A TWELVE per cent unemployment rate jumped higher in December when, days away from the holidays, bauxite and tourism interests announced job cuts and other local companies gave notice of redundancies to come. With a trickle that promises to become a deluge, what should one do if one finds oneself without a job going into the new year?

Faith St Catherine, a counsellor based at the Women's Outreach and Resource Centre in inner-city Beechwood, Kingston, told The Gleaner, " Lots of people are coming here and asking for jobs. One lady came to ask if we do welfare and if we have anything to give. I see some who look like deportees but they won't admit it."

One legal secretary, a male who does not want his name disclosed, said his downtown Kingston-based law firm let him go in September because "things are slow and it made no sense to be paying me and I have nothing to do". He admits, "Things were really slow."

She can't keep me

And Sharon Morrison, an accountant in Kingston, lost her job late November. Her employer, she said, "told me she can't keep me because she has no money." Morrison was the sole accounting employee responsible for financial reports, monthly budgets, payroll, tax returns and anything in accounts the business required.

Considering herself "qualified and capable" with skills in Quickbook, Peachtree, ACCpac Plus, Turbopay and Smartpay, she said she is busy distributing her résumé by hand and by email.

Morrison survives on loans from friends and family. She said, "All of my savings are gone. I am trying to sell some things but things are very slow."

According to St Catherine, Jamaicans whose relatives have lost their jobs should make the effort this season to help them with a meal or small tokens.

"Jamaicans tend to avoid their unemployed relatives. We have to change. Many of us want to get, but we are not willing to give."

She advises those who are unemployed to avoid falling into traps laid by those who prey on the desperate this season. "One thing I tell them not to do is to go to these agencies in the paper. Sometimes, they are so desperate that they borrow the money to pay them, only to find there is no job. It's a con."

Others suggest that the unemployed might also consider self-employment.

O'Neil Sutherland, who lost his job in mid-November, is following this piece of advice. The quantity surveyor, who was employed at a Kingston company, says he feels no animosity towards his former employers. "It just gives me a chance to really reflect and introspect on what I need to do. I am still able to pay my bills and my services are still in demand."

He said he is not planning to scale down his Christmas plans. "You do what you have to do to keep your sanity and keep the sanity of those around you. Christmas is really for the kids. You really try to enjoy it for them. It is a time for helping people as you go along."

'It just gives me a chance to really reflect and introspect on what I need to do.'