Seattle unemployed worker stretches $690 per week | Affording Seattle

Until recently, Peter Klein lived a comfortable life in Seattle.

He earned $77,000 a year as an administrative assistant at a philanthropic organization that funds progressive causes. In his role, Klein reviewed grants and contracts, processed paperwork and entered data. For the three years he worked there, he could afford to eat out regularly, buy a car and even travel internationally for the first time in his life.

"That was the biggest paying job I've ever had," said Klein, 54. "It was really, really wonderful."

But in October, he lost it.

Since then, he's joined the region's growing ranks of unemployed workers. In the metro area that includes Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue, the unemployment rate has crept up over the past year by more than a full percentage point. It's now at 5.5%, which is higher than the statewide average of 5.2% and the national average of 4.3%, according to the latest seasonally adjusted jobs data.

Klein makes less than half his former salary in unemployment benefits. He's agreed to share how he's managing his money as part of the Affording Seattle series, which aims to reflect how residents navigate the city's cost of living.

Since losing his job, Klein has cut down his spending on nearly every aspect of his life. But he can be only so frugal: Over the past few months, inflation has risen again in Seattle, driven in large part by rising gas prices. Klein feels immense pressure to land another full-time job. Each day, he spends a few hours applying for work, and he tries to keep busy with free or inexpensive activities.

Time is ticking. People who receive unemployment benefits are entitled to a maximum of six months' worth of payments. Klein has about nine weeks left.

He has just one lifeline: Klein could take money out of his retirement account to supplement his unemployment income.

"On one hand, it's nice that I have money that I can use in emergencies," he said.

At the same time, he added, "taking money out of it - it's like I'm kind of stealing from my future."

Toughing out the job market

Klein has spent most of his career doing office administrative work, a broad category that includes customer service, paperwork, accounting and more.

"You do a lot of stuff that other people in the office don't want to do," he said. His pay typically hovered around $50,000 until his most recent position at the philanthropic organization.

He was hired permanently in June 2022.

Since losing his job, Klein has been cobbling together an income.

First, he received a few thousand dollars for his unused vacation time. Then, he landed a four-month temporary job at a property management company in Bellevue, but that contract ended in April.

Through unemployment insurance, Klein also receives $690 per week, or slightly over $2,700 per month, while he looks for work. People who are on unemployment can choose to have 10% of each check withheld for federal income taxes. Instead of paying income tax now, Klein plans to repay it next year, hopefully after he gets a job, a common arrangement.

The job hunt has taken Klein longer than he expected. He has two résumés, one tailored to administrative work and another that he uses for customer service jobs. He recently realized they might be outdated.

The last time he looked for work, artificial intelligence was a relatively new technology among the public. Now as more employers use the technology to screen candidates, Klein is thinking about how he can reformat his résumé so that it can successfully get past automated tools. He no longer expects it to be read by a human being.

He tries to apply for a few jobs every day, but it's a tough market for applicants right now, he's found.

"I'd like to say that I spend like eight to 10 hours a day pounding the pavement trying to look for work," he said. "But it's hard. There's only so much you can do."

Lucking out on cheap rent

Klein moved to Seattle from Florida over two decades ago and immediately felt taken with the city.

Even simple things like walking down Denny Way to work each morning felt sublime.

"It was so different," he recalled. "Back then there weren't as many buildings, and you could see the mountains in the distance."

After bouncing around a few neighborhoods, he landed on Capitol Hill, where he's lived for the past 15 years in a house that's subdivided into four individual apartments.

Klein lives on his own. One day, he'd like to adopt a dog.

Rent for his unit - which includes a relatively big kitchen and bathroom - is just $1,250 a month. He believes that he's been able to hold onto his deal by being an ideal renter. Klein tries to keep quiet, and he does a lot of maintenance on his own, such as caulking the bathtub and changing the filters in his furnace.

"As long as you can be a good tenant, there are landlords out there who don't want to charge you an arm and a leg," he said.

When he first moved to the neighborhood, he could count on having a close-knit crew of friends nearby.

Then came the tech boom. The city's population swelled. Rising incomes and a persistent housing shortage increased rents, driving most of Klein's friends to other places, like Kent and Federal Way.

"Of the circle of friends that I had when I moved up here, I'm the last one who's still in the neighborhood," he said.Other than a cousin who lives a few blocks away, Klein said, hanging out with people has been more difficult. He wants to make friends to go hiking with, but it's been harder to find people in middle age.

One of his biggest fears is his rent going up. If that happens, he might get pushed out, too.

Living expenses heat up

Unemployment benefits barely cover Klein's needs.

Other than housing, his biggest expenses are food, car payments, gas and utilities.

He estimates that he spends about $450 a month on groceries.

"If you know how to shop, you can end up eating pretty cheaply," he said.

Klein has an eagle eye for grocery store markdowns. When he sees meat or poultry on sale - he recently spotted chicken for $2.90 per pound at QFC - he stocks his freezer. "I'm pretty good at it, so I'm able to keep my grocery bills low."

Rarely, Klein visits neighborhood restaurants like Taco Chukis or Momiji as a treat.

He pays $310 a month for his auto loan, plus another $130 each month in insurance. Gas has gone up a lot. Before the start of the war in Iran, he used to fuel up every two weeks for around $40. Now, with gas prices hitting record highs in Washington, that's closer to $65 every two weeks. So, he mostly takes public transportation instead.

As the weather warms up, Klein is bracing for higher electricity bills. During the long days of summer, sunlight beams into his west-facing windows for hours, occasionally heating his unit up to 85 degrees. During the peak of summer, Klein might spend as much as $100 a month on electricity alone.

"The AC is the biggest draw of electrical power in my apartment," he said.

He tries not to turn it on until after 8 p.m. and uses it only when he's sleeping.

This year, he plans to get ahead of the heat early. During an unexpected run of warm days in early May, he taped reflective material over his windows to help keep the place cool.

Having fun for free

This year, Klein made a resolution to work on his fitness.

He shoots to exercise every day without spending money.

At home, he works out with dumbbells while making calls. He also goes on 2-mile walks through Volunteer Park or climbs up and down the Eastlake stairs until he's out of breath.

"It's the free StairMaster, he said, "you don't need a gym membership to do it.

In the evenings, he reads books from the library or watches something on TV. He doesn't pay for streaming services, finding it more economical to buy shows or movies on sale. On the entertainment website Fandango, Klein recently bought the first season of the show "Dexter" for just $1 and the second season for just $3.

For a change of scenery, he takes short road trips to nearby cities. Last fall, he drove out to Wenatchee; more recently, he visited Edmonds.

"Just to see a part of the world that I haven't seen before, to walk around somewhere new for an hour," he said. "To be somewhere different than Capitol Hill. I like Capitol Hill, but I spend enough time here."

Sometimes, he toys with the idea of leaving Seattle altogether. He still loves the city he has called home for two decades. But he wonders if he's due for a change.

At his most recent full-time job, Klein made enough money that he could afford to travel abroad. He visited Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and Phuket, Thailand, and he was dazzled by the food and the beauty of both cities. Once he finds work again, he'd like to see Italy for the culture and architecture, as well as England to see where his ancestors came from.

But those are daydreams for now.

"I just need to get a good job and then I will be back on the path hopefully," he said. "Maybe not this year, but at some point early next year, I'll get my passport dusted off and go somewhere new."

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