Families struggle as job losses hit home

3 neighbors, 3 vanishing paychecks

More cars sit idle in the driveways of the ranch-style homes on Bill Eller Drive in La Vergne.

The road ends in a small cul-de-sac, where three families know too well why the cars travel less.

They know because the men in those homes — the house at the end of the street and the ones on either side — fell victim to the struggling economy and lost their jobs.

Shayne Pulley, laid off in March, was first. A month later, neighbor Dan Johnson got a certified letter from his company with the same news. Three weeks ago, it was Garry Lawson who was let go.

"It's symptomatic of what is happening in the whole economy," Pulley, whose house is in the middle, said about his cul-de-sac. "It makes it seem like the more who are out of work, the less I feel like a failure. But I certainly don't wish it to happen to anyone else."

He and his neighbors joined the ranks of the unemployed in Rutherford County, where 9.2 percent of the work force was without a job in April, according to the most recent county numbers from Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Statewide, the numbers, released last week, jumped from 9.9 percent for April to 10.7 percent for May.

Every state and every industry has been affected by the economy, said Bill Fox, economics professor and director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at the University of Tennessee. Full Story.......