ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the interview of Tony, an unemployed black man of twenty-five, followed by interviews with the director and a staff member of one of the best-run Private Industry Council (PIC) referral agencies in Philadelphia, although some are considerably older. The juxtaposition between the interview of the unemployed man seeking help and the experience of the agency in seeking to assist this clientele goes far to explain both the successes and the limitations of the PIC employment-training efforts. The interviews with the training center director and the staff member who work on a daily basis with a large number of these unemployed, unskilled men provide additional perspective in operating a bridge institution whose goal is to facilitate the transition of this disadvantaged group into employment. Employers are understandably disinclined to add an adult man to their payrolls whose work record over the past decade reveals that he has spent much more time out of work than in work.
