Word: scarpato
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Scott Scarpato, vice president of Automatic Laundry Service in Newton, Mass., was in a desperate hurry to hire a new field-service worker to repair the equipment his company sells and leases. So he placed a help-wanted ad that offered plenty of come-ons: a starting wage of up to $9 an hour, plus profit sharing, a pension plan and full medical coverage. After three weeks, the ad drew responses from only five people, none of whom was remotely qualified for the position. Says Scarpato: "One applicant had a severe drinking problem. Three could not speak or read English...
Many employers see enough applicants, but far too few of them have the basic skills -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- to handle jobs in an economy that increasingly runs on technology and information. Scarpato, the laundry-machine vendor, contends that he encounters high school graduates who sit down with a job application and ask what the word address means. Says Scarpato: "If they can't read, I can't train them to follow a wiring diagram and repair machinery...
...exceptions are Leon's mother and Novelist Pete Dexter, 40, who in God's Pocket (Random House; 274 pages; $14.95) turns a random incident into a picaresque romp. Jeanie Hubbard Scarpato, still pretty in middle age despite a life that has "had more sorry chapters than the Old Testament," refuses to believe that the son she raised on her own from infancy after her first husband's death would simply let something fall on his head. Mickey, her current spouse, cannot disagree; he feels unworthy of Jeanie, probably with cause. He drives a refrigerated truck and sells...