Posted on 06/27/2004 2:04:13 PM PDT by A. Pole
NEW YORK - After 20 months of looking for work and sending out hundreds of résumés, Jeffrey Schwab has given up trying to find another job as a draftsman. He's now taken early Social Security and is considering whether to sell his Bellingham, Wash., home to move to something smaller. "From what I can tell, there's not much to look for," says Mr. Schwab, who has 35 years of pipeline-design experience. "I am standing around with nothing to do."
Even though the economy has created 1.2 million jobs since January, some 265,000 people have dropped out of the job hunt during the same period. They would join some 19.1 million Americans in the same situation as Schwab, who are unemployed and not looking for work largely because they are convinced they won't find it. This figure, at a record level, is up 44 percent from 10 years ago.
If the job market continues to improve, this large number of people could decide to get back in the job market - which would hold the unemployment rate relatively high, even as new jobs are created.
"If this flow of nonworking Americans were to reverse, it would send the jobless rate toward 8 percent," says John Challenger of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago.
That would certainly be the case in Pennsylvania, agrees the state's governor, Edward Rendell (D). The official unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, but it's "much greater," Mr. Rendell says, when factoring in men who have been cut off welfare and never got back into the workforce "and as a result never show up in the unemployment rolls."
Sometimes a rising jobless rate, says Bob Brusca of Fact and Opinion Economics in New York, can be a positive sign of a vibrant labor market that's luring more people in than it can absorb. But "that change has not occurred."
Many workforce dropouts in the age group of 25 to 54 have spent years working in shrinking industries, such as telecommunications or software development. "There are many people who have been downsized - a permanent job loss - that are taking a long time to return to work," says Andrew Stettner of the National Employment Law Project in New York. "They have had such a hard time when they are looking that they have given up, even though they don't necessarily want to."
In Tiffin, Ohio, that's the case with Merree Phillips, who lost her job a year ago as a development officer at Heidelberg College. She says that at times frustrations sap her motivation. "Some weeks you don't work as hard since it's so easy to get discouraged and you wonder whether it's worth it to keep pounding your head against the wall," she says. "I have not gotten to the interview stage of any job I have applied for."
Ms. Phillips thinks that the job market is actually shrinking in her area. A year ago, she says there were 20 to 25 listings for professionals in the want ads in The Courier, a Findlay, Ohio, newspaper. Sunday, the online edition had only four such ads. "I don't want to come off as a slacker, but there aren't even any decent prospects," she says.
Some workers who have officially stopped looking are going back to school. Enrollment at the nation's community colleges, which offer much of the job retraining, is soaring.
One of those who has gone back to school is Penni Neff, a divorced mother of a teenage boy who lost her job at a hospital.
Now, she's in school to become a licensed practical nurse.
"Gee, I don't know why people throw their arms up and say 'I give up!' " she writes in an e-mail.
"Sorry, I'm not doing it, but I get doors slammed all the time," says Ms. Neff, who has four months left to finish her courses before she starts another training program to become a registered nurse.
Neff's move is probably in the right direction, says Mr. Challenger. "She's evidence of the migration of going from the old economy to the new, particularly jobs that are service-related," says the outplacement guru. He says other areas that the long-term unemployed should consider include international business, housing construction, real estate, utilities, and the energy industry. "People often pigeonhole themselves," he says. "We're seeing almost 50 percent of people changing industries, but not functions."
Challenger adds that hiring someone who has been out of work for a long time can be rewarding for employers as well. "[The new workers] are really hungry to get back, so you are getting someone who is really committed and is not going to move quickly as a free agent," he says. "You can save people's lives and get very committed employees that way."
A job would certainly help someone like Schwab in Bellingham. His wife, who was also laid off, is now working 30 hours a week at a store, but she does not get benefits. They are now considering all options, including the sale of their home. "We needed a bigger house to care for my wife's mom, who had Alzheimer's disease," he says. "But it's more expensive to pay for and heat."
Keep up the good work. I am often tempted, when someone says "we can't find....talent" to ask: 'and what have you invested in TRAINING?'
But that usually produces an awkward silence...
I wish that I could. I would rather be looking for work than old and retired. Old age sucks and you should try it sometime, which you will if you are lucky.
Sorry-- but you just don't drop out of the job hunt if you have no $$ and need to survive.
Figure it out.
