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Desperate man stands on street for weeks with a sign looking for a job

An unemployed man has been standing on the street with a sign asking for work for three weeks.

Morten Jorgensen has been seen by passersby dressed in a high-vis shirt on a Ballina roundabout in NSW for four hours each day.

He holds a sign reading: “Need work pls”.

Mr Jorgensen started positioning himself near the local Bunnings store from 6am in a hope to attract tradesmen going to work.

“You take a packed lunch, some cordial, put on a high vis shirt and off you go,” he said.

The 53-year-old, who was born in Ballina, told Yahoo7 he had qualifications in traffic control, but had the “catch-22” of needing experience to secure work.

He has been unemployed for two years and said trying to find work through job agencies was like “beating your head against a brick wall”.

“You put in applications and you never hear back,” he said.

Mr Jorgensen said he had used this job-seeking technique in the past and it proved successful.

He claimed he had been unemployed years ago while living in Gosford and a passerby who saw the sign rang the local radio station.

“A guy who heard it drove to the other side of the Central Coast to pick me up. I ended up working there for nine months,” he said.

Morten Jorgensen has been standing with a sign looking for work for four hours a day. Photo: Facebook/ Northern Rivers Fencing
Morten Jorgensen has been standing with a sign looking for work for four hours a day. Photo: Facebook/ Northern Rivers Fencing

His technique appears to again have had a small success and he has been asked to apply for a job on the bypass after Northern Rivers Fencing owners Jannah Hardefelt and Josh Bruen gave him a day’s work for his effort.

“Morten has been standing on the road side early morning in his High Vis and work gear in Ballina for a few weeks,” they posted on their Facebook page.

“This morning I drove past and thought about how I really respected this sort of perseverance and eagerness – it’s so Aussie.

Mr Jorgensen positioned himself near the local Bunnings store from 6am in a hope to attract tradesmen. Photo: Google Maps
Mr Jorgensen positioned himself near the local Bunnings store from 6am in a hope to attract tradesmen. Photo: Google Maps

“So I called our installer, Brad and asked him to go pick him up.

“Morten is a gun worker and he’s got a great attitude (obviously) and all our respect for his effort.

“He said that he had a lot of people taking his number but we were the first to give him a go.

“He said he’s more then happy for me to share his contact information and I think there’d be a few local tradies needing an offsider most days like we did today.”

Mr Jorgensen said he had been trying to get work on the bypass in Ballina and today a traffic control company got in touch and asked him to complete an application.

“I do the online application and induction and I could be on the bypass next week,” he said.

“I’ve been trying to do this for four months.

“I’m very hopeful, this bloke is keen as mustard.”

Mr Jorgensen said the amount of phone calls he received since standing with the sign lifted his confidence and self-esteem.

“It’s worth giving it a go. Somebody out there who can’t find anything, have a go and put yourself on show,” he said.

“People say it takes a lot of guts – I don’t think so – just get out there and do it.

“The amount of nice responses makes it worthwhile anyway.”