It's a cold morning in November and José Mendoza stands at the corner of East Front and New Streets in Plainfield, New Jersey, looking for work. He hasn't had a job in three weeks.

The situation for Mendoza, a 47-year-old Mexican day laborer, is no different than that of hundreds of men who go to wait at similar street corners, looking for work that is getting scarcer every day.

“Nobody is contracting us; there are no projects with jobs. The contract rate for gardening is low, and we can go several days without getting a dollar,” declares Miguel Ramos, a 28-year-old Guatemalan who hasn't had a job in 10 days.

The economic crisis, which has been so much talked about, has had a profound effect on day laborers, who daily resort to different street corners in various towns all over the Garden State, in hopes of finding a job that will pay them enough so that they can send money home to their families and still have a little left to maintain themselves.

“What's going on now is that we're trying to put together even enough money to support ourselves,” explains Mexican laborer Soriano Céspedes, of Morristown. “I haven't paid my rent in three weeks, and the only food I've eaten is what I can get in the soup kitchens,” he adds.

The same scene is repeated in other places where day laborers congregate: Freehold, Fairview, Palisades Park, Hackensack, Newark and Passaic among others. The laborers get to their posts at 6 in the morning and stand there waiting fruitlessly until almost 11 a.m., when they know for certain that this will be yet another day they'll “go blank.”

The Pew Hispanic Center reported at the beginning of 2008 that the construction industry had entered a period of recession, which meant that the unemployment rate among Hispanics – the major work force in this sector – soared to 6.5 percent during the first four months of this year, while unemployment among non-Hispanics during the same period was at 4.7 percent.

According to the same source, the trend is the inverse of what happened in 2006, when unemployment among Hispanics reached the lowest level in history – 4.9 percent, compared with 4.4 percent unemployment among non-Hispanics. That situation occurred after the economic recuperation in mid 2003, when there was an explosion of activity in the construction industry. Construction in turn played a major role in reducing the Hispanic unemployment rate, since among immigrants, working-age Latinos are the largest work force in the sector.

Many day laborers who used to work in construction, gardening or painting jobs are now looking for work as movers' helpers, or whatever odd jobs are available in order to earn the minimum they need to support themselves.

Besides the economic situation, laborers must struggle every day with unscrupulous contractors who pick them up for a day's work, or even several weeks' work, and later refuse point blank to pay them their wages.

Many laborers we interviewed called their situation “desperate” and asked only for “work enough that we can live; we don't rob anybody, we're not taking anything away from anyone,” as César Ralean, a 29-year-old Salvadoran in Palisades Park.

“For us, there is no Christmas, because most of our families are far away,” said Ralean, “but that's not important. What worries us most is that our situation is getting worse from day to day, and we don't see it improving.”

There are no precise figures about how many day laborers seek work every day throughout the Garden State. Nevertheless, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, estimates put the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States at 11.9 million.

It has been calculated that between 2000 and 2004 somewhere around 800,000 undocumented immigrants entered the United States annually, but this yearly average dropped to half a million between 2005 and 2008, with 2007 seeing the lowest number of entries. Partly, this is due to the economic situation the country has been experiencing.

Rita Dentino, of Casa Freehold, expressed her worry about the situation.

“We're lucky here in Freehold because we've got programs that provide free meals, but this year I'm more worried than in others – the workers could end up with no place to sleep,” she stated.