We have a new president, but what’s the difference? This is what Levi English wants to know, as he hits the numbers on his cell phone and calls Local 710 of the Construction Workers Union. America went to the polls, but English still has no place to go to work.

He is the face behind the raw arithmetic that all the political contenders talked about every time they asked for our votes. They promised new jobs. English, who is African-American, expressed his pride in Barack Obama but his hunger for a paycheck. Over the past month, he is one of at least 200,000 across the country who showed up for work and were told to go back home.