Melissa Cooper

Eunice Arroyo at work, having overcome some very typical and very trying obstacles to employment.

New York City’s unemployment rate in July was 5.6 percent, a sharp improvement from the 7.6 percent rate of a year earlier. But pockets of trouble remain: The Bronx, at 7.7 percent unemployment in July, posted the highest rate of any county in the state.

Unemployment rates, of course, only measure people who are looking for work, not those who have dropped out of the labor force altogether. And even when the rates improve, there are people left behind. People with lower levels of education generally fare poorly, and a spotty work record—because of health problems, layoffs or other reasons—can hurt one’s chances of getting hired.

In the video below, meet one woman who faced and overcame those challenges and hear from an organization (one of many in the city) that specializes in bridging the gap between a candidate’s desire to work and the needs and demands of today’s employers.

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