More job searchers just quit looking

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

[Willie Green]

WASHINGTON

[Euro-American Scum]

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?

Because the droolers will work for next to nothing, won't give them any trouble, won't look to better themselves and won't leave for something else if and when the economy picks up.

They don't won't good people. They just want someone who works cheap. All areas. All fields.

[dfwgator]

I look at it this way. For the first 20 years of your life your parents take care of you. Then for the next 20 years, your employer will take care of you. By the time your 40, you're on your own, and you'd better be ready to start your own business. I wish I had this outlook when I was younger, then I would be in better shape. Oh well, better late than never.

[FITZ]

They just want someone who works cheap. All areas. All fields.

Corporations aren't all doing all that well ---K-mart, Enron and many others. Partly because their CEOs only are raiding them for the millions they can take, they don't care one iota if the corporation survives. The companies would do better if it was the droolers running them, they'd make off with fewer millions than the thieves.

[meadsjn]

If you have passed the bar, there's a host of cases that liberal lawyers won't touch. Most of your clients would be poor, hard-working, conservatives; but your potential opponents would number in the millions.

It might not pay much up front, but one good win against the land-grabbers, environmentalists, liberal NGOs, etc. might provide a nice grubstake and some publicity.

[jonjonct]

I've been looking for tech work since March 01, having been working pretty much continuously since 1994. Employer interest pretty much dried up after 9/11, probably due to the overall slump that deepened then. I was in Chicago for the first year after being laid off.

One thing that can lead to 'giving up' is that the longer you've been unemployed, the less HR people want to talk to you. HR people and headhunters curdle when they realize how long you've been out, and never call back. I'm not sure how to get past that; it's a nasty Catch-22.

It's kinda weird. It's like they haven't adjusted their attitude to account for the job market. I could kind of understand that attitude if it were 2000 and a programmer hadn't worked in a year; probably some bug-eyed psycho ready to go postal... But now?

It also appears that part-time retail work isn't really an option, because the employers expect you'll leave ASAP, so they aren't interested.

I've been lucky in being able to rely on family. I've gone back to school, for now pursuing an MS in Computer Science, though I'm not sure if that's the best way to go with the jobs going overseas; even if I were to write some popular software and start a company, it'd probably be re-done by 'open source' advocates who'd give their version away, which is hard to compete with.

I fear it's entirely possible that I'll get the MSCS and still be unable to find work due to having been out of work for so long. Then, I suppose, it'll be time for another degree. ;^)

(The one bright side is that when you've been unemployed this long, you're eligible for maximum financial aid and loans. I would probably have been worse off had I tried to go back to school soon after I was laid off, when my prior year's income was $80k, not $6k of unemployment.)

The best career path seems to involve things that aren't easily done overseas; things that have to are hands-on, and involve things that aren't easily moved. Health care, maintenance, other things. People aren't going to go to China for a checkup (but they might go for a quick kidney transplant from a prisoner donor) and they aren't going to send their Volvo to India for a tuneup, and they aren't going to fly in a plumber from Moscow.

[DeathfromBelow]

No job, housing at 585K average, move. I've heard my brother for years complain about jobs he would like to have. But... he won't relocate to get one.

[lawgirl]

THe problem with those kinds of jobs are that you can't make enough to pay your law school loans. For instance, on $30K a year, it's almost impossible to have an apartment, car, and a $500 a month loan payment. That's why lawyers don't take those jobs- they can't afford them.

[matthew_the_brain]

Like I said, big deal. Just because you spent $60k on a degree in art history, the world does not owe you a living. Supply and demand are the driving forces.

[dark_lord]

Your a wimp, sorry, we no longer need your services. You made a bad career choice, get over it and go to work. Two years at a trade school and you'll be able to find a job. Lee308

You must be unmarried, no kids. Someone who is middle-aged, with kids and mortgage, cannot take off for TWO YEARS to get retrained. Who is going to feed the family and pay the bills during that period? Oh, and by the way - in case you hadn't noticed the "trades" prefer to hire somebody's cousin's nephew - who happens to be 20 years old -- over a 45 year old ex-IT guy or gal.

[saluzza]

I'm sure many of you have noticed the shift from manufacturing to service, with many of the manu jobs heading overseas to "cut costs". Now that is well underway and the next wave of cost cutting is due, meaning shifting more labor, like services for instance. Businessweek for instance ran a nice article about the corporate worlds next move, which will mean digging deep into their clerical and office staff for relocation. IT transfer is well underway, especially to Asia, and India in particular. So we'll be left with whatever is tied geographically, except in those instances where labor can be imported. It stupid to blame immigrants, they are reacting to market forces that make it neccesary for them to move where the jobs are. They have families too, and will do what they need to do to provide. Pitting labor pools agaist each other is a favorite tactic for business to control labor costs. Ideally you want to allow free flow of human labor while restricting the movement of undesireable elements like regulations, and benefits. This destroys anything that increases costs, meaning wages, and will artificially deflate wages and protect business from market forces that drives wages up and unemployment down. You have two warring underclasses that live across a boundary which you can move back and forth across to control both labor pools. And as long as you can shift blame away from laws that favor this activity and redirect it towards laws that try to limit this then you've won the game, well, until you've destroyed your consumer base. This is essentially what happened in the 20's as wealth aggragated in fewer hands till the broad consumer class was rendered unable to support the flow of capital. Enter the new deal which forced the pump back into action, like a defibulator of sorts.

[annyokie]

I have an MBA, that's a Master's in Business Administration.

[matthew_the_brain]

Good for you, now stop your whining and sell yourself. The world does not owe you a living because you have an MBA. I too have an MBA on top of my BBA, but many years ago, I made the decision to start my own consulting company, and not rely on the crumps that a big corporation would pay me. It is called controlling your destiny.

The net result has been a very lucrative practice, no debt, and an income that pays almost 2-3X what a general practice MD makes.

Take a risk, hang your own shingle, and stop feeling sorry for yourself, or self important. No one will hire a whiney, self absorbed wannabe.

[StolarStorm]

BS. The US tech industry was doing great before the H1-B fiasco. Most of these foreign hires send money back home... that's a drain on America's economy. Let them go through the normal immigration process. I have no problem with that, but IT people should not have to compete with people that have to take whatever an employer dishes out or they are forced to leave the country... that is called slavery.

[ARCADIA]

If the US hi-tech industry didn't hire Asians, it would die pretty quickly.

Let them die. What makes them "US" hi-tech companies if they refuse to hire or train US citizens. They should be in India, they can pack their bags and leave tomorrow for all I care. They certainly do not deserve the protections/considerations afforded to companies that support our citizens.

This paradigm is going to meet an ugly reality soon. GNP is a worthless measure if we have build it on the back of imported transient slave labor. The only thing these companies are doing is selling our technological future for a fast buck. Frankly, it borders on treason, and if it continues we should consider stripping these organizations of their intellectual property rights.

[mabelkitty]

Cool. More moms staying home with the kids?

[mabelkitty]

Dump the HI-Bs, and there will be plenty available.

[StolarStorm]

I you are here on an H1-B (which is what I am talking about), you can't quit your job unless you either line up another sponser or LEAVE. I encourage you to leave. Your home country wouldn't let us in to work there in any numbers, why should we be so generous?