Every day, the news seems to get worse every time I open up the business section of the local newspaper. Thousands of people are getting laid off each day. Back in December, my neighbor was laid off from his job as an electrical engineer. Just the week before, we were talking and he mentioned that he thought he was pretty safe and wasn't worried about layoffs. A week later, he was filing for unemployment.
The story repeats again and again among my friends. Many who are still employed are anxious, because they don't know if the ax will fall on them next. My husband went through a few weeks of anxiety when the announcement of job cuts came out at his work.
It's a troublesome time, especially for my friends who are deaf or hard of hearing, because some of them were underemployed to begin with. The under-employment rate for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing has been quoted to be as high as 90% according to Lawrence Siegel, who did a study based in California. Under-employed is different from unemployed-- it means that a person is doing a job that they are over-qualified for.
In some cases for deaf and hard of hearing persons looking for a job, it comes down to the attitude of those doing the hiring as well as the attitude of the person seeking employment. It takes an employer who is willing to see the ability rather than the disability-- and we need more employers out there who can do that before we can see those statistics change for the better.
In Illinois, when Lt. Governor Pat Quinn was about to take over as governor, he was recently quoted as saying:
If you're able-bodied and breathing, we want you working.
Ouch.
I sure hope this was merely a quick-retorted oversight and that Quinn will find ways to include people with disabilities in his new plan to increase the number of jobs within Illinois.
Check out the Big Noise blog:
The Other, Other Employement Rate
