Louis Hale leaves his Gordon Highway motel room at 4 a.m. each day and walks for one hour to a staffing agency office in the hope of getting some work as a day laborer.

This is the second time he has been out of work in 10 months.

The 35-year-old Army veteran and his wife live in the motel because they could no longer afford the rent for their apartment. Their three children are living with his sister until he gets back on his feet.

"At this point in time, I'll do anything. I don't care if it's shoveling poop out of stables. I've hit basically rock bottom. I'm getting frustrated, but there's no need in getting frustrated. Just keep on going. I know a bunch of people that are like me who are getting frustrated about the whole situation," Mr. Hale said.

Before he departs on his trek in the darkness, his wife, Rhonda, makes it a priority to pray with her husband to help him make it through his day. She is unable to work for medical reasons.

At the end of Mr. Hale's walk is Trojan Labor on Kissingbower Road. He signs his name on a list and joins more than 100 people, mostly unemployed men, all hoping their name will be called for a job that day.

"I sit there until they have a job for me until about 9. Then, I go out looking," Mr. Hale said.

He has been applying in person at businesses and taking day labor jobs until he lands something better. When Mr. Hale applies for jobs, he's told that he's either overqualified or underqualified.

"The situation that I've been dealing with -- it's a long, hard road, but you've got to keep on trucking. If you stop, you become stagnant and that's not a good thing," Mr. Hale said.

He'd like to get a job in security, which was what he did while living in Florida and Nevada. The Augusta native moved back in November because of the quality of schools.

It was five months before he got his first job at a North Augusta video store. He was laid off two months ago.

RATHER THAN ENJOYING the Labor Day holiday, many unemployed workers are working on finding a job.

As of Friday, the unemployment level in the United States has reached 14.9 million workers, a 9.7 percent unemployment rate, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nearly half a million Georgians are out of work, according to state figures.

"Jobless workers could comprise a mythical unemployment line that stretches from Dalton to Atlanta, through Macon and down to Valdosta," said Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond.

Scott LaPorte, the general manager of Trojan Labor, said he sees his own line beginning at 5:30 a.m.

"We work a couple hundred men and women a day. Between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., you might see 150 people walk through my hall. They're all either looking for work, coming to get their assignment ticket or picking up their paycheck from last night's shift. You would think I was a used car lot. I have that many cars," Mr. LaPorte said.

Many of the staffing company's clients are commercial construction companies. Trojan provides workers with jobs in the Augusta area, in addition to Lincolnton, Thomson, Aiken, Waynesboro and Millen.

As Augusta swells with more unemployed workers, so have the number of job seekers walking into the doors of staffing agencies.

"Before December of last year, we would see probably 200 new faces a week. We're probably up to 350 now. Our doors don't stay closed very often," said Robert Kelly, a staffing specialist with Augusta Staffing-Aiken Staffing and Job Shop.

The latest data shows the Augusta-Aiken metro area has 26,600 unemployed workers. That's up from 17,100 unemployed workers since last Labor Day -- and up from 14,300 since the beginning of the recession in December 2007.

"The majority of our jobs are temp to hire. Most would like to take something permanent," Mr. Kelly said.

EVEN HIGHLY EDUCATED people are having difficulty finding something permanent.

Terry Stewart has an undergraduate degree in recreation and a master's degree in hospitality, but she couldn't find a job in her field.

The 46-year-old Evans resident has been looking for a job for two years.

She tried to fill the gap by creating her own business in August 2008, a landscaping firm that flopped five months later. She was out of work again -- as were her six employees.

"Too much competition I guess, and with the economy, when people cut services it's usually (landscaping) or housekeeping. Probably wasn't the best time, but who could foresee what the economy was going to be like?" Ms. Stewart said.

In July, there were 2.1 million unemployed workers in the U.S. with a bachelor's degree or higher, according to national labor data. That equals 4.7 percent of all college graduates.

By gender, more college-educated men are unemployed: 5.4 percent compared with 5.2 percent of college-educated women.

"It's been hard. The economy here is very hard, especially in management. My age is a criteria, I think, for some people, unfortunately," Ms. Stewart said.

Each day, she scours the Internet for job openings, and she also looks in the newspaper every Wednesday and Sunday. She has posted her resume on Internet job sites, submitted applications online as requested and worked with a local staffing agency.

Ms. Stewart has also applied for bartending and other restaurant positions, but she has been told that she's overqualified. She also considered opening a home-based business. Ms. Stewart, a Navy veteran who served in the Gulf War, has experience working in the medical field, but she said her training doesn't transfer directly to the civilian work force.

Her search paid off last week: a restaurant management job at Maurice's BBQ in Columbia, which is a 70-mile commute each way.

She had been debating whether the long commute, gasoline costs and wear and tear on her car were comparable to the salary, but it's the only job that she has been offered, she said.

"I know that's going to be a challenge, but it's push come to shove right now. I need to get back to work, definitely, for financial reasons," Ms. Stewart said.

MR. HALE CONTINUES TO look for work in the Augusta area.

Mrs. Hale said that her husband is a hard worker. She prays each day before he sets out: "Lord, you know the situation we're in. Let him please go out today (on a job) so that we can make some money."

A few days ago, Mr. Hale and his wife took a stroll down Gordon Highway to the nearest store, a BP gas station.

Mr. Hale had only $1, so he could only buy a bag of chips. He didn't have enough money for the tax, so the attendant spotted him a few cents.

At the time, Mr. Hale was behind on rent, but he realizes he doesn't have the option of giving up.

"There's a lot of us out here looking for work. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack," he said.

AUGUSTA-AIKEN LABOR FORCE ESTIMATES

2006	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Employed	238,301	239,752	241,259	239,306	239,266
Unemployed	14,432	14,785	13,774	13,315	13,861
Rate	5.7	5.8	5.4	5.3	5.5

June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
238,259	240,156	239,096	239,089	239,082	239,615	241,716
16,041	16,175	16,498	15,423	14,851	14,210	13,953
6.3	6.3	6.5	6.1	5.8	5.6	5.5

2007	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Employed	241,384	240,756	242,912	244,956	243,992
Unemployed	14,631	13,863	12,671	12,325	12,366
Rate	5.7	5.4	5	4.8	4.8

June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
243,732	242,555	240,2888	241,687	240,786	242,767	242,370
12,649	15,314	14,758	14,401	14,143	13,370	14,389
5.7	5.9	5.8	5.6	5.5	5.2	5.6

2008	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Employed	241,787	240,571	242,886	245,912	245,234
Unemployed	14,878	13,972	13,685	12,924	14,460
Rate	5.8	5.5	5.3	5	5.6

June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
244,391	244,712	241,582	241,488	240,950	240,977	240,779
16,477	17,839	17,559	17,107	18,227	18,320	20,090
6.3	6.8	6.8	6.6	7	7.1	7.7

2009	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	June
Employed	236,736	236,000	236,078	237,784	236,283	235,115
Unemployed	22,178	23,415	22,891	21,660	23,823	26,430
Rate	8.6	9	8.8	8.3	9.2	10.1