Job-seekers in Worthing feel the pinch

With the unemployment rate soaring to 1.92 million, the Herald chatted to job-seekers at the Jobcentre in Worthing High Street to discover how they are coping with the current economic climate.

Redundancy

Rick Turner, 24, and Rosie Retter, 26, from Broadwater have two young children and have been unable to pay their gas or electricity bills since July last year.

Up until a month ago Rick was a painter with a three-year contract, but was made redundant after just three weeks of work.

He said: "I'd just finished for the day, so I rang up the boss and said 'I'm all done, mate, where do you want me tomorrow?'

"But he just said that there was no work until the following Monday.

"Then he rang me the day after and said he was going to have to stop offering me work because there was nothing about."

Rick said he has been searching through the Yellow Pages and visiting the Jobcentre regularly to find work, but is yet to have had any luck.

Rosie fears her daughter will lose a place at Jack in the Box playgroup in Dominion Road, as she needs to pay 336.

Wasted skills

Wayne Harrison, 38, from Shoreham, used to be a floor layer, but had to stop two years ago to care for his wife.

He has been looking for work unsuccessfully since May last year.

He said: "I feel slightly like my skills are being wasted.

"I'm a floor layer and have been on and off since I was 16, but now I'm just after whatever I can get hold of.

"Every couple of weeks when I come to the Jobcentre to sign on the dole they do a job search, and sometimes they come up with something, but everyone seems to get there before me."

Determined

Simon Mortimer, 41, from East Worthing, used to be a truck driver but has been claiming incapacity benefit for the last 15 months due to a knee injury.

But the dad-of-two has just completed a four-day security guard course and is determined to find a job.

He said: "What annoys me at the moment is people who think a job is beneath them, or that just turning up at the Jobcentre is enough.

"I've seen people leave here in the morning and go straight to the pub."

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