John R. Fugazzie joined other unemployed workers for a January 8 meeting at the U.S. Department of Labor. In his published account, he describes participants from New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia sharing their experiences looking for work and discussing how the federal government and employers could respond.
The discussion brought the practical concerns of peer job-search groups into a federal policy setting. Participants could describe what an extended gap in employment meant in everyday terms, including the difficulty of finding employers willing to consider applicants who had been out of work for months.