The definition of "conservative" for most in FR, is smaller government, unless they need a bigger government to get their agenda set in place. Less intrusive government, unless they want them to intrude and support their viewpoints, and quit taking money out of our pockets to help others, but be there to help when it's us who need to be helped.
When did training employees become the responsibility of the employer?
I want to be a brain surgeon...do you know of a Hospital with a good in-job training program for brain surgeons?
Many don't look until their unemployment benefits runout. Which means that they are collecting those benefits illegally, however entitled they think they are.
And proud you should be.
You raised fighters and winners, not victims and whiners.
You raised two American women.
Generally speaking, most conservatives oppose the idea of government sponsored Social Services to begin with.
I agree. If there were far less government socialist services, there'd be far fewer "jobs Americans won't do" and far fewer reasons for Illigrants to invade this country.
There is no such thing as an illegal immigrant, an immigrant is someone who moves into a country legally.
What you're talking about are illegal aliens, and to even associate the word "immigrant" to them, is to debase our collective heritage as the children and the children of children of immigrants.
Ants.
Since nursing home fees are upwards of $65,000 to $70,000 a year, it makes more sense for a woman of 55 to take care of her 85 year old mother, especially if the woman's earning power is only about $30,000 a year before taxes. Mother probably isn't going to be around more than a few years, and the former worker inherits the money that would have gone to the nursing home - tax free.
As the population ages we will probably see more of this.
People are not interchangeable economic "units" that you can unpack one day, use, and put back in cold storage until they're needed later. One reason we have so many problems with young people is because so many kids are moved all over the country. They lose contact with their grandparents, neighbors, friends, anyone who made a difference in their lives. The social costs are *huge.*
It hadn't occurred to me that keeping people always on the move was an excellent way to politically "castrate" them, as well. The saying is true that "all politics are local." Finally, what's the difference between being moved around for the greater glory of the Communist state (as they did in the USSR), and being moved around at the dictat of corporations who see people only as profit-producing cogs in the machine?
That's not the case in many states. In Missouri, for instance, if you have a BA or BS you still have to take 60 hours of education classes *and* do a one-semester student teaching internship (without pay), as well as pass the certification exam, to get certified.
The school districts will *not* pay for people's educational expenses, which for 60 hours at a state university would run $18,000 (assuming no increases, and our state university tuitions are going up about 10-15% per year.)
Some people are hired in "failing" school districts under provisional certificates if they can teach math or science, but they still have to be making progress as outlined above.
Also, many of those schools hard up for teachers are war zones and most middle-aged women would be in actual danger going in there. Positions in good suburban school districts are *hard* to find; there are many applicants and few openings.
I don't know how some single moms do it either. Every situation is different, and if you have kids that cooperate, then it makes things go much smoother. My mom worked for 18 years as an executive secretary until she and my dad got married. They were old enough to be my grandparents when I showed up.
Last year, I looked at all the herbal and over the counter stuff I was taking and was horrified. Now MediCal wants a copy of my birth certificate and social security card. They said I was qualified, but only my kids got cards, even after I told them that they are insured through their father. I owe 1300.00. Now I've got to find the fax number to fax copies to them.
The lady I spoke to in the billing dept. looked at what the charges were for, told me I was indeed eligible, and to keep seeing the doctor. My pulse rate at it's highest was 123 resting. It's better now that the neighbor from hell moved.
It's okay to whine sometimes.
It's called "Residency," dumbass.
And your vacuous comment about 'since when...' demonstrates that you are unaware of the ASTD (a 10,000 member organization of corporate training/development types.)
By all means, do NOT invest any of your money in training your employees. That way, you can go out of business sooner, rather than later, and stop your asinine posts.
Ask Luis. He has ALL the answers.
Hahaha, that was me! Now I'm finding that Social Services is only for certain people, when we need some help.
Remember Luis, "pride goeth before a fall".
Well, like it or not, that's the difference between communism and capitalism.
Now, all you have to do is decide whether you want to be a slave, or a free agent.
By the way "corporations who see people only as profit-producing cogs in the machine"...when did Karl Marx join FR?
Is not training, that's putting into action the training you've already received at Med School.
As far as training employees to do the work they're hired to do, that's great when available, but reality still says that you must know how to do the job BEFORE you're hired.
The "dumbass" part is quite possibly indicative of some serious shortcomings in your training.
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