Standing in a sea of smartly dressed unemployed men and women in Jefferson County, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter vowed to try to keep jobs safe in his district and work to thwart deep federal cuts that could be coming with a Republican House takeover.
Soon to be in the minority, Perlmutter, a Golden Democrat, said he will lean on the White House and federal agencies to ensure the 7th Congressional District doesn’t get left behind in what will most certainly be a tougher climate over the next two years for Democrats.
“There are going to be some hard choices made over the next couple years, and I don’t want them made solely at the expense of Colorado,” he said. “I think for Colorado, we need to remind the country how well-educated our population is, how hard our people are willing to work and that it’s a great place to live. We have some built-in advantages.”
More than 700 people, many dressed in suits and ties, gripped resumes and packed an exhibit hall at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds for the job fair hosted by Perlmutter’s office.
Nineteen employers were brought in — including the Veterans Administration and Vestas, the Danish maker of wind turbines — all of whom promised they were ready to hire.
“It’s just good people, and they want a good job,” Perlmutter said. “They are not people who are shirking their responsibilities.”
Colorado’s unemployment rate is 8.4 percent, a bit lower than national seasonally adjusted rate of 9.8 percent.
The job fair — Perlmutter’s third this year — was held the same day the White House and congressional Republicans came to an agreement extending benefits for the long-term unemployed in exchange for tax cuts for all.
Perlmutter said he needs to see the deal before giving his opinion on it, but he voted last week on extending tax breaks to those who earn less than $250,000 a year and has supported extending unemployment-insurance benefits.
The extension of unemployment benefits was not going to help the large number of underemployed people out there such as 59-year-old Phil Opp, who has his own 3D-animation and video-production company.
Opp, who lives in Arvada, has thrived on a few good contracts a year, but those have dried up since the economy crashed a couple of years ago, he says.
“You send in a resume, and you don’t hear anything. I can fall back on little jobs, but my pay has been cut 60 percent since 2008,” he said, standing in line at the job fair Monday. “My wife would like me to find a full-time job.”
Jared Call, a 32-year-old small-business consultant who toted his 4-year-old daughter Annabelle along to the fair, has a similar story.
Call’s wife is a nurse but has to have surgery soon that will take her out of commission for a few months, he says.
“It’d be better if I was the breadwinner. She’s getting ready for school,” he said of his daughter, whom he was trying to wrestle back into the stroller. “It’d be better if we could figure this out.”
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com
