All I Want Is a Job!: Unemployed Women Navigating the Public Workforce System

"An ethnographic sociologist by training, Mary Gatta went undercover as a client in a New Jersey One Stop Career Center. One Stop Centers, developed as part of the federal Workforce Investment Act, are supposed to be an unemployed worker's go-to resource on the way to re-employment. But, with swarms of new clients coming through their doors, are these centers fit for the task of pairing America's workforce with new jobs? Weaving together her account with interviews of jobless women and case-workers, Gatta offers a revealing glimpse of the toll that unemployment takes and the realities of social policy. Women, she argues, are particularly vulnerable in the current economy, since they are routinely paid less than their male counterparts. Drawing on tales from the frontlines, Gatta highlights the promise and weaknesses of One Stop Career Centers and recommends key shifts in workforce policy."--Back cover.