Unemployment and Long Term Unemployment

For a long time I have railed on the current policy of providing long-term unemployment benefits to people out of work.  I’ve gone further and documented available jobs in my area.  Granted, the jobs are rather unattractive and have, in some cases, offended friends and family who maybe themselves or know someone who has been or is currently, unemployed.

I’ve suspended that series.

However, my point all along is not that people who aren’t taking those jobs but relying on benefits are lazy, it’s that they are rational.  The incentives are all wrong.

For example, if I’m unemployed and collecting $350.00 a week what is the marginal value of me taking a job that pays, say $8 an hour for 40 hours?  Well, it works out like this:

  1. $8*40 hours equals $320.00
  2. The first $50.00 is “burden free”, so that means only $270.00 of my $320  counts against me.
  3. Because my benefits are $350 and I “earned” $270.00, my unemployment benefit check is now $80.00.
  4. Adding my wage and my check, my new take is $400.00.
  5. Because I was earning $350.00 BEFORE my job, my incremental “raise” is 50 bucks.
  6. For 40 hours of work I earned an extra $50.00.
  7. That is about $1.25 an hour.  And when I say about, I mean exactly.
  8. Who expects anyone to work for 1 twenty 5 and hour American?
  9. No one.

And THAT is why our unemployment rate is so high.

Anyway, that’s not my point.  This is:

When businesses hire they are looking to hire the best candidate possible.  And to that end, they go through a whole process whereby they feel they actually GET the best candidate possible.  They have interviews, resume scans, tricky questionnaires and ALL sorts of things that they use.

On a personal note, I have hired a great number of people in my past roles.  There is one characteristic that I always notice.  And while this characteristic may not assure you the job it almost always disqualifies you in my mind.

Well, in this economy, businesses are being businesses.  They are using whatever technique they can to identify a candidate that they feel will bring them the most bang for the buck.  And ya wanna know what it is?

It’s being willing to work for $1.25 an hour:

The unemployed need not apply.

That is the message being broadcast by many of the nation’s employers, making it even more difficult for 14 million jobless Americans to get back to work.

A recent review of job vacancy postings on popular sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Craigslist revealed hundreds that said employers would consider (or at least “strongly prefer”) only people currently employed or just recently laid off.

Unemployed workers have long suspected that the gaping holes on their résumés left them less attractive to employers. But with the country in the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, many had hoped employers would be more forgiving.

“I feel like I am being shunned by our entire society,” said Kelly Wiedemer, 45, an information technology operations analyst who said a recruiter had told her that despite her skill set she would be a “hard sell” because she had been out of work for more than six months.

As I mentioned, folks not wanting to work for pennies an hour is reasonable.  It’s logical.  I get it.  But folks WILLING to work for pennies an hour is a MASSIVE indicator that they are possessing those traits and characteristics that I want in my organization.

Guess what?

The practice is common enough that New Jersey recently passed a law outlawing job ads that bar unemployed workers from applying. New York and Michigan are considering the idea…

Is it any coincidence that New Jersey, New York and Michigan are the most decimated states when t comes to job loss, population gain, unemployment rates and sheer economic disasterness?

It shouldn’t be.

By the way, go read the whole article.  It’s just a flippen mess of an example of what life in Liberal America can look like.

Ugh.

10 responses to “Unemployment and Long Term Unemployment

  1. CIRCUS IN TOWN!

    You I think love semantics. This whole situation IS BY DESIGN. Companies are and have been employing MANY people. . . OVERSEAS. They profit off of the cheap low wage workers, slave wage laborers, sweat shops, you name it, that are existent there BUT NOT HERE. . . Yet! That way of things would soon be upon American shores. The unemployment is going to keep rising, the long term unemployed, chronically unemployed would be deemed UNATTRACTIVE for employment. Whether this is a form of discrimination is up to the COURTS. My hunch is that the courts would rule in favor of big business. As people get increasingly HOPEless, desperate, filled with dispair, poor and destitute, bullseye. They will accept any job especially when social programs and unions are gutted and busted respectively. Thats all for now. Stay tuned.

