More job searchers just quit looking

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

[Willie Green]

WASHINGTON

[ARCADIA]

"Employers aren't stupid, they know how hard economic times are--I find it hard to believe they will begrudge anyone a job who had to find work in another field while things were hard in their original field, particularly if that person keeps their skills in order."

Unfortunately, the mass layoffs generate massive numbers of applicants. Some employers tend to screened entire catagories (eg ex-telecom, ex-dot.com) in order to reduce the processing load to a manageable level. I understand that in the South Eastern US most recruiters were instructed by major construction contractors, not to refer candidates with telecom/dotcom backgrounds. It is just a question of shear numbers, and most of these would be marginal candidates to begin with, since they lack direct experience in the field. The effect is to close off many avenues such as placement and recruiting services to many of those who have lost their jobs.

[gcruse]

Not really. I am a photofinishing engineer. That involves chemical process control and diagnostics, computer programming and balancing of high speed printing and processing equipment, and effluent control. I'm too close to retirement age for it to be worthwhile to go back to school. Even though willing to work anywhere in the country, the jobs in the industry are either not there due to consolidation and downsizing, or age discrimination is at play. I did very well by specializing, but the narrowness of applicability cut things short. Thanks for you reply.

[glory]

I care more about keeping my 150k house and my 25k car than I do about wasting my 60k education. It's about the here and now and not what you did and paid for in the past. If you don't wise up, then you'll be living in a box, but at least you won't be wasting your prescious education that's floating around in your head.

BTW, if I were an employer I would be wary of hiring anyone with a "I've had 60k a year education" chip on my shoulder to begin with, when I could have a less educated, but more appreciative person who wouldn't treat the rest of my staff and customers with disdain. Perhaps overqualification is the reason they are giving when it's really attitude that turns them off. Just a thought.

[annyokie]

My home and cars are paid for, thank you.

[maxwell]

Gad.

Well the military seems to be hiring. I put dozens of resumes out in response to OPM ads; just got an invitation to interview out on a southwest AFB but turned it down because I ain't qualified to do MEMs...

[clamper1797]

Hold tough my friend ... last summer I had my friend take all my firearms out of the house ... I wasn't worried ... but he was ... It does get better ... usually just when you can't take anymore ... HOLD TOUGH

[clamper1797]

Oh and BTW .... SCREW the ARROGANT asses on this thread who have throw away jobs and have NOT the life experience to tell you what to do ... they couldn't buy a clue with a hundred dollar bill.

[joef]

I figured I'd toss these 2 questions in here.

Please note, this isn't baiting or anything like that. It's a request for actual discussion on a couple issues that came up in here.

First, on the concept of "orgainsing" to prevent immigrants on H1Bs from taking your job. Do you see that as somehow different than unionising? Were you against unions to begin with? I'll agree that there are bad unions, but I don't think the concept itself is flawed. I'm curious as to what the people considering this plan of action feel.

Second, NAFTA and GATT were very bad pieces of legislation. But they weren't part of any liberal agenda. If you're against them, the only guy in the Presidential race actually talking about it as an issue (including Bush) is Dennis Kucinich (http://www.kucinich.net/index.htm and if you're wondering, it's pronounced coo-sin-ich). He's a progressive, which is sort of like a liberal. Some of you would call him a communist, but that's a tad strong. He's quite against those sort of free trade agreements, pointing out (correctly) that they helps multinational corporations at the expense of American workers, and (in the case of NAFTA, at least..I'm not sure about GATT) also work against democratic principles, since the corps can sue nations for enacting any law that may cut the profits of a corp compared to the laws of one of the other nations involved.

Also, please note that the "trade promotion authority" aka Fast Track authority that has been granted to George W. Bush will more likely bring about more deals like this, as opposed to ones that protected American jobs. Clinton was denied this authority by the Republican Congress. Personally, I think Fast Track is an awful idea, since it takes the Congress out of any trade debates, when the Congress is generally a better representative of the will of the people than the President.

Anyawy, that's my 2 cents. Flames will be ignored, actual debate will be responded to. I'm not going to call names, lay blame without evidence, or argue unfounded points. All I ask is the same in return.

[nutmeg]

read later

[ARCADIA]

Do you see that as somehow different than unionising?

Unionizing is probably not the right answer. The problem here is largely political and extends well beyond the workplace. Perhaps the right approach would be to organize a political interest group to lobby for the interests of displaced US workers. I am sure that our politicians will act responsibly when confronted by the prospect of several millions of votes.

