Letters

Bravo for your salute to American ingenuity and entrepreneurial skill that your story "Now Hiring" so convincingly demonstrates [Nov. 24]! Reading about the unemployed who are successfully taking risks and adapting to career changes is such a contrast to listening to the noisy strikers and whining demonstrators who seem to be everywhere these days. Your article showed people unafraid of a radical career change supported in part by American self-confidence as well as our sense of mobility. Seeing new jobs, even if temporary or minimum-wage work, as a challenge is an American answer to dreary job entrenchment and shows our ability to begin again. PATRICIA K. RYAN Ardmore, Pa.

You presented a skewed version of what it is truly like out here. You said, "Jobs are coming back," but whom were you talking to? If you really want to know how the economy is, why don't you ask the maids cleaning hotel rooms, waitresses, cooks and grocery-store clerks? Or maybe folks like us really don't count. After all, we don't have college educations. We're not very stylish. We often look older than we are because it takes a lot out of you to live in an impossible situation. Many of us had our own dreams, but now we just have the jobs that help other people's dreams come true. PAMELA BOWEN Oak Harbor, Wash.

Even with an Ivy League degree, AN M.B.A. and 15 years of successful marketing experience, I have found employers in the hot areas you profiled (including health care and professional services) unwilling to consider management candidates from outside those fields, even when they meet or exceed all other job requirements. I'll continue to hope for a more robust economic turnaround while mulling over the ups and downs of opening a gourmet shop. JEROME FUNARO Baltimore, Md.

You described a rosy picture of the resurgence of jobs, but too many of them are in the service sector and have poor pay. Newly created jobs will not be enough to counterbalance the large number of old ones that have taken a one-way trip to Asia. Unless the hemorrhage of well-paid work to foreign countries is stopped, the U.S. is heading toward Third World status. EDWARD J. MASON El Lago, Texas

I wish you could experience what it is like to be laid off and unemployed for an extended period. You should endure the ordeal that I and thousands of others have undergone, one that strips you of not only any financial security but also your dignity and self-esteem. If you did, then you would be qualified to write a realistic article on the job market instead of the upbeat, sappy story you published. SUSAN SCHNEIDER Suffern, N.Y.

The number of months I've persistently looked for a job after college graduation: nine. The number of job openings I've applied for: 263. The number of times I've been called back: six. The number of offers I received: one for a temporary position. I'm tired of hearing everyone, from friends to President Bush, tell me that the economy is getting better every day and that more jobs are available. Words don't mean anything unless there is actual improvement. HUE MA San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Shifting Gears in Iraq