He also helps his nieces and nephews with the same issues. He has brought his laptop over more than once to help her apply for jobs so she can save documents in the event the Wi-Fi drops. “And all the while you’re typing into a tiny screen.”Ĭastro is Preciado’s brother. “Maybe you can fill out an application - but what if your internet connection is so unreliable you can’t finish the application before the connection drops? When it picks up again, you’re back to the beginning,” says Christian Castro of Teamsters Local 856 in Southern California. Roughly 2.3 million Californians may have some kind of digital access but lack the high-speed capacity needed to navigate the employment landscape. If she is working on a résumé when the signal drops, the page needs to be reloaded and the information disappears, which means starting all over again - no cutting and pasting on a phone. “When I’m trying to do applications at home and I’m trying to use regular Wi-Fi, it’ll do the same thing.” If the computer freezes or ends up starting again, all the work you just put in goes away. “You use their equipment, but sometimes the Wi-Fi is slow. When applying for work, Preciado usually goes to her local Fontana, Calif., library to use the computers there. It all costs money.” The internet is not something easily accessible to everyone, she says. Even maintaining it is costly, to have to pay fees for other added applications or computer programs that you may need. “Honestly, it is the cost of getting a computer. The new job she’s looking for in shipping warehouse security usually requires a résumé, and Preciado doesn’t have a laptop or desktop computer. Sarai Preciado knows first-hand how that is.