Now Hiring: Everywhere You Didn’t Want to Work
Aug 10th, 2009 by Jennifer Lynn
A position opened in my department last month — a part time gig slightly above blue-light special wages with no benefits — and my supervisor was inundated with and shocked by the quality of applicants. A large portion held masters degrees and there were even a few Ph.D. graduates applying.
As my supervisor scanned through resumes for screening, she never imagined she would have to turn down so many looking for a (any) job, let alone candidates with higher degrees. If overqualified applicants couldn’t find job placements in their respective field, what was the next step for them?
If you are a foreign student search for a job – visit http://www.foreignstudents.com/jobs
From Chicago Sun-Times:
Some of the dirtiest, smelliest, most dangerous jobs are suddenly looking a lot more appealing in this economy.
People who have been out of work for months are lining up for jobs at places they once considered unthinkable: slaughterhouses, sewage plants, prisons.
“I have to just shut my mouth because I can’t do anything about it,” said Nichole McRoberts of Sedalia, Mo., who pictured more for herself at age 30 than working in a poultry plant, cutting diseased or damaged flesh off chicken carcasses.
Recessions and tight job markets always force some people to take less-desirable or lower-paying work than they are used to. But this recession has been the most punishing job destroyer in at least 60 years, slashing a net total of 6.7 million jobs.
Take Kristen Thompson. Before the recession, she worked at an upscale Los Angeles-area gym arranging pricey one-on-one personal training sessions. Now she’s a guard at a women’s prison in rural Wyoming.
After the gym laid her off last year, Thompson spent months looking for work. Even fast food restaurants failed to respond to her application. For each opening, dozens of other people seemed willing to work for less money. When she heard that a prison in Lusk, Wyo., (population 1,447) was hiring, she leapt at the chance.
In her new job, she patrols cellblocks and monitors the mess hall. Back in L.A., she never had to worry about inmates with weapons or drug stashes or prisoners getting into fights. Yet she’s hardly complaining. It’s a job.
“People have to pay the bills, so what we see is people kind of grasping at straws and taking anything that’s available,” said Matthew Freedman, assistant professor of labor economics at Cornell University.
The desperation of the long-term jobless has rippled through the labor force. More skilled and educated workers have filled clerical or restaurant jobs. So unskilled workers such as teenagers or high school graduates who once held most of those positions have displaced those even lower on the economic ladder, such as immigrants, Freedman noted…(con’t)
Link: Now Hiring: Everywhere You Didn’t Want to Work
Do employers still need to offer competitive wages in order to lure new workers in, or has competition in the job market and climbing unemployment resulted in shrinking wages for the working middle class?
And jobs aren’t the only aspect tightening in this new economic climate; when more sites like this are offering high interest, short term loans, what does this say about the banks and other lending institutions? I would argue it says they are tightening their belts and not releasing capital like they did 4 or 5 years ago.
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This is why it drives me crazy when people at my job complain about work. I’m like, Have you seen what’s going on out there? People would love to trade places with you. Now shut up and do your job!
I’m am thankful for my job every single day.
Ha, I work for the Wyoming Department of Corrections as well, and I can safely say that just about everybody (except myself!) that has been hired in the last two years to work at their maximum security men’s prison is from Michigan – for the exact same reason as stated in the article. I did the same, but I chose to leave a stable job. I’m glad I did, as now everybody I worked with could be laid off because they can’t secure a new contract.
People today are a bunch of cry babies. When given the chance, they choose blaming the economy, the school, their parents, social pressures, anything but themselves. Sure it’s tough out there in the job market, but you’ve got to take action if you want to improve your life. For example, I see resumes for pipeline jobs everyday. The resumes are so poorly written or are last years resumes. They’re not up to date. And when the guy/gal doesn’t get the job, they do as you would expect, blame the recruiter. Get it together man, right a good resume and you’ll be a step or two ahead of most other people.
seriously…my friends and I have been joking about how even for McDonald’s now, you need a college degree.
I guess I’m one of those cry-babies who hasn’t found a job yet (I graduated at the end of February). Although, for the record, I update my resume every time I send it out, and tailor it to every job I send it to. That isn’t enough, though.
I know I’m at a huge disadvantage because I basically have no network. I don’t excel at what I went to college for, so I’m not applying for jobs in that field (as if entertainment were hiring right now, anyway!). That means I don’t have any connections from college other than people in the entertainment industry, really. The friends I do have from other majors are mostly computer science or IT majors… something I really, really am not qualified for.
I’m not complaining, so much as venting/recognizing my disadvantages.
With the current state of the economy I believe many companies will get a pool of applicants from various backgrounds. Of course there will be some people who will wait for some ideal position to show up, but for the most part I think most people will apply for any work they are qualified to do.
I don’t think wages will shrink too much, especially since minimum wage laws are in effect. As for employers, a really good employer would still offer good wages & benefits so that they can have the best pick of applicants who can help their company grow.
This Great Recession made me realize the importance of having a back-up plan.
After years of being bombarded from teachers, parents, and counselors about the great benefits associated with a college diploma, I had this glorious misconception that once I graduate from college, I would never have trouble finding a decent job. This recession set my astray mind right. Now I am learning several new skills that will broaden my employment if my first choice job doesn’t pan out.
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Author
The Alan Haft Blog
And this my friends is exactly why I can’t even get a job at Applebee’s.
Ha, I work for the Wyoming Department of Corrections as well, and I can safely say that just about everybody (except myself!) that has been hired in the last two years to work at their maximum security men’s prison is from Michigan – for the exact same reason as stated in the article. I did the same, but I chose to leave a stable job. I’m glad I did, as now everybody I worked with could be laid off because they can’t secure a new contract.