Living Information

2003-05-07

[Lead-in]
1. With the unemployment rate in the US at 6%, many Americans are feeling the economic crunch. Chris Hungtington has the story of one man who’s made some adjustments in his lifestyle.

[Story]
2. It’s a Friday afternoon and a group of executives knocked off early to get in a quick round of golf. One of these men has 25-years experience in accounting and investor relations. But he’s not an executive anymore, he’s the caddy.

3. Rich Hantke used to earn a 6-figure income running investor relations at a high-tech telecommunications firm. But he was laid off last October and he’s not been able to find work in that field since. So he’s working the links to fill a gap.

[Rich Hantke/ Golf Caddy]
“The caddiness is beautiful because of the…time flexibility involved. You know, I can still do my search for my…continue my career if you will, but also definitely helps in terms of helping make ends meet.”

4. It’s a long way from the executive suite to the caddy shack, but Rich Hantke’s solution for helping to make ends meet after he’s been laid off is hardly unique. Millions of Americans in the last couple of years have been forced to take jobs and paychecks they haven’t seen since high school.

5. Bernstein points out that the percentage of the so-called underemployed American workers is the highest in more than 7 years above 10%. But Bernstein says the bigger threat to the economy is falling pay.

[Jared Bernstein/ Economic Policy Institute]
“Actually we are now beginning to see fairly wide spread real-wage losses throughout the economy.”

6. Rich Hantke knows all about earning less. Out of work for 7 months with his oldest son now looking at colleges, he’s been forced to face the facts.

“The reality is, you know, we are two-income family. The house and everything, where we live, is geared around, you know, two-incomes. So you can’t go indefinitely on one income.”

For now, that second-income won’t come from climbing the corporate ladder, but from working the fairways. Chris Huntington, CNN, New York