Posted on 12/30/2002 10:06:52 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
What are the odds of the nation's unemployed getting back on the payroll in 2003?
Not very good, according to job-seekers who, by 2 to 1, told counselors during a holiday job search advice call-in that it would be harder to find a job in the coming year.
Survey results released Monday by international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., show that 67 percent of callers to its 17th annual call-in felt it would be more difficult to find a job in 2003, compared to 33 percent who said it would be easier.
The grim outlook was coupled with an equally pessimistic view of the overall economy. Two out of three callers believed the economy would be the same or worse next year.
"This may be the most discouraged we have seen callers in the 17 year history of the call-in. We have only conducted surveys of callers in recent years, but counselors do not remember confidence or the overall mood of callers ever being this low -- not even during the last recession and jobless recovery of the early 1990s," says Rick Cobb, executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The overwhelming majority (68 percent) of callers this year were unemployed, a change from years past when there was more balance between working and non-working callers. Among the jobless callers, the average duration of unemployment was 8.3 months.
While salary was the most important factor in a new job, nearly as many callers said having a job with a good future is equally important.
Apparently most callers feel they can find this future in small- to medium-sized firms. Eighty percent of job-seekers said they prefer to work for a company with fewer than 500 employees.
"Large public companies may have more resources, but some people feel that these employers are concerned first and foremost with the bottom line and will not hesitate to make payroll reductions in order to meet earnings expectations and to appease Wall Street analysts," Mr. Cobb says. "Smaller companies, which are more likely to be privately held, often have a more family-oriented view of their workforce and will make sacrifices in all other areas before resorting to layoffs."
Approximately 1,600 job-seekers called during the two-day event. They were split nearly evenly between men (54 percent) and women (46 percent).
Most college degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on. I went to night school 15 years ago to get my bachelor's degree only to be told on the last night of class that bachelor's degrees were a dime a dozen-- to really get ahead I needed to enroll in the masters program.
At that point I decided that any degree which required that I be hired on by someone else was pretty risky, so I took the LSAT, thinking that if it was a crummy job market when I got out of law school I could always hang my shingle.
Now there have been some lean times, but never so bad that I wasn't making a living, even if that meant I was doing "contract research" for other lawyers.
College advertising is still advertising. Caveat Emptor.
This means that the legal profession remains very competitive, and that the little guys (or girls, like myself) can succeed if they are smart enough and work hard enough. On the other hand, the institutionalized nursing profession does not reward ingenuity or industry, making it subject to the price wars of other commodities.
After 40 years in the private sector, you may be too old for a gummint job.
Only place I know the gummint accepts people THAT old is the Senate,
but it helps if you have a relative already there.
It's actually spelled "Res ipsa loquitur", but that's to be expected when diploma mills churn out quantity instead of quality.
Seriously, do you have some kind of medical ailment that makes you so miserable?
But, tell me, since you are so smart, I thought it was only them nasty liberals who were the "nattering nabobs of negativism," how did you get such a large dose of it?
You might want to return some of the Good Lord's blessings by following his commandment to "love one another." Or maybe you just need a big hug!
Where's there?
Willie is obviously a grumpy, old man and couldn't be interested in your offer.
I, on the other hand, might come across a little snippy now and then, but deep down, I'm a fun-lovin' teddy bear. ;^)
Glad to see a country boy with a sense of humor, even if he's out of work and has a profile full of BULL!
Still think we can get a giggle out of mean willie green, just got to find out where he's ticklish!
Have a great new year-- I just know things will get better for you! Can't lose with a good attitude.
No, it's an established fact that trial lawyers fund the DNC, and that liberal tactics include smearing conservatives with a "mean-spirited" label. Given your "contributions" to this thread, one can only conclude that you are not a conservative.
Well thank-you!
IMHO, I'm not as deserving of that label as ol' A+Bert,
But seeing as I've popped open a bottle of the bubbly to wash down my dinner and celebrate a little early,
Bottoms up, cheers and Happy New Year to you and 'Bert, wherever he may be!
Remember there are conservative lawyers, for example Ann Coulter, James Baker, Ted Olson, and his late wife, Barbara, and those who may or may not be, but fought the right fight in the Bush 2000 election debacle. A number of my republican lawyer colleagues were duking it out, chad-wise with the dem-controlled election boards in Broward and Palm Beach County. Like I said before, I am sure your opinion of lawyers won't be swayed by the facts, but simply because I'm a lawyer doesn't mean I'm not a conservative.
So there.
Ooooops! My mistake!
I neglected the possibility of a "conservative" soccer mom perspective.
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I am not sure about the contrived part, but I have first-hand experience with foreign-born nurses; we had a load of them at the V.A. hospital where I worked in the late 90's and they were so language and hygiene compromised as to be dangerous on sight.
I spent two days in Encino hospital for a bladder infection and the foreign-speaking nurse collapsed two veins in my left hand before I finally got the doctor to dismiss her from my case.
I left the hospital a day early for my own health.
Just how in the hell is a college graduate going to figure out how to install residential fencing; that's not even a fair argument, surely you can do better than that.
Would you say that if you could not find work for over a year?
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