Her classmate at the University of Phoenix, Janet Griffis, was laid off, too.
Griffis was living in Mandarin and had a Gate Petroleum job that gave her comfortable existence as a single mom.
Now, she and her daughter have had to move in with friends in Middleburg while she finishes school and searches for a new job. Like many people who have found themselves new to the unemployment scene, Griffis hasn’t sought or received any outside assistance.
“Thank God there are people to help,” Griffis said. “If it hadn’t been for friends I would be on the street.”
Vivian Southwell, executive director of Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry, said nearly every person who walked through the door in the last few months have been recently laid off. A number of restaurants closed, she said, and resorts have reduced staff. A job the ministry sponsored in February drew 400 people, more than twice the number that attended just a few months before.
“The Beaches was such a boom area in the boom times,” Southwell said. But when the boom when bust, “it tanked really bad.”
Paul Mason, an economist at the University of North Florida, said Jacksonville has been harder hit in this recession than others. Historically, such down periods led to more layoffs in manufacturing than anything else, insulating cities such as Jacksonville that aren’t dependent on manufacturing.
“Historically in recessionary periods there are more layoffs in manufacturing than anything else, and Jacksonville doesn’t suffer because we don’t have much manufacturing,” Mason said.
But this downturn has been driven by crises in the housing and financial markets, leading to job losses in sectors such as financial planning and insurance, Mason said. Those industries could come back faster when the housing market stablizes, he said.
His advice? Don’t panic, be diligent in job searches, and don’t let your pride get in the way of asking for assistance.
Most of BEAM’s new clients, Southwell said, have found themselves in need of help for the first time in their lives.
“These are people that had always taken care of their family, always worked, never ever had to go to anybody,” she said. “It’s very hard for them to find out where the help is. They’re coming to us in shock.”
deirdre.conner@jacksonville.com
(904) 359-4504