One and a half million people in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan were out of jobs at the end of 2008, according to a recent report from WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio.
These people are neighbors and friends, people we stand next to on the El, and walk past on the street.
Their stories inspired a WBEZ series called "Hard Working," that's "all about jobs and joblessness, work and what it means when work is hard to find."
Producer who’s doing everything she can think of to piece her life together.
Carole Cantrell is a 51-year-old artist who lives in a small apartment in Chicago and struggles to pay her bills by working small, "mundane" jobs she's able to get. But what she really wants is a job as a graphic designer.
Her story is not so very different from the other 1,499,000 unemployed people in the Upper Midwest. They just want to work.
[Listen to her story ... or read more ...]
