"You have to be persistent, you have to be diligent, and you have to be tenacious, the job market is fiercer, a lot of people are out of work, so you have a lot more competition," Hardey said.
A former manager of a janitorial company, the North Philadelphia man has been without a job and benefits for two months, but tries to remain optimistic.
"I come in with nothing less than confidence, anything other than is defeatism and it won't get you a job," Hardey said.
There are six community based Pennsylvania Career Links in Philadelphia. Last year, the combined offices saw 96,000 job seekers and the dark economic conditions are driving those numbers up.
Nicki Woods in the administrator at the Spring Garden Street office.
"Employers are being very cautious because of the economy, and I think they're taking a look at their budgets and their operating costs; many times the employers will hire part-time versus fulltime," Woods said. Gloria Bown of Oney is 57-years-old and lost her job as a food service workers after 34 years. Meanwhile, she's looking for work, but can only find part-time jobs with no benefits
Brown says one thing she's learned is that even looking for a job requires some computer skills so she took a free course.
Pennsylvania Career Link agrees that the more skills people have the better chance of finding work and the agency provides a wide range of services to help job seekers.
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