Update: Six weeks after Macy's close, Mo is still looking for work

It's been nearly six weeks since Mo Orosco and more than 100 other Colorado Springs residents were thrown out of work by the closing of the Macy's department store at The Citadel mall. Instead of spending his days selling men's clothes, Orosco now tries to sell himself to new employers.

So far, no one is buying.

Orosco, 53, didn't work on Sunday, March 8, on Macy's last day of business. He went in for a couple of hours the next day, but had to leave when his blood pressure started to surge. Still, he insists there were no real emotions on that last day.

"There was relief," Orosco said. "It was finally over. We'd been waiting and waiting and waiting. It did bring some closure to the whole situation."

The Citadel store was among 11 closed by Macy's as the chain shed 960 employees in nine states. The two-story Macy's had opened in 1984 as May D&F as the centerpiece of a major expansion at the mall. The store later was renamed Foley's and became Macy's in 2006.

After a going-away party at Old Chicago, Orosco and his colleagues scattered.

"There wasn't a sense of any sadness really," Orosco said. "We're all just glad the whole ordeal of the closure was over. Most talked about what they were going to do. The possibilities they might have."

Even though they exchanged e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers with the intention of staying in touch, there hasn't been much contact, Orosco said.

The old gang hasn't been together, socially, ever since.

Maybe it's because few have good news to share. Most are struggling, he said, except the handful who landed jobs at the Macy's at Chapel Hills Mall.

Few others have found work. A good friend of Orosco's who worked with him in the men's clothing department is working at the Burlap Bag, a clothing and boot store on the west side, stocking merchandise.

But most are like Orosco, who spends his days searching Web sites for job prospects.

Orosco had hoped to land at RadioShack at the mall. But the job went to a former Circuit City employee, who was unemployed after the electronics giant failed.

He's attended job fairs and r?um?writing seminars and called on a wide range of job postings, including a family counseling job at a funeral home.

"They never called back," he said.

Orosco doesn't seem terribly upset, in part because he's been through this before, losing jobs to health issues and store closings over the years. He also knows he's not alone - Orosco and his former Macy's colleagues are among a record 26,200 Springs-area residents who were unemployed in March as the jobless rate climbed to 8.4 percent.

And he's not bitter toward Macy's, which he credits for giving him two weeks severance even though he qualified for only one under its policy of paying a week for every year's service. Orosco had started at Macy's in July 2007 while he searched for work in communications or teaching or music.

Orosco also credits Macy's for sponsoring employee assistance workshops. In fact, he saw a couple dozen of his former colleagues at one store-sponsored clinic earlier this month, put on by the Pikes Peak Workforce Center.

"I guess that told me how they were all doing," Orosco said.

He also keeps things in perspective knowing that things could be worse. His wife, Nita, 51, recently got a "clean bill of health" after fighting cancer and enduring chemotherapy during the past year.

To break up the monotony of his daily job hunt, Orosco writes music and is considering a career in medicine - the business end of billing and other administrative duties.

"I'm going to make some business cards and fliers and try to get some guitar students," Orosco said. "And I'm thinking about going back to school for health care training. Other than that, I'm just a house husband."

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Call the writer at 636-0193