Posted on 04/18/2011 6:34:11 AM PDT by flowerplough
On Unemployed Friends 2.0, a message board for people who have been out of work long enough to exhaust all emergency unemployment insurance -- "99ers," as some have taken to calling themselves -- users let off steam in the Venting Forum.
I am sooo tired of calling temp agencies week after week with no callbacks or results ... I'm burned out from over 2 years of this routine. --503Depressed
This feels like a permanent state. Even though I send out resumes, I don't really think anyone is going to call or that I will ever work again. --nfpexec
Been unemployed over 2 years, sent out resume to hundreds of jobs, 4 interviews and nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. --js123
Please don't give up, be good to yourself today, and try to stay positive. We are all in this together. You are not alone. --DesperateInRI
Given the focus on spending cuts in Washington, one might think that America's unemployment problem was under control. But our jobs quandary is far from over, surpassing even the Great Depression in one respect: The gap between the number of people out of work (13.9 million) and the number of job openings (2.8 million) has never been so wide. Congress responded to these historically grim conditions in 2009 by extending unemployment benefits to an unprecedented 99 weeks. For many Americans, however, time is up, with no job in sight.
(Excerpt) Read more at theroot.com ...
I am certain that it was meaningful, however.
UI is about minimum wage. How come 14+ million illegal aliens will work minimum wage but Americans don’t seem to wantto?
Nicely done. What did you do “outside” the box ?
Your probably right. It looks like these people maybe better off without unemployment at all.(no judgement, just throwing out a thought) You’d look harder and take just about anything that came along, until you could find something better.
My thoughts exactly. Read my post #24.
My sister in law did the same thing. She’s a pharma rep. She didn’t have to leave her chosen field but, the job she took she doesn’t like as well.
I agree, and I think it hurts you in the end. What employer thinks highly of someone that thumbs there nose at a leaser paying job when there is so little out there. You take what you can get and move on from there. I’ve seen kids in my area, one in particular that didn’t want to lower himself to work at BK. So instead he took to breaking into small businesses and robing them. And going into closed copper mines(can’t imagine the dangers in that one) to find copper. He ended up in jail for 6 months. Now no one wants to hire him, even BK.
I would think at 63 it would be very difficult to find anyone who’d hire you, I’m speaking of your age. But, who knows, consultant work?
I read recently that after 6 months employers won’t look at you. It took me a year and a half to find a new good job, but I was never unemployed.I was underemployed for that year and a half and thankfully so.
thatjoeguy: That’s funny, I’m now a freelance construction project manager !
After being fired from Yale University (I was one of the Heads of Helpdesk, and later a project manager) I had a real tough time finding work. Well, I could FIND it, but I found that a few things made it almost impossible to compete for the position:
1 Application process. I’m unique. When I sell my services and talents (AKA “The Interview”) I sell myself as the right choice for their position. I used to also talk people out my talents if it weren’t a right fit - But now I will adapt myself to make myself the right fit. The Application process bottlenecks my application with others. There is a race going on, but there is no chance to advance myself through the ranks of literally thousands of applications.
2 The Resume. A Resume is completely open to interpretation. I have been a consultant since 1996 (A temp, if you will) and my resume, when presented in it’s entirety, is 4 pages long. Without the detail, I have a lot of open spaces. It is enough of a challenge to merely get my resume “through” HR to the hiring decision maker. There is; again, no chance to accelerate. But the race is still on.
3. During the interview, I have become VERY proficient in the process. I can answer difficult questions (”Says here you know how to communicate. That’s great. Describe the color purple to a blind man.”) and now it’s my chance to accelerate and control the outcome of the race. “They” give one the chance to compete only as you’re crossing the finish line. That’s ok, I’m not alone - But I still had to re-evalute the process as a losing battle. Especially when it’s so easy to cheat (in my hiring days, about 95% of interview content for any given position is nothing but lies). Add to that that someone just may not like the way I look. They may not like the car I drove to the interview. Any number of insane reasons.
