The national unemployment rate is at a staggering 8.3% as of January 2012. It dropped from 8.5% in December 2011 and is the lowest since February 2009. However, too many of our nation’s citizens still find themselves out of work with little hope of providing for themselves or their families or even finding a new job any time soon. Moreover, the job market has become an intensely competitive place. It is now about whom you know, how much experience you have and what unique qualities you can bring to the employer rather than just merely submitting an application.

Shockingly, about 13.6% of African Americans are unemployed today – almost double the 7.4% unemployment rate of Caucasians.

Tennessee’s unemployment rate is a baffling 8.7% as of December 2011. On the bright side, this is the lowest it has been since December 2008 when it was 8.4%. Davidson County’s unemployment rate as of December 2011 is a 6.9%, down from 7.3% in the previous month. Even with the slight decline, our community is still struggling.

This perpetual recession is devastating. There have been a number of job fairs around our city in the past few months, yet we see no progress. The problem might be that our community members may not have the means to get to these various job fairs, so in this case transportation is a key factor. Public transportation is an option; however, the problem is in our city you can’t always rely on public transportation and using it to search for jobs can become expensive and laborious. In this case, the job seeker ultimately gives up because the cost of riding public transportation to search for the amount of jobs it takes to actually find one might be the only money they have to feed their family.

This is where Maplewood High School steps in. Maplewood is planning a job fair that will benefit the entire community. We are the first school in our community to start this campaign. One of the many goals set for the April community job fair and voter registration drive is to help alleviate any potential roadblocks or barriers to employment that our community stakeholders face. Transportation and a general knowledge of which employers are hiring are among the top concerns facing our community members.

Many Maplewood community members look fine at first glance, but the reality is they are struggling financially. The recession has even directly impacted recent college graduates, who are protesting (while simultaneously desperately searching) because of the inability to find jobs. The big question has become, did college students pay thousands of dollars to get a higher-level education just to sit at home? “I feel like the job market makes students look useless and show that education has no value. What is the point of going to college if I have no hope of getting a job after,” said high school student Angelina Ocran.

“It is frustrating thinking you will go to college, graduate and you will find something in your field but you don’t. It’s not as easy to find a job now like it was before,” said Andriana Adjei, a graduate of Tennessee State University, when asked how she feels about the job market. “It’s even harder to find jobs that may require just a high school diploma these days.”