A Special Message To My Fellow Unemployed DUers: Don't Stop Looking

[Yavin4]

Please keep looking because if you stop you won't be counted in the UE rate, and that would lower the UE which will give the pols a reason to stop extending benefits. The UE rate is partly determined by household surveys, and if you don't actively look for work, you're not counted in the official stats.

I know that it's difficult and depressing to keep applying for jobs that you never hear back from or get rejected by. But don't let that stop you. You are only hurting yourself and other unemployed people by not looking.

So, keep looking.

[TexasObserver]

1. Recommend

[Mike_03]

2. Wow, things have changed here at DU since I was last here, but rec

this thread.

I hope.

[rox63]

3. There are jobs out there

You just need to impress the hell out of potential employers when you meet them.

[Yavin4]

4. Eh...I Don't Want To Argue About That

Suffice to say, that everyone should be actively looking. Build a Monster.com and just apply. It's easy, simple, and it satisfies any job hunting requirements.

[Donnachaidh]

10. few and FAR between

perhaps your area has jobs, but not all areas are that lucky.

[Better Today]

11. Essentially there are 6 wannabe's for every position out there,

so you're just wrong about there being a job for everyone. If you didn't mean a job for everyone, then your comment makes no sense at all except to be snarky.

[rox63]

15. No snark intended

I know there are a lot of candidates for each job. All the more reason one has to impress the hell out of prospective employers.

[Donnachaidh]

18. impress the hell out of employers?

WTF -- a good job background is not enough nowadays? My DH went through a year and a half of job interviews with YOUNGER men who didn't have a fraction of his experience, who took one look at his grey beard and automatically got put on the *he's too old* list. Shallow little assholes who have a degree in underwater basket-weaving doing interviews with people who forgot more work experience than they have at the moment.

He can run rings around any one of these jerks. The ONE thing he was NOT willing to do was crawl up the ass of an employer, nose first -- which is what the vast majority of these younger *managers* do in order to get their positions. Then they ride the shit out of their employees because it makes *them* look better.

[varelse]

19. if there are 100 applicants for each open position

no matter how impressive each of them is, 99 of them will still be unemployed at the end of the interview.

[Berry Cool]

22. You don't always GET the opportunity to meet them.

I've had one phone call, which led to a series of interviews (and I think I was impressive), after which I was not ultimately made the offer, in six months. SIX MONTHS.

You don't want to know how many places I've applied. No, I haven't papered the town with resumes because I think it's wiser to be selective, but I would estimate I've sent something in for between 55 and 60 jobs. In all that time, I have had that ONE positive response. ONE.

I suppose the other thing I could do is start doing "informational interviews" with companies that have no jobs to offer. I could look harder to try to get known. But damn, it's hard to put in the time just to "get known" when what you need is to "get paid."

I don't care what anyone says. In this economy, "impressing the hell out of potential employers" isn't enough. In part because there aren't enough potential employers. I've applied for jobs only to be told the employer is withdrawing the posting.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stopbush]

6. How do household surveys work when it comes to counting the unemployed?

I'm unemployed right now and on UI, so I'm counted. But if my UI benefits expire, how am I counted? By a phone call? I don't have a land line anymore, just a cell. How does the government know that people have stopped looking? It would seem that people who are unemployed for a long time are the people most likely to be difficult to poll as their financial situation makes it hard to hold onto phones and even a street mail address. How do you get a hold of a person if their phone is disconnected and they've moved in with the relatives in a different state?

[pinqy]

21. It's a sample survey..

There's no way in hell everyone in the country could be contacted every month to check their employment status. I'm amazed that anyone thinks there's some kind of giant list like that.

The government doesn't really know if someone has stopped looking, just whether or not someone is currently looking. Then if the person has looked sometime in the previous 12 months.

The initial interview is always a household survey. Follow ups are by phone. If the person can't be reached, I believe someone is sent to check (but I'm not 100% on that). It's the household that's counted regardless of who lives there at the moment. 60,000 households every month.

[Yavin4]

24. That's Why It's Important To Keep Looking

If your household is in that survey and you stop looking, you can really skew the reality of the labor market.

[Donnachaidh]

7. if you're underemployed you are not counted at all

The figures they use to spin about unemployment has gotten so politicized it's as if someone pulls it directly from their ass.

I suspect from what we are seeing in our red state Newt country area -- the employment *problem* is far greater than anyone wants to admit to. We're seeing a marked increase in robberies, both b&e and banks, and many more homeless and folks begging at intersections.

This has NEVER happened in this area, not in the 15 years we've been here. This is an area that always chased away the poor - now the residents are becoming the poor.

[druidity33]

8. i took a job and wish i hadn't...

I took a job as a prep cook in a local restaurant at near minimum wage because after 6 months of looking that's all i could find. Now i wish i hadn't. I was "making more" on unemployment (In May of last year the company i worked for filed for Bankruptcy) than i am now at a job that i really hate.

I've been a vegetarian for 20 years and the main component of my current job is preparing meat dishes. I slice meat, trim fat off meat, pound meat, marinate meat, and more! You should know i have a degree in Photography... so you can see how relevant my college degree is towards my current employment.

BTW, i'll keep looking. I may even become unemployed in the future because aside from being a photographer, i'm also a farmer and come Springtime, i'm not sure the piddly paycheck from current job will outweigh the free fresh veggies and potential outdoor physical happiness that a farm gig will bring.


Rest assured however, if ever i get "surveyed", they'll get all the right answers from me...


:)

[drm604]

9. A few people, including myself, have posted on here recently that they finally found work.

Hopefully it's a sign that things are picking up.

[cutlassmama]

13. I've seen many people, just in the last month, on other boards

that finally found jobs. Good luck to those unemployed.

[elocs]

12. For those who want to know: "How the Government Measures Unemployment":

http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

No, they do not count every single person who is unemployed or not looking for work.

[Political Heretic]

14. There are millions of people out of work that don't qualify for unemployment

The number of people not employed who are not being countered by a U3 measurement of employment is staggering.

[jwirr]

16. Actually no one should stop looking - when we do the problem is

hidden and the level is not correct. The worse it gets the more likely we will get help.

[ipaint]

17. For the laid off working class it's even worse since all the college grads

are now hustling for minimum wage service jobs which where the back up jobs that got those of us without a secondary education through the every seven year recessions the wealthy subject us to. It's pretty pathetic when your competing with college graduates to flip burgers.

One more way the working class gets royally screwed.

[varelse]

20. K&R

[nilram]

23. As a friend told me once, "You don't need a trend; you need a job."

[Manifestor_of_Light]

25. (Frantically waving huge doctoral diploma in vain)

I stopped looking years ago and couldn't take the damn hopelessness anymore. I was able to retire b/c I have a renthouse to make a bit of money on.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Looking for a job is insanity, and for me and several others, it has been insanity since about 1993. Hopeless insanity.