Posted on 01/21/2008 7:59:33 AM PST by xtinct
An unusually large share of workers have been out a job for more than six months even as overall unemployment has remained low, a little-noted weakness in the labor market that analysts said threatens to intensify the impact of the unfolding economic downturn.
In November, nearly 1.4 million people -- almost one in five of those unemployed -- had been jobless for at least 27 weeks, the juncture when unemployment insurance benefits end for most recipients. That is about twice the level of long-term unemployment before the 2001 recession.
The problem is ensnaring a broader swath of workers than before. Once concentrated among manufacturing workers and those with little work history, education or skills, long-term unemployment is growing most rapidly among white-collar and college-educated workers with long work experience, studies have found, making the problem difficult for policymakers to address even as it grows more urgent.
"What has happened is a polarization of the labor market. It was very strong at the very top and very strong until recently at the bottom," said Lawrence F. Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University. "But in the recent weak recovery, and now recession, demand has been very weak" for jobs in the middle.
Caroline Dixon never contemplated any of that when she resigned in April after nine months as a program officer with the Spina Bifida Association. She left because the job was "a bad fit," and she said she was confident that the economy was strong and she would soon find work. For a long time, she never stopped in the unemployment office on Naylor Road near her Southeast Washington home.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The first gal is just the type that will have a hard time finding work in a down market. Non-profits live off the surplus of the profitable.
The left has never learned that a sinking ship sinks all, just as a rising ship is good for all.
The Government directly caused the housing bubble by flooding the market with cheep cash on a scale never done before.
There has been over capitalization in China’s manufacturing and the US housing, auto and banking markets. The cheep money for all, we can manage the world people are about to learn a lesson.
The fall of the dollar by almost 50% you would think would alarm people but it has not.
Perhaps some more large scale investment in China will bring those jobs back./S
Dumb broad. Unless you’re independently wealthy and don’t care; or are a brain surgeon or have another **serious** degree in engineering or accounting, then you’re going on work experience and personality. To do that you need to network and the best way to do that is-—while you’re still working!
It ain’t rocket science. Or is it?
Planning, persistence, goals, self-honesty. A commitment to the pursuit of happiness.
But that is not true! Not true for all, and I do not know if it is true for even most. For many it seems true -- but that does not mean most, and it certainly does not mean all.
What is the biggest thing that keeps people from being happy in their jobs? A sense that they are stuck there because they can not risk losing that hated, self-harmful, misfit job!
In any human endeavor a positive attitude is a big force multiplier. A person is stuck -- who *thinks* he/she is stuck -- in some lousy job in which they are misfit, mis-appreciated, wasted, out-of-place; that person becomes hobbled psychologically, emotionally drained, unable to sustain the energy needed to find other, better endeavors.
So leave! Jump!
Then, and only then, in many cases -- will you have a chance.
Never, ever, ever, never ever, quit your job without having another job already lined up and ready to go. Do people have a fundamental lack of brains or what?
I think I agree with your disciplinary issues theory.
Thanks. Jut to note that I think in it is easier and better to survive — even back in Walden Pond’s day — with people than without them.
Your advice is one of fear. Why are you afraid?
“not a good fit” to me is code talk for “about to be fired”. So I’d say she quit in order to avoid being fired.
Seems like the dems and the gop turncoats will get thier wish, the only ones working will be the illegal aliens, doing jobs the American public wont do!
Just as you have to have a good financial portfolio, you must also have a good skills portfolio, and not be so dependent on one area.
I learned that lesson in college. I got all indignant the company was overbilling the city and state for work, and quit on principles. What a big mistake. Not only did I go into debt, I left school 2 classes short of my degree...and it took 9 years to finish that.
It was bad enough when I was young and didnt have many expenses...I cant imagine doing it now.
Not necessarily. There are jobs that are a bad fit, either work or co-workers or supervisor. It wasn't a wise decision to just quit, however.
You did the right thing then. Doing the right thing is not without consequences, you bore them, somehow it made you — I would suggest — a better person, despite the financial and school upsets.
And Bush and Romney and McCain and Giluliani and....
Bingo...we have a winner...but if/when I’ve had no choice but to shoot myself in the foot, I always get the 22LR, not the 44 mag.
All state employment agencies track the number of people who exhaust benefits. For Oregon, the exhaustion rate is up 22% from last year. That's probably due to the rise in minimum wage.
“People TALK as if it is easier to get a job if you have a job.”
That’s has always been my experience in 40 years in the job market. When I had a job I was unhappy with, even if it wasn’t the right fit, I shopped around for a new one until I found a better one. I spent 35 years going from one job to another without a break in work. And always from a good job to a better one.
The *only* time I had trouble finding a new job was after I got laid-off unexpectedly.
I was working at a place which was 100% dependent on a DOD contract due to expire at the end of FY2001. We expected the contract to be extended, but I decided it was time to get out. At the start of the September on which the job ended, I had four offers in hand that I was considering. None of the four companies expected an answer from me before the middle of September.
Then, on September 11, 2001, the world changed. All four of the offers outstanding were withdrawn after the companies enacted hiring freezes. A half-dozen interview scheduled for later in September were cancelled by the employers. The DoD recinded the contract extension, and we were all laid off as of Spetember 30, 2001. The company closed down.
Even after companies lifted hiring freezes (in January 2002) I’d end up sucking the hind teat in a tight job market. I was viewed as less valuable a commodity than someone who already had a job.
It took 10 months from the date I was laid off to find new work. Like I said, on Sep 10, I had four firm offers. If I had accepted one before the hiring freezes went into effect, I would have continued my streak of going from one job to the next one. (Of course, if I *knew* that the towers were going down the next day, I would not have been dickering for a few more bucks, but if we knew where we were going to fall down beforehand, we would lay down carpeting.)
Anyhow, all *I* know is that *I* have never had trouble finding a new job when I had one, and found it hard as the dickens to find one when I did not have one. If your experience has been different, that’s cool, but I plan to base my life on the lessons I have learned through my own experience.
Chief among them? It is a lot easier to find a job when you already have one.
Good advice. Getting dates was much easier with having my own car at 16 than having to rely on borrowing Dad's as well.
Some things just never change.
But " not a good fit * is normally a red flag with prospective employers who do not want any kind of hassles with a new employee.
That's why it's unwise to mention that to a prospective employer... and most definitely unwise to splay yourself on the front pape of any newspaper while telling your entire city that your last job was * not a good fit. * ...eeeeks talk about self-sabotage...
(1) Just how unhappy were you in any job that you thereupon left for another? By unhappy I mean by some externalized measure known to you. For example did you get ever depressed to the point of counseling or medication, unable to otherwise engage life -- withdrawing from previously favorite friends, pastimes, clubs, hobbies, etc., or even did you ever become physically sick from job stress?
(2) Just how "misfit" were you in any job you had? Again, if you could give some externalized measure, to go beyond inner feelings.
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