Pink slipped San Diegans attend party for jobs.

We all know what it means when you get a pink slip at work, but some people are using that to find a new job. The Prado at Balboa Park on Wednesday, was the location of a pink slip party. It was a way for people that were let go, or fired from their jobs, to meet recruiters in a very casual atmosphere.

San Diego resident Phuc Ngo has been out of the job for a few months now. He was a junior loan officer for about a year until the housing market forced his company to let him go. It's tough. It's really hard to get attention from employers. They require a lot of experience, especially in the down economy. you gotta start somewhere," said Ngo.

And for more than a hundred people, that somewhere was at a pink slip party. "You can't be locked up in your house all the time on the computers. so I came out here to network," said job seeker Frank Fowles.


Pink slip parties originated in 1910 according to organizer Beryl Smith. She said she started these recent pink slip parties in Los Angeles just a few months ago, as a way to get recruiters paired with potential employees. To make it easier, potential candidates wore pink, yellow, or white plastic lei's, and the highly coveted recruiters wore orange ones. Smith said it was a way to break the ice and get the ball rolling when finding a job. "And even if they can't connect with a recruiter, or a company, they can network with each other. Because you never know who's hiring," she said.

Finding that right fit isn't easy from the recruiter standpoint either. Tony Guide is a recruiter for Colonial Life benefits. He said most of the people were qualified for the job, and this was the perfect opportunity to meet them. "Good quality people. You know, they're looking for a new career and unfortunately...it's just tough out there right now," he said.

Though recent data suggests the job market has bottomed out, the numbers are still against those looking for jobs. Numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics say in San Diego, the unemployment rate is at 9.3 %, and with things like the auto industry tanking, it may make the rate go even higher. But for one night, even if they didn't find the job of their dreams, it was a way to get started.

Organizers plan on having another pink slip party in the near future.