The Unemployment Situation II

[dnno1]

Originally Posted by Handsome Rob

That's impossible--it's gotta be something else. Tax hikes only affect government coffers . . . they have no effect on employment, because they have no effect on a company's bottom line. Since all companies (particularly evil corporations) have a money tree on the premises, more money going to the government doesn't mean less money to pay employees with.

Furthermore, employment is an lagging indicator. You are not going to see the labor impact of a tax hike immediately after it happens.

[chaseter]

Originally Posted by Handsome Rob

If it's putting food on the table for the time being, who cares if it "challenges them?" I'd be bored to tears working on the floor of Wal-Mart or a grocery store. But, I'd do it if that's what I had to do.

You do make a good point about the "too educated" part, though. It will probably keep them out of some jobs. But, that's where the entrepreneurial spirit can come in. If you can't get a job, you can always go into business for yourself. Wash cars, mow lawns and do yardwork, start your own same-day courier service, etc. Even if all those ventures eventually fail, at least you tried. That counts for something.

You may even have to move if you have no income in your household. Some states have better job prospects than other states. It does suck and the job market sucks but you have to do what you have to do. If I knew employers were going to knock me for being on unemployment for over a year, I would be trying my damnedest to work somewhere. I know not everyone can have a job in this economy but you can do a simple google search for jobs in any city and see tons of listings. Jobs are out there, just not as many as we had before. And, like you said, try creating a business and be entrepreneurial. Walk dogs, sell baked goods, wash cars, mow lawns, clean houses, etc. It may be under your previous job but it's a job. It's just a plain and simple fact that the longer you are out of work, the less desirable you are to employers. When switched around, you would be doing the same hiring practices as HR managers are doing now.

[dnno1]

Originally Posted by Paradoxium

Congratulations are in order for Illinois' War on Jobs.

California is following suit. Maybe even Obama.

I don't know about these numbers, but I got this from the Illinois Department of Labor Security:



That's the employment numbers from January to July of this year.

[amazingfantasy15]

Originally Posted by Handsome Rob

If it's putting food on the table for the time being, who cares if it "challenges them?" I'd be bored to tears working on the floor of Wal-Mart or a grocery store. But, I'd do it if that's what I had to do.

You do make a good point about the "too educated" part, though. It will probably keep them out of some jobs. But, that's where the entrepreneurial spirit can come in. If you can't get a job, you can always go into business for yourself. Wash cars, mow lawns and do yardwork, start your own same-day courier service, etc. Even if all those ventures eventually fail, at least you tried. That counts for something.

I meant that as the employer thinking, well this person won't be challenged at the job, won't care and therefore won't be a good fit. Those employers also know you'll be looking for something else, so it's probably (hopefully in the applicant's mind) not long term. As for the entreprenurial spirit, yeah that's great if you have a base of clients. I've known a few people that quit their job (when the economy was better) to do their own thing, only one person succeeded.

Originally Posted by chaseter

You may even have to move if you have no income in your household. Some states have better job prospects than other states. It does suck and the job market sucks but you have to do what you have to do. If I knew employers were going to knock me for being on unemployment for over a year, I would be trying my damnedest to work somewhere. I know not everyone can have a job in this economy but you can do a simple google search for jobs in any city and see tons of listings. Jobs are out there, just not as many as we had before. And, like you said, try creating a business and be entrepreneurial. Walk dogs, sell baked goods, wash cars, mow lawns, clean houses, etc. It may be under your previous job but it's a job. It's just a plain and simple fact that the longer you are out of work, the less desirable you are to employers. When switched around, you would be doing the same hiring practices as HR managers are doing now.

Yeah, that's an easy solution, just move states, no problem. My girlfriend and I actually did that this year, her job sucked and the director of her department was pushing out anyone that she didn't fit into a certain personal mold she had. There's so many things that go into that, it cost us a huge amount just to move, luckily we were both able to get out of our lease and didn't own property, so we could didn't have any extra costs back in our previous state, I couldn't imagine how we would've done it if we were unemployed at the time. If you also have kids, there's that to consider too, moving to a new state and stuff. It's not nearly as easy as pick up and leave.

[Marx]

I've tried to get a part-time position before to make up for the cutback in my hours and I was told that I was "overqualified" and they knew that if they hired me I wouldn't stay.

[wiegeabo]

That's when you lie omit and give them a 'qualified' resume.

[Marx]

Oh, I've tried that Wieg. Same result.

[wiegeabo]

Well stop being so damn smart!

[Marx]

I was a retail manager for years before I got the job I'm at now. I can't exactly reword that. You know?

[wiegeabo]

Well then start being smarter!

[dnno1]

The truth of the matter is that there are not that many part time jobs to make up for the 13.9 million people who need them. If anybody thinks that there are enough, they are just fooling themselves. Furthermore, even though the law does not allow it, there is still age discrimination going on for the unemployed.

[dnno1]

Originally Posted by Handsome Rob

Being totally unemployed or without a job for two years, short of having a severe medical crisis or being held hostage by Iran, is utterly inexcusable. You can look for a job while employed part time or full time--I looked for, interviewed for, and was hired for my current job while I was working full time (with plenty of overtime each month). You can even go into business for yourself.

