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Here's what I find amazing. I keep reading in the N&O and elsewhere, stories such as those found in today's article. A person that used to make $60,000.00 as a graphic artist, lost his job due to jobs going overseas. Now he moans about making $9.00 an hour assembling bikes and toys at Toy's R Us. Then there is the woman who said she was making $35,000.00 as a clerical worker in manufacturing, and has lost her job due to companies closing down to go overseas, and is working at Walmart for a much lower salary. I also remember reading a few weeks ago about a technology worker who had lost his job - same circumstances - and was now bagging groceries at a grocery store.

I work for a company that provides mortgage servicing to lenders. We have been in a reach crunch to find qualified people to work in telephone customer service, tax analysts to research and pay real estate taxes, etc. We can't seem to find enough qualified workers. So where are all these people?

The truth isn't being told here. While the huge salaries are not available at our company, I would think that making $25 - 30K in an office environment, where you can work towards supervisory positions, get benefits, etc... certainly is better than bagging groceries and working at Walmart for minimum wage and unaffordable benefits. The people I describe above would be fine for these jobs. The "overqualfied" issue doesn't exist right now because employers understand that folks are having to start over. But none of these people are applying.

What I think is happening is that the high salary people are working menial pay jobs so they can continue to collect benefits given to those who are unemployed such as a check for doing nothing more than writing down two websites a week where you allegedly "applied" for work. And how about the free "re-training", school, etc. they get. If they took a real job, they would lose these benefits.

I'm tired of seeing the media report that all these highly-paid people can now only find minimum wage jobs. That's untrue. People aren't making the efforts to find them because it would mean going back to a life of honest work for your pay and benefits. And they'd lose the sympathy factor also.

Sorry to sound so unsympathetic and cynical, but in the industry I'm in, I've been displaced and laid off over and over, and I've always found a comparable - if not better - opportunity with a bit of effort and ambition. And by the way - I don't have a college degree.

I agree. I work in the software industry, and currently we're courting a client out West. They're trying to hire several qualified people, and can't because they aren't getting enough resumes. Admittedly, those positions require an education, but these guys are willing to be flexible. It's just amazing to me to hear those stories in what is supposed to be such a horrible economy. And we're losing people as well. That wouldn't happen if there weren't jobs out there.