Unemployment extensions end soon
NELP (National Employment Law Project) notes:
For administrative reasons, states need to shut down their extended unemployment programs in advance of the federal government’s Nov. 30 cut-off. NELP estimates that 800,000 people will lose unemployment benefits in the coming weeks and 2 million workers will lose their benefits by December if Congress fails to act.
The Columbus Dispatch puts the ending of benefits another way:
Nearly 40 percent of Ohioans receiving jobless benefits will exhaust their unemployment by the end of December unless Congress agrees to continue funding extended benefits.
Main Street Alliance small business owners write:
“Get a job – any job. Don’t wait for a good one, take anything you can get.” So goes the refrain. But that advice denies the reality of this recession and its impact on the job market. And it obscures the realities of how employers go about hiring people.
There simply aren’t enough jobs out there for the vast majority of the unemployed. There are so few jobs available that even if someone could wave a magic wand and instantly fill every job opening with someone who is unemployed, four out of five of the jobless would still be out of work.
Equally important, those telling the unemployed to “get a job, any job” fail to grasp the realities of hiring. Employers want the most qualified candidate for the job, not the most over-qualified candidate…The costs associated with employee turnover are significant and businesses, especially small businesses, can’t afford to waste resources on another job search and training someone yet again.
Heard on NPR yesterday another report about the growing trend of employers insisting on only considering those currently employed for open positions. http://www.npr.org/2010/11/14/131309130/flabby-skills-are-latest-worry-for-unemployed?ps=rs
No Unemployed Need Apply.
I’ve got a story. A guy I know is a carpenter. But he also has a CDL because he is one of those guys who has those types of skills. He is, in short, just one of those guys who knows how to get things done. He can wire a house, handle any plumbing problem etc., can do pretty much any trade competently.
Here in Hodunk, Texas though, undocumented workers have taken all of the jobs that this guy can do except one. If he spoke better Spanish he could of course go work alongside the illegals but for only about half of what he needs to earn to support his family. But because he has a CDL, and because illegals can not get CDLs, this guy can earn more driving a truck than he can building houses, which is odd considering it took him many years to become a competent builder, but he passed his CDL test on the first try and became a truck-driver almost instantly.
But truck-driving jobs are not so easy to get around here because there are many, many guys like this guy. But he learns that certain driving jobs are much easier to get than others. Turns out, solid waste disposal hauling jobs, and septic tank pumping ‘careers’ are not that popular for the obvious, or is it odoriferous, reasons. So he applies to those applicable companies only to discover that those jobs only pay slightly more than what illegals are being paid to work in construction jobs. It seems that the laws of supply and demand are working, as they do.
I don’t know how this story ends. This guy put in some applications at some waste-hauling companies but he has not yet heard back from any of them. High turnover rates though so ‘who knows’. Maybe this guy may be hauling turds while people all over the world need houses, many of whom, ironically, live in Latin America. (not all stories have happy endings)