One of 26,400 looking for work
Clyde Bumgardner, a former supervisor at United Airlines, has been searching for a job for the past year out of his Santa Rosa home. Bumgardner has worked with Sonoma Career Transitions to network and brainstorm ideas with other unemployed workers in the county.
JOHN BURGESS/The Press DemocratPublished: Friday, July 17, 2009 at 6:44 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, July 17, 2009 at 6:44 p.m.
When Clyde Bumgardner was downsized from his United Airlines job last summer, the 58-year-old Santa Rosan thought he could easily bounce back.
Bumgardner, a former supervisor for United’s administrative support center in San Francisco, had plenty of work experience, going from aircraft maintenance technician to maintenance technician supervisor to overseeing myriad personnel matters for 3,800 workers.
A year later, Bumgardner is still out of work and still collecting unemployment.
“I did not anticipate this kind of struggle,” he said. “I just felt that something would materialize, either at a truck shop or auto shop or if the county airport was to expand.”
Bumgardner is one of 26,400 county residents who were looking for work last month. That’s more than 78 percent above the same period in 2008. The unemployment rate was 10.2 percent, up from 9.6 percent in May.
It is the first time Sonoma County’s jobless rate has gone above 10 percent since early 1983, as students enter a shrinking job market that cannot even accommodate experienced workers like Bumgardner.
In one of the worst economic downturns in history, the highlights of Bumgardner’s hard-earned experience have gotten lost amid stacks of resumes.
Born and raised in Dodge City, Kan., Bumgardner left the Midwest in 1983 to attend school at Colorado Aerotech, where he received an aviation maintenance certificate.
While in school, he worked at an auto center doing general automotive maintenance. His first job working in the airline industry was for Pioneer Airlines in Denver. He was an airframe and powerplant mechanic, performing routine maintenance, inspections and repairs.
In 1986, he moved to California and went to work for United Airlines in San Francisco. For years, Bumgardner commuted from Sonoma County to his job in San Francisco.
The overtime and swing shifts were rough on him and he had hoped that after his departure from United he could find a steady job closer to home.
But no one is hiring, he said.
He has interviewed for a number of positions, including shop manager for a student transportation company, a maintenance related job at the Two Rock Naval Coast Guard station and three county jobs, including one as an airport operations specialist trainee.
Bumgardner cashed in a couple of private life insurance policies to supplement the money he gets from unemployment. His wife still works and he’s been able to reduce his short-term debt and only has about a year left on his car payment.
Bumgardner has found help getting through these tough times at Sonoma Career Transitions, a support group of about 50 unemployed local residents. The group offers people, many of them professionals, the chance to tell their stories, network and receive job hunting training.
“What surprises me is how many really qualified excellent people are out there,” said Susan Andrews, the group’s director. “These are people who ran non-profits, paralegals...with 20 years experience.”
The upside of the recession for Bumgardner is that his health is far better today because of the lack of stress of commuting to and from his job near San Francisco International Airport.
“That part of it I don’t regret,” he said. “I’m just surprised that the economy has made it so difficult for me land a job.”
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