A Victim Of The Economy

To see the effect the slow economic recovery is having on people, you don't have to look any farther than the corner of West Prospect and Hartz Avenue in downtown Danville.

On July 29, Shari Kaiser will close her store, Hoot 'n Holler, because of a lack of customers and the need for her to find a full-time job.

Kaiser opened the specialty footwear shop 15 months ago, having never run a business before. It was a long shot and she knew it.

Kaiser was the only person ever employed at Hoot 'n Holler. She would have liked to have hired a worker or two, but there was never enough demand to warrant it.

The quaint shop is a microcosm of the latest jobs report that came out Friday.

It showed the nation created only 18,000 jobs in June, due in big part to nearly 40,000 layoffs in the government sector. The slow growth caused the unemployment rate to inch up to 9.2 percent.

California's jobless rate dipped slightly to 11.7 percent. The East Bay's unemployment rate also dropped a bit to 10.2 percent.

Analysts say employers remain reluctant to hire because of timid consumer spending and uncertainty about the future.

Kaiser said businesses are cautious because it's expensive to take on employees. Besides health care and Social Security costs, Kaiser noted that if you hire someone and then lay them off you have to pay unemployment insurance.

She said the nation needs to add more manufacturing jobs and move away from an economy dominated by the service sector.

"You've got to have a good mix," said Kaiser. "Everyone is looking to the government to create jobs. That's not the way it works."

The closing of Hoot 'n Holler may have been inevitable. The city plans eventually to tear down the row of buildings on that block for redevelopment.

However, the slow recovery and the high jobless rate certainly hastened the shop's closure.

Kaiser is feeling the unemployment woes personally. Her husband recently took a pay cut, so she feels the need to work full time rather than sit in a shop and wait for customers.

 "I don't feel comfortable sitting here twiddling my thumbs," she said.