Ultimately: The interview process, application process, and Resume process are dead, and should never be used again. It may work for some people, but scratching lotto tickets all day at a $1 a pop works for some people too - with the SAME success rate !
So I found two part time crap positions. I went from head of helpdesk to third-shift Coffee brewer at Dunkin Donuts, and then a technician at a mall arcade (I was 32 with two 22 year old bosses.. talk about a miserable morning) while I built my business up. My business happens to be in my field: Computers.
I started working for free. Literally, when I had time off, almost knocking door to door. Ads at the grocery store, cheap business cards stuck in doors. Free computer services. Every 4th house I went into (Something I DETEST) would be someone who was a decision maker at their business, or an owner of a business. After my first free visits, they were more than happy to offer me paying hourly work.
now I bring in about 80 hours a week. I bill out at $120 an hour (As any business owner knows.. not all labor is billable!) and it took me about 2 years to get this far. I no longer work in the home (Again, I hate working in people’s homes) and I have about 30 small business clients that I treat right, and they love having me around. I now have a track record of responsibility, performance and integrity that people in my area know me for. I have since then paired up with (Co-operative competitors) 6 other guys in my field and we share and subcontract work. We have all served to enrich each other’s business. That co-operative competitor understanding beats any agreement or promise - We help each other make money and save money. The capitalist way that ONLY America can foster.
If I had to do it again ? I would get into garbage collection. Yes. Garbage collection. My friend did this after losing his job as a Swift driver. He got a small pickup for $100, and started cleaning up yards and properties in his own neighborhood. Within mere weeks he upgraded his truck, got some friends involved, and expanded his area. He’s now operating daily throughout the area at competitive rates that is smashing the larger enterprises.
It’s hard work. It’s the hardest damn work you’ll ever have to do. But It is the most rewarding thing a modern human can accomplish.
Before I found my current job (working for the state and in real jepordy now...), I spent over a year and a half out of work. I applied for every job that I conceivably met the requirements for. I applied for night security at hotels, I applied for tech support on the phones, I applied for usually over 10 jobs a day, but nothing. More often than not, on those few times I got an interview, I would get the response, “We’d love to hire you, but you’re just too overqualified for the position.” I started dumbing down my resume, but still no effect for the longest time. There are an awful lot out there who have been sincerely trying, but there are just no jobs to find. As for moving somewhere else to get a job, unfortunately that is a decision you have to make pretty early on in the job hunt. By the time you realize that there really is nothing for you where you are currently living, you are already far too poor to move.
The Daily Caller
Greenspan slams up and coming generation
By Jeff Poor - The Daily Caller 3:16 PM 04/17/2011
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is either giving the viewing public a cranky old man performance, or the once highly regarded sage of economic matters and disciple of Ayn Rand really sees some structural problems in the overall economy of the United States.
On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Greenspan explained how the American economy will be transitioning from a “highly skilled, highly educated” workforce to an inferior one.
“As I watch what’s going on, we have to remember that over the next 10 years, we’re going to find that the baby boom generation – highly skilled, highly educated – is going to fade from the scene,” Greenspan said. “It’s going to be replaced by a generation who are now in school and creating grades which don’t make us look very good in the international spectrum.”
And when that happens Greenspan explained, that generation won’t be able to grow an economy at a pace needed to fund the entitlement programs which we have in place.