I would hire someone with slightly weaker or even weaker job skills who looked for work while flipping burgers at McDonalds during the day and delivering pizzas at night for two years over someone who held absolutely no job over the same two year period and was living off unemployment.

To me, the first employee places a value on the idea and importance of work, even if it's something he doesn't really want to do--that smacks of a strong work ethic. I figure he can and will learn whatever he's lacking. The second employee appears to place a value on doing only what he wants to do, and he is willing to mostly mooch off of the state/federal gov't (translation: me, the taxpayer) for two years until he gets what he wants.

I don't think you know what you are talking about. There just aren't enough part time jobs out there for 13.9 million unemployed people.

[Handsome Rob]

Originally Posted by dnno1

I don't think you know what you are talking about. There just aren't enough part time jobs out there for 13.9 million unemployed people.

Well, I'm just a little more open-minded about the situation than you are. See, you talk about there not being enough part-time jobs out there, yet entrepreneurship (which I mentioned as an option) involves jobs that don't yet exist.

So there's not a job out there for me? Fine. I'll go into business for myself.

[dnno1]

Originally Posted by Handsome Rob

Well, I'm just a little more open-minded about the situation than you are. See, you talk about there not being enough part-time jobs out there, yet entrepreneurship (which I mentioned as an option) involves jobs that don't yet exist.

So there's not a job out there for me? Fine. I'll go into business for myself.

It's nice that you are open minded, but entrepreneurship, requires money, which is something that is hard to get nowadays after the financial crisis. Entrepreneurship is also something not everybody can do (at least successfully). As each year goes by the success rate drops dramatically.

[BlackLantern]

Originally Posted by Handsome Rob

Well, I'm just a little more open-minded about the situation than you are. See, you talk about there not being enough part-time jobs out there, yet entrepreneurship (which I mentioned as an option) involves jobs that don't yet exist.

So there's not a job out there for me? Fine. I'll go into business for myself.

and do what?

genuinely curious

[Handsome Rob]

Originally Posted by BlackLantern

and do what?

genuinely curious

I've got different options than most people based on my credentials. I can teach personal financial management, market myself to small business for process/efficiency improvement (since that is an area within my own company that I have developed a reputation for), teach bookkeeping or basic accounting, start doing bookkeeping/accounting/financial statement prep for upstart businesses, etc.

My suggestion to people would be to find what they're good at and then spend time thinking of how to go about developing it. And, what you're good at isn't necessarily limited to what you already do at your current job. My brother, also an accountant, could easily pick up $$ on the side by doing handyman work if he had to--the guy's also got a knack for repair work.

[Paroxysm]

Originally Posted by Handsome Rob

I've got different options than most people based on my credentials. I can teach personal financial management, market myself to small business for process/efficiency improvement (since that is an area within my own company that I have developed a reputation for), teach bookkeeping or basic accounting, start doing bookkeeping/accounting/financial statement prep for upstart businesses, etc.

My suggestion to people would be to find what they're good at and then spend time thinking of how to go about developing it. And, what you're good at isn't necessarily limited to what you already do at your current job. My brother, also an accountant, could easily pick up $$ on the side by doing handyman work if he had to--the guy's also got a knack for repair work.

transferable skills ftw.

[Paroxysm]

Breaking News: U.S. says economy added no jobs in August, worst number since September 2010. Jobless rate unchanged at 9.1%. - http://bit.ly/qx5qjZ

[Donut]

Obama certainly did give us change with no jobs at all once so ever

[Paradoxium]

Keep in mind you need to add about 87k a month to account for population growth. Yes accounting for deaths, there is a net increase still. There was not only no job growth, it is much worse than that.

[8wid]

Why can't this just simply be called a depression and get it over with?

[dnno1]

Actually, he added 2.9 million jobs. It's just the month of August that the economy didn't add jobs.

[Paradoxium]

Someone did the math.

The total non institutional civilian labor force (Americans 16 years and older who are not in a institution -criminal, mental, or other types of facilities- or an active military duty) is reported as 238.889 million. Of these, we see:

• Employed: 139.206 million people (58.3% of labor force)
• Unemployed: 14.485 million people (6.1% of labor force)

Obviously, that can't be the total picture, we're only at 64.4%. This is why:

• Part time employed for economic reasons: 8.931 million people. This concerns people who want a full-time job but can't get one.
• Part time employed for non-economic reasons: 18.184 million people. Non-economic reasons include school or training, retirement or Social Security limits on earnings, but also childcare problems and family or personal obligations.

But the by far largest category "missing" from both the Employed and Unemployed statistics is the "Not In Labor Force": 85.2 Million people.

To summarize: 108.616 million people in America are either unemployed, underemployed or "Not in the labor force". This represents 45.5% of working age Americans.

If you count the "Part time employed for non-economic reasons", you get 126.8 million Americans who are unemployed, underemployed, working part time or "Not in the labor force". That represents 53% of working age Americans.

So only 47% of working age Americans have full time jobs.

While the official unemployment rate is 9.4%. Something's missing somewhere.

Keep in mind this was in January 2011. Might be worse now.

[BlackLantern]

there is no reason for certain companies to hire....they were forced to cut jobs from 2008 forward and have managed their workloads with reduced staff

[BlackLantern]

oh...and on the AT&T/T-Mobile merger...AT&T is allegedly saying if the merger is approved they will bring all their support and call centers back to the US