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CNN Live At Daybreak
Job Losses in Silicon Valley Outpace Rest of Country
Aired May 07, 2003 - 05:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the economy here at home. Tech workers have been hit hard by the dot-com downturn. Job losses in the Silicon Valley far outpaced the rest of the country.
CNN's Jen Rogers looks at how some people are coping.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Patrick Bryant may drive a BMW, but it's the last vestige of his old lifestyle when money was not an issue.
PATRICK BRYANT, LAID-OFF TECH WORKER: I hardly ever had to balance my checkbook. There was always money there and savings, things were wonderful back then.
ROGERS: Back then, Bryant was a senior network security architect for Yahoo!. His salary? $110,000 plus options. These days, his paycheck looks more like this. That's not a typo, that's $56.25.
BRYANT: I've sold practically everything that I could sell on eBay.
ROGERS: Bryant, laid off eight months ago, scours the Web for jobs and says he's sent out thousands of resumes.
BRYANT: As time has gone on, if anything, it's gotten worse.
ROGERS: So these days, in addition to periodic work as a private investigator, he tows gliders for $15 an hour. It's a story being repeated all around Silicon Valley -- laid-off tech workers getting by any way they can. Close to one in five jobs has disappeared from the area in the last two years. Bryant considers himself one of the lucky ones. He still has his car and his apartment.
DON JENSEN, INNVISION URBAN MINISTRY: We have several people in our emergency shelter right now who had jobs in high tech who have very sophisticated resumes and I don't even understand the resume.
ROGERS: While stories like that are shocking, they're still the exception. Many here have managed to hold onto their lifestyles, if not their jobs. The people really bearing the brunt, those who used to work for dot-com executives -- the gardeners, housekeepers, support staff, now looking for any help they can find.
(on camera): Food banks up and down Silicon Valley report demand has surged. Here at the Food Plaza in Palo Alto, they say the number of people looking for help has nearly doubled in the last two years, with the biggest increases coming since November.
(voice-over): In the last nine months, the Red Cross of Santa Clara has seen a more than 70 percent jump in applications for emergency housing assistance.
REX PAINTER, AMERICAN RED CROSS: It's folks like you and me who missed a couple of paychecks and all of a sudden found themselves at risk of losing everything.
ROGERS: It's a real risk for Patrick Bryant. If nothing changes, he'll lose both his apartment and his car in the next month. The one thing he continues to hold onto is hope.
BRYANT: I just hope the economy improves. I count myself fortunate that at least I have something that I can do that I enjoy and I know that there are many people who have things worse than I do.
ROGERS: Jen Rogers, CNN Financial News, Palo Alto, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 7, 2003 - 05:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the economy here at home. Tech workers have been hit hard by the dot-com downturn. Job losses in the Silicon Valley far outpaced the rest of the country.
CNN's Jen Rogers looks at how some people are coping.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Patrick Bryant may drive a BMW, but it's the last vestige of his old lifestyle when money was not an issue.
PATRICK BRYANT, LAID-OFF TECH WORKER: I hardly ever had to balance my checkbook. There was always money there and savings, things were wonderful back then.
ROGERS: Back then, Bryant was a senior network security architect for Yahoo!. His salary? $110,000 plus options. These days, his paycheck looks more like this. That's not a typo, that's $56.25.
BRYANT: I've sold practically everything that I could sell on eBay.
ROGERS: Bryant, laid off eight months ago, scours the Web for jobs and says he's sent out thousands of resumes.
BRYANT: As time has gone on, if anything, it's gotten worse.
ROGERS: So these days, in addition to periodic work as a private investigator, he tows gliders for $15 an hour. It's a story being repeated all around Silicon Valley -- laid-off tech workers getting by any way they can. Close to one in five jobs has disappeared from the area in the last two years. Bryant considers himself one of the lucky ones. He still has his car and his apartment.
DON JENSEN, INNVISION URBAN MINISTRY: We have several people in our emergency shelter right now who had jobs in high tech who have very sophisticated resumes and I don't even understand the resume.
ROGERS: While stories like that are shocking, they're still the exception. Many here have managed to hold onto their lifestyles, if not their jobs. The people really bearing the brunt, those who used to work for dot-com executives -- the gardeners, housekeepers, support staff, now looking for any help they can find.
(on camera): Food banks up and down Silicon Valley report demand has surged. Here at the Food Plaza in Palo Alto, they say the number of people looking for help has nearly doubled in the last two years, with the biggest increases coming since November.
(voice-over): In the last nine months, the Red Cross of Santa Clara has seen a more than 70 percent jump in applications for emergency housing assistance.
REX PAINTER, AMERICAN RED CROSS: It's folks like you and me who missed a couple of paychecks and all of a sudden found themselves at risk of losing everything.
ROGERS: It's a real risk for Patrick Bryant. If nothing changes, he'll lose both his apartment and his car in the next month. The one thing he continues to hold onto is hope.
BRYANT: I just hope the economy improves. I count myself fortunate that at least I have something that I can do that I enjoy and I know that there are many people who have things worse than I do.
ROGERS: Jen Rogers, CNN Financial News, Palo Alto, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