If the Liberals were so far off in loony land I would expect them to take the issue up as a keystone of their platform. That is not going to happen anythime soon since the Democrats refuse to recognize anyone earning above the poverty level.

[TheRightGuy]

Ph.D. in physics?

"Miss Beverly Jones
had a Ph.D. in Physics
and she went to town
to look for some work.
Every place she applied
she was told that
she was she was qualified
to be a secretary or a clerk.

Well the word got out
on the day she was born,
but she was twenty getting the news,
and got the I don't know
where I'm going but I'm going,
nowhere in a hurry blues."
-- Steve Goodman

[ARCADIA]

"If the Liberals were so far off in loony land..."

s/b

"If the Liberals were not so far off in loony land..."

[FoxPro]

I was hi tech, 20 years with a stellar resume. I broke into the largest jobs web site and sniffed out 6000 email addresses, and sent them all my resume. Nothing. The only thing I can get is insurance sales, which is a MLM marketing scam. The only thing that is saving me is my home equity loan, and that is now tapped out. A shoe store manager told me he would never hire me because I am high tech, and will leave when the economy straightens out. From 6 figure income to nearly out in the street. If you don’t have a security clearance, you will not get a job in DC. I will survive.

[joef]

My feeling is that the democrats are generally going in one of two directions: towards the right (like Lieberman or Clinton did, trying to be centrists), or so far left they've become parodies of themselves, ala Jesse Jackson.

Kucinich is a stand up guy by all acounts, and he's got a solid progressive agenda...balanced budgets, improving the social saftey net, and protecting American workers. Too bad the corporations that donate the majority of money into political races won't touch him. He's got ideas that could (and should) by campaign issues (like NAFTA), but no one else will even touch them.

[joef]

Completely forgot the point about unionizing vs. a national political movement.

For starters, unions are national political movements, or can be. And I doubt that any national movement will work fast enough to save some of the jobs of people here. Altho I agree that there does need to be a national discussion on this, and preferably some action taken soon.

[kancel]

>>It's not that we don't want to work.<<

My mother is a GM manager at a grocery store and she would just LOVE to hire someone who wants to work. All the time I hear her complainign about people that sail through their 90 day probation period only to start calling in sick on day 91. Kids who go to lunch and never come back to work. Adults who want a job as long as they dont have to do anything they don't want to do get theri two breaks and a lunch a day and can get paid to call in sick when they are having a bad day.

People don't want to work. I'm not saying that you personally dont want to wrk cause I dont know you from Jack. But if you do want to- I mean really really willing to work- to get your hands dirty or to lift something heavier than a stapler or something else that "wastes" that precious college degree there IS someone out there that would love to have you over the other 1999 applicants that just want to sit on their hands all day and collect a paycheck for it.


People *say* they want to work. But mostly I dont believe it. People who want to work will work, even if its flipping hamburgers at McDonalds and then heading to that second job cleaning toilets in the building you used to have a nice fancy office in.

[vannrox]

.


FYI.

When I managed the R&D group at Holmes we kept advertisements 24-7; 360 / year. It was all HR. HR would get the resumes and round file them every month.

Four times a year we would check our budget with the five year forecast and see if we need to make some hires. If we did, then we would look at the pile in HR. Actually, we would ask them to look at it. They would then sort through the resumes.

Most Engineering Positions, except for ENTRY LEVEL (Fresh, Just Out of School), are handled by "Head Hunters".

It is quite unlikely for an "Engineering Heavyweight" to be considered for a position without a recruiter to negotiate the position for him.

I can tell you that in my over 20 years of experience, the only Engineers that I have personally hired have been through "Headhunters". I have hired some entry-levels, but they were once Interns, and we offered them some positions.

Again FYI. ...The bulk of the paper advertisments for Engineers are not directly correlated with the actual need. This is especially true with the Internet sites. Monster, for one, keeps "running ads" much like Holmes did..

[annyokie]

My college degrees are earned with honors. I worked my ass off to earn them, tending bar, waiting tables and selling cars.

God Bless your mother and people who do her thankless work. I've done that kind of crappy work and hired slouchy people to fill crappy jobs. More power to her. I am not being an elitist, just discrimating since I am getting older. Why hire on just to get fired? I know my limitations and it is not that I think I am better. F*ck! I had a job as a banquet cook a few years ago! Talk about physical labor hauling crates of potatoes and meat up a flight of stairs ten times a day! I'm not immune to hard work!

From your tone, I'm guessing you didn't pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

[kancel]

Im not sure what specific about the original post it was but I got the impression that maybe this friend started her own cleaning business.