State Of The Economy: Tampa Florida ( Continued )

Maybe I should clarify a few things before continuing on with this topic.
When dealing with the " state of the economy " here in Tampa Florida, I am talking about the economy of the hourly worker. I'm not concerning myself with salaried workers at this time because they seem to be not suffering as much as the hourly employee is.
I am also concerning myself with those hourly workers who now happen to be living on the streets behind some building, or who are sleeping in cars, Salvation Army centers, or other homeless shelters, ect.
Many of you readers will think of the homeless as that group of people who are to lazy to work or who are either drug addicts or alcoholics. While it is true that a few of the individuals that I have hung out with are one or both, most are actually hard-working and have ended up on the streets because they could no longer afford to live the way in which they were accostumed to living, because of company downsizing or whatever.
So. Are we all on the same page now? I hope so, because the reader is about to get educated on how life is in the world of reality. Stay tuned folks because this could very well be you in our currant economy, and in that which is still to come.
Tomorrow you will meet a few of the players in this saga, and in the days to follow I will take you out with them in their daily struggles to find even temporary work in order to put food in their mouths.

State Of The Economy: Tampa Florida...

...and it is not a pretty picture here in the " sunshine state."
It is reported that the unemployment rate here in the Tampa area is 10.2%, while the state's rate is at 10.6%. These numbers would be higher if not for the fact that many of the unemployed have left the state in droves and this trend is continuing.
I lived here back in the late early 2000's, and things have certainly gone downhill since my last stay as compared to this currant stay. In 2000, you could walk into a temporary service or a day labor service and you'd be working the very next day, if not the same day. That ain't gonna happen again anytime soon. I walked into a temp service which I use to frequent in the past, and I sat in the place everyday for a week before I was finally sent out on a job. An eight hour day? Not hardly. It was a half-day of work. Thus far this June, I've logged in 54 hours of work. For the record, I've shown up at the office every day looking for something.
Thus far while making my rounds, I've discovered that there isn't much work in my particular field, which would be "data recovery" or "data extraction" depending on who wants the work completed for them.
So what has my work consisted of? Funny that you should ask! 90% of the jobs which I have completed have been dealing with moving. Basically, unloading furniture out of moving vans and carrying the stuff into the homes of the new owners. Some of these have been apartments, which has required carrying the belongings up two or three flights of stairs. No easy task, especially in this hot Florida heat and humidity. Pay-rate? How about 8 dollars an hour? Not very much in this day and age. There is a bright side though. I've gotten some great tips from not only the home-owners, but from the van drivers as well. Throw in the tips, and the hourly rate averages something like $33.50. Now if I could just manage to get two of those per day. I have managed to unload these trucks in under three hours in most cases, which does help make the money look better. ( continued )