Laid-off workers growing desperate

Bergen Record ^ | December 7, 2002 | By KATHLEEN LYNN, CHARLES AUSTIN, AND ALLISON PRIES

[FITZ]

When profits are down you hire as cheap as you can, (actually you do this when profits are up too).

I know. I live in an area that was promised great and wonderful things from NAFTA and instead was declared an economic disaster area (so we get millions of federal dollars now) soon after NAFTA went into effect and things just keep getting worse. Some of those former garment workers used to make $8 an hour ---not alot but it let them be middle class. Some have managed to find jobs at $5.15 an hour but very many are living off the government and will be forever. Things didn't go as promised. They were to get 18 months job retraining so they could be computer programmers and other good things but unfortunately most couldn't even learn English in 18 months. So it's good I guess they aren't working anymore because labor is cheaper in other places.

[null and void]

Unemployment of 6% isn't horrible, especially compared to previous economic downturns.

Next week I will no longer be counted as unemployed. No, I didn't get a job, it's just that my unemployment benefits expire. At that point I no longer count as unemployed for statistical purposes. I will become a "nonperson".

There are about 80,000 official unemployed in Silicon Valley. The San José Mercury News had 10 ads for engineers last week. Do the math...

[another cricket]

They were to get 18 months job retraining so they could be computer programmers and other good things but unfortunately most couldn't even learn English in 18 months. So it's good I guess they aren't working anymore because labor is cheaper in other places.

Ironically if they can't even speak English that means that the jobs that they lost probably moved right to where they were from in the first place.

Having lived in foreign countries I know that the first thing you should do is learn the language. And if an employer has a choice between someone he can communicate with and someone that he needs an interpreter to communicate with he is going to go for the one that he can talk to.

Is it good that they are out of work? Of course not, but it is not wholly NAFTA's fault. They failed to acquire a basic skill needed for them to be hired in other industries. People who are functionally illiterate are also having a hard time getting hired in for good paying jobs.

a.cricket

[ikka]

"Now companies are looking for people with five specific skills, and they want all five," said Shawn Mulligan, district vice president for Robert Half International Inc., a California-based staffing company with four New Jersey offices. "Three years ago, they might have hired someone with three of those skills."

NOPE.

They are just showing that there is no one available in the USA to fill the position, thus justifying the issuance of yet another H1B visa.

[SauronOfMordor]

Most of the millionaires in this country work service jobs--financial services, mainly. And our manufacturing sector has been in decline since the '30s relative to the rest of the economy--it's now aobut six percent of our GDP, yet we have the largest, strongest economy in the world. Go figure.

200 years ago, 90%-95% of the work force was engaged in agriculture. After the invention of the gasoline engine, tractor, combine, etc less than 5% feed the whole US and a good chunk of the rest of the world.

When railroads came along, one big factory could supply manufactored goods to the whole country, putting lots of small crastsmen out of work. When containerized shipping, faxes, and cheap telecom came along, it became workable to move manufactoring to where labor is cheapest

The next stage will be robotic manufactoring, where computerized machinery will be able to assemble things more cheaply than even a third-world worker. Manufactoring then will happen where a factory can be planted, and where it won't be hassled by taxes and environmental and other government regulations. The people with money will then be those who create or own intellectual property

[OldPossum]

Have you considered the possibility that his wife is dead?

[FITZ]

I make $50 an hour mowing grass

You certainly wouldn't make $50 an hour mowing grass here because an illegal will do that for $50 a week or less even.

[TheRightGuy]

IMPROPER GRAMMER ALERT!

IMPROPER SPELLING ALERT!
Grammer=Grammar...

... let he who is without sin .... .... ....

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

All those illegal aliens at construction sites across the coungry are taking jobs from U.S. citizens. Every employer ought to be fined BIG TIME for employing illegals when our own men are out of work. Any INS agency in the country could go to construction sites, chicken and beef processing plants, carpet factories, restaurants and farms and find thousands of illegals to arrest and deport. INS agents are not doing their job, but they do cash their paychecks every month, courtesy of the taxpayers who have to support them.

Exactly...you forgot oil rig work, janitorial, and many others. The problem is huge and overwhelming.

[Leto]

Don't know what part of the country you folks live in but these guys live in the NY Metro area, the cost of living is far higher, if he worked in Telco, he used to make a good living. Why $13/hr, well in NJ because of prop taxes, in his area his mortgage can easily run to 2k/month, this includes property taxes on say an 1800 sq ft home, then these are the sales taxes, state income taxes, FICA and the rest, heating in the NE is more than $100/ month in the winter, then utilities. He will go broke on less than $13/hr even is his wife also works.

Walk a mile in the other guys shoes before you judge.

[another cricket]

(I will not seek cs from the ex as long as she stays away)

Sad. But I know of several other single parents who have done the same.

Best of luck to you.

a.cricket

[FITZ]

It looks like we'd better come up with 5 million more jobs quickly for the campesinos Mexico is soon sending our way. They say there are 5 million coming starting in January.

Provocará Tlcan éxodo hacia EU de 5 millones (hacia = toward, EU = USA)

"así como la eliminación de aranceles en el marco del Tlcan en enero del 2003, la migración interna y hacia territorio estadunidense será de grandes magnitudes." (migracion = migration, enero = January, hacia territorio estadunidence = to the USA, sera de grandes magnitudes = a very large number)

http://www.eldiariodechihuahua.com.mx/hsemana/021202/edicion/articulo/portada/notas/notappal.html

They even have a picture showing them heading on over.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

In other words, they are guessing as usual...

[marbren]

I agree

[Tench_Coxe]

There was one company where, if one actually wanted to slow the progress of a project, a project would be assigned to certain people. What would normally take several days would then take several weeks to accomplish.

[ambrose]

bump

[em2vn]

If you keep patting yourself on the back you are going to be out of work for an extended period of time because of a dislocated shoulder.
Being a conservative doesn't mean turning off your brain and conserving the energy it would take to create a cogent message. Self important boobs spouting off are what frequently make liberal ideas appear to have some validity.

[GallopingGhost]

I feel for you. Over 500 resumes and countless calls and hours spent. The overall unemployment rate may be 6% but in the tech world it is at least 25%.