Vida Stapleton wakes up each morning and dresses in a business suit, but she isn't going to work.

The 49-year-old has a disciplined routine: She goes to local businesses to fill out applications or deliver her resume in person, hunting for her lucky break. Unemployed for five months, she still hopes to land her dream job of becoming a college professor, but in the meantime, she has become more flexible in her expectations.

Ms. Stapleton has been unemployed since she moved to Augusta from New York City. She spent most of her professional career in the Big Apple as a social worker, but she moved to be closer to family.

Since she lives with an aunt in Hephzibah, she hasn't had to be concerned about rent, but she has almost depleted her savings.

She has attended several job fairs over the past few months and spends hours each day looking for job openings on the Internet. Usually, she e-mails or faxes her resume and cover letter, as requested. So far, she has landed only job interviews.

"I've decided that I would look for two part-time jobs, if I can't find a full-time job, because I just need to sustain myself. The benefits and whatever, I might have to be in the market a little longer for that," Ms. Stapleton said.

"I'm looking outside the box, things that I wouldn't normally put in for because right now, you can't just stick to your own profession. You have to diversify," she said.

THE NUMBER OF JOB APPLICANTS outweighs the number of available positions, according to local hiring managers.

"We get a lot of people calling and coming in," said James Klugh, the store manager at Kmart on Washington Road. "I'm doing probably twice as many interviews a day as I normally do. It's sad because you can't hire everyone and you know what it feels like to be out there struggling and trying to find a job.

"You sense desperation in some of their voices. There's nothing you can do. The job market is such that you're actually turning down good people that you otherwise would be hiring," he said.

This Labor Day is different from last year's because fewer Americans are part of the work force. In July alone, 247,000 jobs were lost nationwide.

Target on Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway is receiving 15 percent more applications than usual, said Miko Hassan, the store's human resources manager. In one month, he has received 177 applications for four positions.

"A lot of people, even though they have a full-time job, they're trying to apply to get a part-time job to increase their income," Mr. Hassan said.

Many of these applicants, he said, are government workers who are being furloughed.

It is a different experience at Kohl's on Washington Road, said store manager Diana Ripkey.

"I have jobs that I need to fill, and I don't have as many applicants as I did have. I think people are assuming that there aren't any jobs available," she said. "That's what's been sort of interesting to me. As far as my application flow, it's no bigger now."

Ms. Ripkey said she's not looking to hire people who want to work there until something better comes along. As a rule, she doesn't hire temporary workers, not even around the holidays, because she wants to have a cohesive staff.

If resume-copying is an indicator of the local job market, then things seems to be improving, said Allison Osteen, a production operation at FedEx Office on Washington Road.

"It probably slowed down a month ago. People would come in by the droves. You knew there was a job fair because people would come in and print tons of copies," Ms. Osteen said.

At least once a week, someone stops by looking for work.

JOB FAIRS DID NOT help newlyweds Jeffro and TaShara Powell. They were married in June. Two days before their ceremony, they were in a long line of job-seekers at a job fair at Augusta State University.

They steadily applied for jobs for two months, but had no luck.

Mrs. Powell, 23, graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in art from Piedmont College. Mr. Powell, 22, is completing online studies in digital entertainment gaming with ITT Tech.

Because of their financial situation, they lived at Mrs. Powell's parents' home while they were in Augusta. They moved to Tennessee in August, giving up on the Augusta job market.

"The people that we've seen at the job fair haven't really been calling us back. Maybe we're not what they were looking for," Mr. Powell said.

In July, the national unemployment rate for workers 16 to 24 years old was 17.8 percent. This is close to the all-time high for this age group, 19 percent in the early 1980s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, the unemployment rate for young workers was 13.5 percent.

Derwin Jackson attended a job fair at Goodwill Industries two weeks ago. He will start school at Augusta Technical College on Sept. 29 to study media communications.

"I really need the money. I'm looking for a job more so than anything," he said.

The 21-year-old quit his fast food job three months ago because he wasn't getting enough hours. Since then, his job has been looking for a job.

At the job fair, he spoke to representatives from Kellogg's and hopes to land a position at the expanding south Augusta plant.

Many of his friends are in college and looking for jobs as well. He wants a warehouse job, preferably at night so he can attend school during the day. But lately, he has also been considering jobs in retail.

FORMER EXECUTIVE Steve Alberts was bringing in a six-figure salary when his position was eliminated before the recession.

The 57-year-old Grovetown man was vice president and general manager at a global manufacturing company with an office in the Augusta area. He declined to mention the name of the company. He was a senior level manager for 15 years and worked for the company for 27 years.

"When a company looks at their bottom line, they look at their overheads. Usually, if the margins are slim, the overheads that first get looked at are the labor costs. My position being in the six figures, that was probably mainly one of the reasons that my position was eliminated," Mr. Alberts said.

He searched for a job for eight months. He sought assistance from professional resume writers, worked with head-hunters and employment agencies, networked with industry contacts and spent time researching the job market.

By staying in touch with his former colleagues, he received an opportunity to work as a consultant for his previous employer. But that assignment ended in June.

He then started his own consulting company, SKA Consulting. He's finishing up with one last client.

"After that, I'm back in the unemployment ranks either looking for other business to help continue my consulting business or pursuing full-time employment anywhere that I can possibly find it," he said.

He wants to continue working because he has a son still in college. His wife owns her own business, but they need benefits such as health insurance.

Preferably, the Vanderbilt University graduate would like to find a consulting job working directly with customers and doing training in food safety and handling. If he needs to re-enter the job market, he would pursue another management job, but he's not limiting his job search to the food industry or the local area.

MS. STAPLETON IS NOT thinking of leaving the Augusta area now that she's settled.

"I'm pretty much settled here now in the Augusta area, and I'd like the opportunity to get a position that I could retire from," she said.

When she started her job search, she was looking for jobs in social work, her field of expertise.

To make ends meet, she is applying for jobs at staffing agencies, health care agencies and call centers. She has experience working at a call center, which she is hoping to fall back on.

"I haven't done retail yet. I really don't want to do retail. What bothers me is the overqualified thing. But what does that mean? I'm willing to work. I want to work," Ms. Stapleton said. "Overqualified really doesn't have a meaning to me because whenever you go on a job, you have to learn that job. You could have three Ph.D.s, and if you go in Burger King, you still have to learn things Burger King's way."

She doesn't have three doctorates. She holds master's degrees in adult education and human resource development from Fordham University.

"As proud as I've always been of my education, sometimes when I put in for a job, I feel apprehensive about stating my education for that reason," she said.

Ms. Stapleton, a widow, has two adult children and two grandchildren. Her ultimate goal is to teach at the college level.

"I've put in to do some adjunct teaching at Augusta State University and Augusta Tech, also the University of Phoenix," she said.

Until then, Ms. Stapleton simply wants to find a way to make ends meet.

"I'm ready to work. First come, first served. Whoever hires me, that's where I'm going," she said.

Reach LaTina Emerson at (706) 823-3227 or latina.emerson@augustachronicle.com.