“This means we are probably dealing with an economy which isn’t growing fast enough or creating much real resources to fund the entitlement programs that we have already made,” Greenspan continued. “I consider the issue of cutting back spending as essentially which is something which is new. I don’t think we could afford it in the first place. So we’re merely canceling something which didn’t exist.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/17/greenspan-slams-up-and-coming-generation/#ixzz1JyqFpCqi
RE: Greenspan and the coming generation. Thanks for the info, but anyone with a brain in their head already knows this. For sure this highly educated Baby Boomer has already been phased out of the economic picture. I also am very concerned about my kids. All are smart, one is done with college and while fortunate to get a job, it is not much of a job. I do plan on pushing my other three to go to college, but I often wonder what the employment picture will be for them. For sure “superior” has been punished and it will continue to be punished in the future. As far as the entitlements, goodness knows we Baby Boomers are screwed. Can’t believe the mess our country is in and I am concerned about the stupidity of those voting. Thanks for your comment.
I understand the house issue, my stepson has to support himself while working away from home and send money home to support his wife and kids. He lives very frugal to say the least. Even with supporting himself away from home he is able to send more money home than he can make where he was living. They don’t own their house so moving would be easier for them- if his wife could grasp the concept that the economy where they live is not coming back next week. She believes the media liberal hype that the economy is getting better...
“When you cannot get work in your chosen profession, it is time to change professions!”
Easy to say, but hard to do when 1) you have over 30 years experience in your industry, and 2) all the other industries in your area are equally depressed......
BTW after 3.5 years unemployment/underemployment I just landed a dream job in my industry that should take me out to retirement.......I start in two weeks.....
It pays to hang tough, and never give up.
Down the Donks!
* APRIL 19, 2011
Big U.S. Firms Shift Hiring Abroad
Work Forces Shrink at Home, Sharpening Debate on Economic Impact of Globalization
By DAVID WESSEL
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704821704576270783611823972.html#printMode
Funny you should bring illegal aliens into the discussion. Illegals have taken most entry level jobs in this country that allowed young people and those unemployed that need a career change to have a rung on the ladder up. People used to be able to start at the bottom and if they had drive they could work their way up in the business, and many ended up in management or owning their own business. The bottom rung jobs have been taken by illegals for years so possibility of working your way up is basically gone from this country. If you don’t have the skills to start a new job a few rungs up the ladder you will not be hired by anyone that hires illegals.
When illegals are hired in a workplace, it is very hard for citizens to get jobs at that business any more. The owner doesn’t want citizens and illegals working side by side as the citizens may report him. The owner also saves a lot of money by hiring illegals and not providing benefits or in many cases even paying the basic payroll taxes and what have you. The other issue is illegals will band together and network any jobs that come up out to relatives and friends, they will also treat any citizens co-workers so bad it is impossible to work in jobs with them if you are not senior to them.
Illegals can work cheaper than citizens because they can take advantage of social services for their health care, food stamps, rent and utility subsidies, free breakfast and lunches for the kids and on an on. The dirty secret is that illegals can’t live on the low wages either- the taxpayers have to make up the difference for them to work for those wages. Unless a citizen is willing to get on all the programs they cannot survive on the wages illegals are paid.
As far as illegals doing jobs citizens won’t- that is so much liberal BS...every time there is a workplace raid that removes illegal employees in any number- citizens DO line up to apply for the jobs. It has happened over and over.
I agree that no one should be on unemployment one day longer than necessary, and anyone should be willing to take a job that pays less or be willing to change careers or relocate to find a new job. It is just totally unfair to bring illegals into the equation unless you want the unemployed to be so underemployed that they are basically supported by the taxpayers as illegals are.
The other issue about illegals, don’t kid yourself that they are all hard working and responsible- that is more liberal/amnesty BS for sure. Whatever number are here- you used the 14+ million- many- MANY of them are CAREER CRIMINALS that keep our jails and prisons overcrowded continually. Do you really want the unemployed to take up a life of crime like large numbers of illegals have?
If you really want a viable solution to our economic problems that involves illegals, you should be hard at work making the politicians strictly enforce the laws. If we secure the border and round up illegals and deport them we would not only have much lower unemployment, we would save tons of money on health care, education, court systems, jails, prisons, welfare...you name it.
I ttotally agree without statements. They are exactly why illegal aliens hurt this country and they need to be deported.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.