Sign of the times as jobless man becomes walking advert for himself
If yet another reminder was needed that today's recession has echoes of the Great Depression of the 1930s, it is the sight of Jason Fruen standing on the edge of one of Britain's biggest industrial estates.
Like the pre-war unemployed who desperately walked the streets of American cities with signs around their necks appealing for work, the jobless Briton has unashamedly resorted to the sandwich board.
After being made redundant, he quickly decided in the harsh economic climate that a weekly visit to the Job Centre would be nowhere near enough to get himself back into work.
Fast track: Jason Fruen advertises his skills on a sandwich board beside the M60
Fast approaching the age of 40, he decided that more drastic action was needed – that he would have to hit the road.
So, from 5.30am, he has been standing for four hours a day at a busy junction by the huge Trafford Park industrial estate in Manchester, wearing a hoarding advertising his quest.
'People have told me what I'm doing goes back to the 1930s but I hadn't realised,' he said. 'My idea was just to advertise myself to as many people as possible. It's one of those needs must things.
'There are jobs out there but the problem is there's 50 or 60 people going for each one.'
Often seen waving back to motorists who sound their horns in support, Mr Fruen said yesterday: 'I'm full of beans every morning and there are little things that keep you going.
'People toot their horns and give me thumbs up signs and someone came over this morning and gave me a pot of tea and a sandwich.'
He added: 'I've never been one to sign on. It's just a discipline that I've got. And anyway Jobseeker's Allowance of £60 or £70 a week is no good when you've got a mortgage.'
Mr Fruen is now in his second stint of standing by Junction 9 of the M60.
After losing his job as a maintenance engineer last September, he spent just one day there with his sandwich board before he was given a temporary job by the boss of a local company.
'The guy told me frankly that he didn't actually have a vacant position but that anyone prepared to do what I was doing deserved a chance,' said Mr Fruen.
'He was good enough to give me two and a half months work but last week he said he'd have to let me go.'
So, with a seven-year-old daughter, Cleo, who lives with her mother, and a £627-a-month mortgage to pay on his three-bedroom semi in nearby Little Hulton, he picked up his sandwich board again.
He has already been offered an interview with a local firm.
'I won't know exactly what it is until I speak to the owner but it is engineering,' he added.
'It would be good to find something that would take advantage of my skills, but I'll take anything that pays a decent wage.'
It is an attitude that strikes a chord with British Chambers of Commerce spokesman Sam Turvey.
He said yesterday: 'British businesses and workers are having to show a real fighting spirit during this recession.'
Mr Fruen left school at 16 and went to work for a recycling firm where he was given one day off a week and studied for a City & Guilds in engineering.
He has subsequently worked for various firms and had a spell self-employed. Over the past seven years he has maintained high-speed packing machinery, earning more than £20,000 a year.
When he was made redundant last year he had two jobs lined up, again looking after packing machinery, but failed the medicals because he is slightly asthmatic and the job involves working with chemicals.
He said: 'If the worst comes to the worst I may end up having to hand my keys back to the mortgage company.
'But I can always start again. At least I've still got my sanity.'
Before:
Bad old days: A jobseeker adopts the same strategy in New York during the Great Depression
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