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photo: GETTY IMAGES (SCHOOL CHAIR)
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Back to school
By Amy Merrick and Roger Thurow Chad Smith considered going to college, but as he landed a series of well-paying construction and auto-industry jobs over the past decade, school seemed like a waste of time and money. “When you’re making $55,000 at 18 years old, it’s hard to tell yourself to go to school,” he says. “You’ve got the world by the tail.”
Then, last May, he was laid off from his night-shift job at a Chrysler assembly plant. Even if he wanted to go back to construction, home building already had slowed to a crawl, offering few jobs. Now 29 years old, Mr. Smith is back in school through a federal retraining program, studying software development and computer networking at Rock Valley College, a community college in Rockford, Ill. Mr. Smith’s journey shows how both the recession and longer-term changes in the economy are limiting the career choices of U.S. workers today—particularly in old manufacturing towns in the Midwest. When the auto and machine-tool industries prospered, workers in these towns had little incentive to get college degrees. But as manufacturing eroded, blue-collar towns like Rockford were hit especially hard. LEAP OF FAITH Job retraining has never been easy for workers, often putting a strain on family finances. But in this deep recession, going back to school can be an even greater leap of faith. The speed and size of recent layoffs mean that many businesses are contracting rather than expanding their payrolls. That leaves many newly trained job seekers competing against more experienced workers who have also been laid off. Still, many people are scrambling to get retrained in hopes of catching the next economic wave. In Rockford, a city of about 150,000 people about 90 miles northwest of Chicago, 19% of residents have at least a four-year college degree, compared with the national average of 27%, according to a Census survey. That gap puts the region at a disadvantage when companies offering white-collar jobs are looking to open new offices. Michael Williams, executive director of Rock River Training, administers the program paying Mr. Smith’s tuition bill. Last year, when Chrysler closed its third shift and more than 1,000 employees were thrown out of work, Rock River Training set up a job-search network that hired some laid-off auto workers to be peer counselors. The retraining program covers tuition payments only for workers who want to enter a field that the U.S. Labor Department considers a growth area. Its top-ranked job category for 2006-2016 is computer network-systems and data-communications analysts, Mr. Smith’s chosen field, with a predicted 53.4% increase in the number of jobs available. It also ranks the field “very high” in median earnings, a category it applies to jobs with a median salary of at least $46,360. ‘I’VE SEEN THE OTHER SIDE’ Still, retraining isn’t a sure-fire solution. While Mr. Smith plans to move into a potentially lucrative industry, he may have to take a pay cut. As the U.S. has shifted toward a service economy, many new jobs can’t match the wages workers once earned in factories. Mr. Smith would be among the first men in his family of primarily blue-collar workers to go to college—a dramatic step he hopes will rub off on his three young sons. “I have to set that example,” he says. Mr. Smith and his wife, Brandi, are making ends meet with his unemployment checks and her part-time job as a nurse at SwedishAmerican Hospital, one of Rockford’s major employers. About two years ago, as Chrysler’s troubles became clear, they started discussing the possibility of Mr. Smith returning to school and began saving money to cover lost income. Mr. Smith enrolled in the summer, with a remedial math class. In the fall, he took English, psychology and speech—and did well in each. Now, he’s taking his first computer classes as he tries to power through a heavier-than-normal courseload, hoping to finish two associate’s degrees in two years. He wavers between careers in Web design and software development. He would like to join a company that will help pay for his bachelor’s degree. Eventually, he wants to complete his master’s. “I love school, because I’ve seen the other side,” he says. But the path won’t be easy. Mr. Smith says he always learned course material easily in high school, but now he’s struggling. The night before one recent software class, he spent hours reading the first half of a chapter the class was scheduled to discuss. The next morning, the teacher started with the second half of the chapter, throwing Mr. Smith a curve. “I was lost most of the time,” he recalls. “I look around and wonder if anybody else feels overwhelmed.” He expected to catch up after reading for about four hours that evening. Mr. Smith says he is comfortable with his job prospects, despite the potential of a long recession that could depress hiring in all industries. Through friends, he has heard about two available computer network-administration jobs that he already would qualify for, but he would rather focus on finishing school and finding even better positions in the future. “This is the most important way to make a better life for my family,” he says.
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