The jobs report for June is out, with underwhelming numbers.

Continue reading

The nation added 80,000 jobs last month, but the unemployment rate remained the same at 8.2 percent.

But go into some cities, including parts of D.C., and you'll hear about a much higher unemployment number.

The people on the computers in D.C.'s unemployment office in Ward 8 are not exactly desperate, but they're pretty close.

"I'm about to become homeless, I need a job seriously," says one of the job seekers, Lena Carter.

"And when I go to job sites, they will tell you go do it online," says Ned Brown. "And I've been looking diligently and I just can't find nothing."

In Ward 8, unemployment is nearly triple the national average of 8.2. In D.C. as a whole it's at 9.3 percent, but in Ward 8 it's 22.5 percent.

"I think it's a direct correlation between poverty and crime," says Ward 8 school board member Trayon White.

With robberies up 50 percent over a year ago, White and others are organizing a protest on July 28 to demand jobs in the area

"Every day I walk out my house, somebody asks me, 'Tray you know where I can find a job. Every single day, several people."

Another factor is the issue of people with criminal records.

George Shields, a father of four, is on parole. He works at a barbershop, but says a job with benefits is hard to find.