By Dave Anderson:
This afternoon I received an e-mail concerning a recent job application I submitted. It went something like this:
Dear Mr. Anderson,
We have received your application and we look forward to talking to you soon for position ABC. Interviews will be scheduled by July 99th. If your contact information changes, please e-mail us.
Sincerely,
A potential employer
I did the happy dance as this is the best nibble I have gotten in three months. My happy dance is an insult to the stereotype of white guy dancing, as I am make the stereotype look graceful, but I had to do the happy dance. This job is not my aspiration job, but it is a position where I would actually use some of my skills, have a chance to learn some interesting new stuff and work on a cool project.
The happy dance was prompted because this is the best lead I've gotten after 100+ resumes, countless hours of networking in the past three months. It is sad, but this is where I'm at.
And then the Republican candidate for governor, Tom Corbett, says that unemployment benefits are keeping people from looking for work:
During a door-to-door tour of Elizabethtown, Lancaster County businesses
today, Corbett said �the jobs are there,� but that many people are
purposely remaining unemployed, in order to collect benefits. He says
he�s heard this from business owners across Pennsylvania. �One of the
issues, and I hear it repeatedly � one of the individuals said, �I can�t
get workers. People don�t want to come back to work while they still
have unemployment.�� He said. �They�re literally telling him, �I�ll
come back to work when unemployment runs out.� That�s becoming a
problem.�
Unemployment benefits in Pennsylvania pay about half the salary without benefits of working. They are a lifeline, but they are not luxurious. Average benefits in Pennsylvania are slightly more than $300 a week. It is not a good living. Someone on average UI in the state is receiving the equivilent of $7.75 an hour, which is not a tough wage to beat if there are jobs available. The most recent research shows the UI benefits have minimal impacts on duration of unemployment. There is jack-shit available.
If there were jobs available, I would not have done my happy dance this afternoon solely on the basis of a probable interview. I would have done an ugly and awe-inspiring happy dance if my daughter spoke a complete sentence, or if I had received a job offer, if there were jobs available. There is jack-shit available right now.
Update: I actually have an interview instead of just a probable interview. Several people were injured as their sides burst when I did a second happy dance at the local free WiFi hotspot after I spoke with the employer to schedule the actual interview.
Ah the standard line from any non-progressive individual from any country in the world. These characters all seem to believe there are hoards of individuals scheming to live in the lap of luxury on the dole. I concluded years ago that a certain segment of any country's adult population would appreciate the return of slavery for any able body individual they could capture. But I thought the problems for small business persons was that banks were not lending them money to expand & hire even though no one wants to buy anything they may have to sell. Heavens this stuff seems complicated, so you'd wish, for a least a micro-second, any one politician could get and hold a consistent narrative in their heads to explain their position without reverting to 17th century ideology or some insane biblical myth.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. I am waiting for that email myself.
ReplyDeleteThe line about people preferring unemployment checks to working would work better if they could produce some of these folks.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to ask them how they make ends meet on 1/2 their former income.
I'd like to see some discussion about the details of these wonderful jobs going unfilled, since everyone I know says that for every opening they have an avalanche of applications.
I'd like a pony, too, please.
Who are these people living fat off the system? smh...
ReplyDelete@zak "The line about people preferring unemployment checks to working would work better if they could produce some of these folks. " exactly
great post...