Editor’s Note: This is the second story in a series exploring the issue of rampant unemployment in the Bronx. It was first published in the May 3-16 print edition of the Norwood News.

The line of people waiting outside the Bronx Educational Opportunity Center last Wednesday ran the length of the entire building, snaked down a short flight of concrete steps and into the parking lot. Those queued up stood fidgeting in the mild April sun, many of them dressed in their best outfits, their shoes polished and their hair combed.

The center was hosting a job fair, and everyone on line was there with the same goal: to find work, to set themselves apart from the other hundreds of applicants who were waiting alongside them.

“I didn’t think the line would be this long,” said Osvaldo Martinez, sharply dressed in a navy blue suit and tie. He’d lost his security job three months ago, he said, and since then he’s been making the rounds at job fairs, following leads on the advice of friends, sending out resumes.

“I haven’t gotten called back yet,” he said.

Osvaldo is one of approximately 75,000 Bronx residents who are unemployed, according to the latest statistics from the State Department of Labor — what the government calls “actively looking” for work.

The borough’s unemployment rate in March, at 13.6 percent, dropped slightly from 14.1 percent in February, when it hit its highest peak in nearly two decades. But the Bronx continues to carry the highest unemployment rate of all the counties in New York State, a fact that job seekers here are acutely aware of.

“The job market in the Bronx is horrible,” said 40-year-old Chaunda Quinones. She’s been out of work since the fall, when she quit her job at a messenger center in the hopes of finding something with better pay.

“It was $7.25 an hour,” she said. “After my MetroCard, I couldn’t pay my bills,”

But the job hunt has been harder than Quinones expected. She took a home health aide certification program, but said the pay in that field is still too low to get by. She’s scoured job postings on Craigslist and applied for retail positions at stores like Target and TJ Maxx. Employers say they’ll be in touch, Quinones said, but she never hears back.

“When you do find work, it’s minimum wage, or you need a master’s degree just to wash the floors,” she said.

Monique Browne, who was laid off from her last job two years ago, says she’s had a similar experience, filling out applications and contacting temp agencies, but to no avail. She lives with her mother in the Bronx, who she has come to rely on to help out with bills and expenses.

“Now I have nothing to contribute,” she said. “Since my unemployment ran out, I’m just skimming off of her.”

Like Quinones, Browne’s taken work development courses, gaining secretarial and medical assistance certificates in an effort to bolster her employment credentials.

Ken Small, director of development at BronxWorks, a nonprofit that focuses on workforce development, said that while these job training programs are useful, they don’t necessarily offer a secure employment solution if they don’t include long-term career goals.

“Yes, acquiring the skill is important, but what is equally and if not more important is that the skills acquisition is tied to a career path,” he said.

But those searching for work say it’s hard to think about the future when each passing day unemployed makes them feel increasingly desperate.

“I’m looking at anything, just about anything that’s going to pay the rent,” Browne said.

Quinones said she’s discouraged by the sheer number of other people who are also looking for work. At 40, she’s competing for low-paying jobs that are typically given to workers half her age.

“They’d rather the 20-year-olds selling clothes,” she said.

“They have a thousand like me,” she added. “I’ll take anything. I’ll wash the toilets.”