    • Companies are and have been employing MANY people. . . OVERSEAS.

      Yes, labor is like steel, cotton or oil. Corporations buy commodities at the lowest possible price. As the United States makes labor too expensive, we go elsewhere.

      They profit off of the cheap low wage workers, slave wage laborers, sweat shops,

      Yes. They profit in the same way they profit by purchasing any raw material and reselling it. Regarding slave labor, those people are flocking to that work. For the first time ever, nations are moving millions of people from bone jarring poverty into a lifestyle that they can enjoy.

      Whether this is a form of discrimination is up to the COURTS. My hunch is that the courts would rule in favor of big business.

      I suspect you are right. Businesses should be able to hire anyone they want to.

      They will accept any job especially when social programs and unions are gutted and busted respectively.

      That’s the way it should be. The primary source of income should not be social programs. It should be work. Oh, and by the way, unions reduce the amount of people hired, not increase it. They DO demand higher wages, but that’s only once your hired.

  2. CIRCUS IN TOWN

    God forbid you woke up tomorrow and you became bone jarringly poor, try your best to imagine this, what would you do? Would you work for 1.25 dollars only?

  3. CIRCUS IN TOWN

    This new reality that you look for, with immediate moves to cut programs that many have been on and services that so many have been used, along with continued unemployment, what are these people to do? These programs have been there through Republican administrations too. Help me see how drastic immediate rather than gradual transition is best, as thats what being attempted by the GOP.

  4. CIRCUS IN TOWN

    Interesting ythe three states ou indicated that is decimated by job loss. 2 swing/red states ad 1 blue. Cali and FL may be next. Anything to kill jobs and let stats show a worse situation than even the Hoover era.

  5. God forbid you woke up tomorrow and you became bone jarringly poor

    Yes. I am very fortunate. I understand that.

    try your best to imagine this, what would you do?

    I do need to imagine it; I’ve been bone jarringly poor. I’ve lived on the floor of a friend’s house. I’ve had water, heat and electricity shut off; phone too. I’ve held three jobs, all of ’em manual labor just to get by. I’ve eaten ramen day after dreary day,

    Help me see how drastic immediate rather than gradual transition is best, as thats what being attempted by the GOP.

    I’m willing to have those conversations. Anything to shrink government. But no one else is talking about that. They still wanna grow government.

    Interesting ythe three states ou indicated that is decimated by job loss. 2 swing/red states ad 1 blue.

    They are very Liberal states with massive government regulation dominated by unions. It is no secret why those states are in the financial position they are.

    Cali and FL may be next

    Cali almost certainly is already there. Florida looks to be turning around.

  6. CIRCUS IN TOWN

    So however long u were that dirt poor, u managed to pull urself up by ur bootstrap, so to speak, rise above ur hardship and overcome. MLK Jr talked about overcoming. Good for you. I suppose there was govt assistance available but b/c of ur beliefs you never considered any, shall I say, handout. U must not have been financially incapacitated for long. And you say anything to shrink govt, ANYTHING?! Really. Even throwing grannies under the bus and taking her social security she accrued all her adult working life?

    • Good for you.

      Some of it was me, some of it was a strong family support system.

      Even throwing grannies under the bus and taking her social security she accrued all her adult working life?

      No one is saying that we’re gonna take grannie’s Social Security. We’re saying that people under 50 are going to have to live within a new system.

  7. Circus in Town ,

    You are good at making false arguments . You are good at making the case that Republicans want to eliminate all government safeguards . Why not try to make an honest point ? pino makes those honest points . Democrat states with the most compassion, have the most misery. Ever ask yourself why ?

    Ask yourself, would you rather have a job or a handout ? Would you rather support yourself and your family, or be dependent on the government ? The people who are unemployed for over a year, is that Bush’s fault ? Is it the rich who are at fault ?

    • Ask yourself, would you rather have a job or a handout ? Would you rather support yourself and your family, or be dependent on the government ?

      I find an even more compelling illustration to be: What do you teach your children?

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