Working for no pay isn't the preferred route out of unemployment, but it offers valuable experience and the inside track to jobs once they do open up. But critics say employers are exploiting the slow economy by not hiring paid workers.
By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times
Malibu resident Ashley St. Johns-Jacobs, 40, typically rises before 5 a.m. to get to her job at the Los Angeles city attorney's office by 8 a.m. After a full day prosecuting misdemeanors, she often brings work home. What she doesn't bring home is a paycheck. With no position open, she has been working as an unpaid intern for nearly a year in hopes of eventually getting hired when a job opens up...[continued]
