More job searchers just quit looking

USA TODAY ^ | 4/7/2003 | Barbara Hagenbaugh

[Willie Green]

WASHINGTON

[ApesForEvolution]

Leaving 'Corporate America' and becoming an entrepreneur was the best move I ever made. In fact, surveys say it usually is...

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

My dad is a plumber. He's an extremely hard worker with his own business. He lives a great life, with no complaints. He works 12 hour days, weekends and then some, mostly in shopping malls. He never quits because he's too tired or has too many accounts.

But, you know what? The 19-30 year olds who come to him looking for a job do. It's unbelievable...they want to be paid, however they're sometimes less than eager to learn the craft; within days, the new guys want to go home at 4 p.m., they wander off into the malls, tools start disappearing, they want more money, etc...

Anyway...you've got my curiosity, Mr. "Overqualified." What do you do? Are you Bill Gates?

[lone star annie]

Tell them no job is sacred. Mark my words, my ex husband had been a pillar of his department for years. I always thought he would be one of the last ones out the door. Their jobs are not safe and employers are going to be cutting those with dependents to save on health care costs. They want young single employees to cut down on insurance costs. If you are over 40 watch out.

With moving jobs to India they don't have to pay near as much and no health care costs.

[maxwell]

Yes dear...

[disclaimer]

Well move you moron. Lee308

Why do you guys respond to this guy?!

He so lost he has to type his name at the end of every post so he knows he wrote it.

Just ignore Leech308, he just wants attention.

[gcruse]

bttt

[plusone]

Because the ruling elite want it both ways. Cheap labor and imports lowers the cost of what they buy, in effect giving themselves an under the table pay raise. But when it comes time for them to compete...

[plusone]

As your tV namesake might say, 'fight the future'.

[Tall_Texan]

It has nothing to do with blessing and everything to do with survival. You obviously haven't been to the point where you have to take a minimum wage job for which you're ridiculously overqualified just so you can eat while you live out of your car.

Here's the part I don't understand.

Everyone says what a bad job market there is today. Then I walk into places like Burger King, Petsmart and other fast food/retail "minimum wage" places and the employees I see could only kindly be described as barely passable. It looks like their personnel departments were scraping the bottom of the barrel for workers as if the economy was great and that was the best they could do.

If the job market comes down to a college-educated guy who is "overqualified" and somebody who has to wipe up their own drool every 20 minutes, why are employers choosing the droolers? Is it because the "overqualified" never even bother to apply?

[maxwell]

[snortle]

[mrb1960]

You people here just don't get it. I'm 42, in the hunt for work, willing to take just about anything, and quite frankly there is no work to be had.

I went through all my unemployment benefits, used money that gained because a little ole lady decided she had to run that red light, gone to school to earn a degree, and none it makes a bit of difference.

With GATT, NAFTA, the economic downturn caused by our former president and her husband, jobs heading overseas, etc, etc, etc, we were a country that was strong but now have become dependent on nations making our goods for us. Add to that the Unions pricing our jobs so high the companies had to leave to make a profit, and you have all the makings of a depression such as we've never seen.

I'm not a doomsayer, but I do have some wisdom gained over the years, and I'm telling you it's never been this bad in my lifetime. Don't get me wrong, it's not Bushes fault at all. As I said before, all the blame lies with our former president. But the people who are saying the jobs aren't there are not just crying to be crying. It's legitimate fear over not being to support those we love because we just can't find the work.

[StolarStorm]

The droolers aren't a threat to the manager. Over qualified really means "you could take MY job".

[mrb1960]

Two years at a trade school and you'll be able to find a job.

I wish it was that easy.

[Tall_Texan]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer confidence (news - web sites) rebounded in April even more sharply than after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the first published consumer sentiment survey based entirely on interviews taken after the start of the war in Iraq (news - web sites) showed on Tuesday.

Just think if Bush had had the audacity to shoot the finger at the UN way back in October, we'd be well into a recovery right now.

[clamper1797]

If the job market comes down to a college-educated guy who is "overqualified" and somebody who has to wipe up their own drool every 20 minutes, why are employers choosing the droolers? Is it because the "overqualified" never even bother to apply?

Please tell me that you're only joking and that you actually do know that these managers want the 'droolers' cause they know that the droolers won't find a better job and leave the low paying job as soon as the market recovers ... like anyone with half a brain will do.

[TLBSHOW]

I know and its a damn shame he listened to Blair the socialist.

[Kenno]

Since when did Bush II support higher taxes? Get your facts straight.

[Blue Jays]

Good Evening All-

Adaptation is good, but sometimes "circumstances" prevent that from happening easily. Someone with sick parents can't just up-and-move. Selling a home without having a place to go would be pretty "trying" too.

Lastly, we have what can primarily be described as a service-based economy. We have migrated away from a manufacturing-based economy where money is exchanged for concrete goods. It is easier to "tighten the belt" and do without a service of some sort...

~ Blue Jays ~

[Tall_Texan]

Please tell me that you're only joking and that you actually do know that these managers want the 'droolers' cause they know that the droolers won't find a better job and leave the low paying job as soon as the market recovers ... like anyone with half a brain will do.

Maybe because I've never been a manager but I've always believed you find and keep the best qualified and most competant people you can. If they leave and you have to train somebody else, those are the breaks.

They could leave because of injury, pregnancy, family relocation or a number of other things as easily as they could leave because they found a better job. Makes no sense to me why they'd prefer the droolers, particularly for positions that have to deal with the public. Your employees are your "face" to your customers.

There are some people who just want a job where they'll be happy and feel as if they're contributing. Some either don't want or can't handle the stress that a better-paying job might bring. Stereotyping the "overqualified" is like stereotyping Hispanics or blacks. They can't know what's inside a person until they're in the job.

What was Jimmy Carter better qualified to do - run the greatest country in the world or hammer nails for the homeless? And which gave him more satisfaction?

Excluding people based on having too much education/experience is a bad business model if you ask me. But then I'm considered "old fashioned" about a lot of things.