Posted on 10/06/2011 8:00:36 PM PDT by quantim
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For more Americans, being out of work has become a semi-permanent condition.
Nearly one-third of the unemployed - nearly 4.5 million people - have had no job for a year or more. That's a record high. Many are older workers who have found it especially hard to find jobs.
And economists say their prospects won't brighten much even after the economy starts to strengthen and hiring picks up. Even if they can find a job, it will likely pay far less than their old ones did.
The outlook is unlikely to improve on Friday, when the government issues its monthly jobs report. Economists predict it will show that employers added a net 56,000 jobs in September.
That's far fewer than needed to reduce unemployment. The unemployment rate is expected to remain 9.1 percent for a third straight month.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last week called long-term unemployment a "national crisis" and said it should be one of Congress' top priorities.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Thanks for that link to the petition!!!
Once one turns 40, one’s chances of working again after losing one’s job become lower and lower with each passing year. Career-type employers don’t want to hire you — they want younger people who don’t have families and who can work the long hours and weekends that a family man cannot. Grub-work employers want unskilled kids who won’t get bored, won’t leave for a better job, and who can be used up and discarded like toilet paper. Retailers want girls who can speak Spanish. Restaurants want college kids who will work for booze and tips. And in every indusry, human resources directors assume that anyone who is unemployed is looking for work because he is a screw-up, and they won’t even call you unless you are already working somewhere.
If Godless MegaCorp, Inc. won’t hire you, and Lester’s Beer & Tackle won’t hire you, you are boned.
I’m lucky. I worked for thirty years in a “prestige” field that burns up young go-getters like kindling, and I managed to keep my marriage, my family, and most of my marbles. Now that I’m in my late 40s, however, there is no place for me in that industry, and I have “retired” from that line of work. Fortunately for me we have a small family business and I am able to work there now and then. I also have several sources of freelance income, and we own a small rental property. My main job, however, is the care of our house, children, and animals, a “career” I enjoy much more than I did my big-money prestige career.
I’m doing OK. God has been merciful. I have kept up my creative output and have retrained myself to do other kinds of work in the time since I became a useless antique. I have other sources of income to keep body and soul together without having a job. But most people in my position have nothing: no job, no prospect of a job, and no fallback position such as I have. Life for them must be truly frightening, frightening in a way the young and childless cannot possibly understand, and they have my sympathy.
God made you do that, of course lucky you you get the blame.
I feel a song coming on.
Oh, please.
An unemployed friend of mine, 56 years old, white, college grad and former sales director applied to 2 local Home Depot stores and two local Lowe’s stores. Within one week one of the Home Depot stores called him in. At the interview the manager told him the opening is for a parking lot attendant but he was overqualified, he then told my friend he could start him in the garden shop for $1.00 per hour more. My friend took the job.
There are jobs to be had out there no matter what your age or experience.
Why did my friend get a job for which he was overqualified? One reason no doubt is his personality. He is very outgoing and always conveys a very positive attitude even though he struggles with MS and other ailments. No job is beneath him and he approached the interview with the attitude he will win. The second reason no doubt is the manager is a discerning judge of people hiring in the retail industry for low paying jobs with a 50% turnover rate. Instead of deciding the former salesman was too old or over qualified, he saw the positive attitude and demonstrated work ethic. He decided his store would sell more product if his customers interfaced with a gregarious middle aged person happy for the job than a young person with “attitude”.
My friend likes his new job and expects to be department manager within a year. Despite life being rough today he still believes in the American dream.
That’s one of the best posts here in quite a while, IMO
bfl
Better to be found dead of starvation in a well-stocked deli than to get mustard on your shirt.
I was lucky to get into engineering work coming off a VA disability. There is almost limitless potential in many technical fields and reputations mean something and they deliver. In most technical fields customers don’t care about age, they care about results. The older engineers are usually the most valued and respected.
My advice to older career seekers is to avoid the service industries and choose practical work which you enjoy. Then sit down and draw up a step-by-step plan to achieve your objective. Mine was around 20-steps in pencil and took up one sheet of paper. Review the plan for accuracy and feasibility. I followed my plan meticulously and it worked.
It will be very hard and depressing if people expect others to assist them. They won’t.
Thanks for the link. I’m employed and writing Java software, but always need to learn a new language. Working on iPhone/Obj-C at present, but my company also uses C#, so that would be useful as well.
You get that off the buffet in James’ cafeteria, Calvin?
0:08 “A.L.I.T.”
LOL.
The great thing about linux is that you can learn about Unix-style programming and administration without the (normally) high expense of a Unix system. You can start with Kernigan & Ritchie “The C Programming Language” at your local bookstore (creators of the C programming language). Or any number of programming books.
You can also learn Pearl, Ruby, Java, C++, Fortran, take your pick. Get a book on shell programming and/or system administration. Install GRASS and learn GIS. Install GIMP and learn photo manipulation. Install Eclipse and have a very programmer friendly Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to learn any of these. Or just use vi and the gcc.
Except for learning Unix-y ways of doing things, most of these are also available for Windows as well. There are so many free tools available, that anyone with the drive and desire can learn a lot w/o stepping in a classroom. You could probably dumpster-dive and put together a working server farm with some of the tools available on Linux flavors.
Anytime the government subsidizes something they get more of it. If they stopped paying people not to work there would be fewer unemployed.
a little starter project would be nice. everyone wants you to know unix; I still have no earthly idea what for except that it appears to have a -- the -- legacy.
>> I still have no earthly idea what for
There is a mindset that Security is greater when the entire source code for the OS and apps are compilable by, and under control of, the organization using them — VS trusting the patches that MS decides to toss over the wall that week.
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.