I’m looking for some part-time work to help us pay down some debts sooner and I’ve been to four places and called one other. It’s menial labor stuff, probably around 10.00 to 14.00 per hour. But it’s work which if done correctly will result in a paycheck. Guess what? All of these places are hiring and all within a few miles of where I live (essentially walking distance). Why people find it so difficult to get a job is beyond me. Maybe the complaints are because they can’t find the job they want at the pay they want. I’ve never been in a situation where a job of any kind was inaccessible so I find it hard to believe that people in general can be out of work for long periods of time. Sure, you might have to do something you don’t really enjoy or won’t get paid much as much as you’d like, but turnover is so high in several industries that are always looking for help. Getting a job isn’t a matter of availability. It’s a matter of effort.
Just a little ranting and a challenge to anyone who thinks that those looking for work are not able to find ANY jobs because they don’t exist. With so many people supposedly out of work and unable to find a job, it would seem to be counter-intuitive that we still have a flood of illegal immigrants who come here to work.
Did any of those places actually HIRE you, though?
I’m not saying this is you, but whenever we talk about the job market in online forums, particularly those populated by software developers, someone always pipes up about how he gets emails from five recruiters a day, therefore the market is doing just great and if you can’t get a job you must suck. They never admit that those recruiters are likely the scammy ones and if they (the devs) try to follow up on any of those emails, they’d likely be met with silence. I’ve gotten those emails too, and that’s the result I got.
(I’m working two actual, hard leads (phone interviews) this week, so I’m not moaning the crappy market. It’s often a numbers game, and always hard work.)
tl;dr There are lots and lots of job pings and leads out there, but it’s much harder to get any kind of followup from employers. Emails without follow up to at least a phone interview are meaningless.
One was 8.50/hr. Two were pizza delivery driver positions that I haven’t gotten that far with, but my assumption is the pay is minimal and just like servers, the tips are where it’s at. Fourth is grocery store meat counter that pays between 10 to 12 depending on how well I can negotiate with the store manager!
8.50 is less than 10. 10-12 is not 10-14 especially if you have to negotiate. So how many miles away are these jobs actually?
Have you checked your auto insurance? Using your car for work is not usually covered.
Menial labor to me is fast food, grocery store, delivery drivers, restaurant kitchens. I really wouldn’t even know where to start looking for farming, construction, landscaping or anything like that.
Yeah, 14 is on the high end, but if you prove to be valuable, it’s not unattainable in those types of positions. Especially if you aren’t on the company dime for full time benefits.
By the way, I’m rather new here, so which would have been a better fit for this thread? I guess BBQ, huh?
I’ve asked a moderator to move your thread to a more appropriate subforum for your self-professed rant. It’ll get more traffic and participation there.
Drivers can make good money, but they don’t get reimbursed for mileage; let alone wear on the vehicle. And just like servers, income is based on whether you get the good shifts. Established drivers have priority for those shifts.
In my neck of the woods, supermarket meat counter jobs are not entry-level positions. They pay better but require either previous meat experience or are internal promotions.
Probably MPSIMS. It’s no big deal, a mod will make the call.
Not yet. I’ve got a followup interview via phone today. They seemed really needy to get someone in there when I went in to talk to them in person. The others are going through the process after applications have been submitted. But this only my third day after starting the process. My main point is that jobs are out there if you’re willing to do them.
I’m on the other side as well looking for a position similar to what I’m doing now in a different state that I’d like to move to. I’ve submitted about 10 resumes and haven’t gotten anything back. But most places aren’t looking to pay what I want or aren’t in the field I want. Right now I have the luxury of being picky. If I was in a situation where food on the table was a priority, I think I would be much more likely to pick up whatever I could find. Just saying all of the complaints I keep hearing about a bad job market aren’t justified b/c there are jobs to be had.
No…just trying to bring in some more cash to pay off debts faster. I’ve already got a really good job, but don’t like being in debt so willing to work extra hours at a second place.
But even if I were, isn’t a job better than no job?
Jobs I’ve applied for are all within about a three mile radius.
Insurance is a good point. Didn’t even think about that. But my car is a little older and paid for so I would think there would be a modest increase, but not enough to kill the idea of being a delivery driver. Too many people do it so there has to be a way to get affordable coverage.
Based on the current estimate of 326,000,000 people in the US, I’d say your statement is pretty accurate. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that based on the aforementioned estimate, 325,975,000 people don’t live within a few miles of where I live.
What you classed as “menial labor” starts around $8/hour in my neighborhood (yes, including the grocery store meat counter) and has nothing to do with how well you negotiate with the store director. Starting wage is starting wage and if you won’t take what they’re offering it’s on to the next job-seeker because, I guarantee, there is someone out there who won’t try to dicker for a higher wage.
Also, even as a single person these days I need more than part-time work to survive. As I have almost no family left to me it’s all on me, I have little to fall back on these days. So if I couldn’t get full time work I’d have to work two part-time jobs (as many of my part-time co-workers do) and hope I can juggle the needs/schedules of two different employers without getting fired.
Or maybe they have some sort of physical problem or disability that makes it difficult to do certain kinds of work. I’m damn lucky - I’m in my 50’s and still in good health (knock on wood) and I can keep up with a 20 year old in regards to the physical labor part of my job. Not everyone can.
If you have a visible disability it’s so much worse. Yes, discrimination against the disabled is illegal, but good luck trying to prove that’s what happened. Are you under 40? Because ageism exists, just like racism exists.
It’s also a matter of looking normal, of not having your ethnicity or accent work against you, of being physically normal/fit, or not too old…
Illegal immigrants often wind up in situations where either they aren’t paid (and if they do take an employer to court and get their money they then put themselves at risk of being arrested, incarcerated, and deported), or they work for less than minimum wage (see prior issue with taking that to court), or in unsafe or unreasonable conditions that legal workers don’t have to put up with.
I’m sorry, you seem to have a very superficial understanding of the problem.
I’ve always been able to find work, too, of some sort, but I’m white, I speak English well, I’m in good physical shape, and I look about 10 years younger than I actually am. Even so, I’ve been told I’m “too old” to hire several times this past decade, even though such a statement is illegal (good luck proving it in court - someone who refused to hire my husband because “you’re a cripple and we don’t hire gimps” was told that very thing “good luck proving it - it’s your word against mine”).
Please reconsider how easy it would be to find work if you had a physical ailment that would, for example, interfere with being able to stand/walk on your feet for a full 8 hour shift. Or if you were a different ethnicity. Things like that. Also reconsider this notion that someone being hired for “menial labor” has any significant ability to “negotiate” starting wages.
Just looking around a bit, I’d wager that many of the people delivering pizzas don’t have appropriate coverage and are just taking a chance. Looks like being covered would require commercial coverage. Don’t know what all that entails, but thanks for the heads up. I’ll look further into it before committing to anything.
So you recognize that many of the available positions don’t offer benefits nor are they full time. So if one gets hired at twenty hours a week for twelve bucks an hour, one is getting about $12,000 annually. And that’s assuming one regularly gets on the schedule each week. So many people have to work multiple jobs to earn enough to get by. And aside from the lack of benefits, someone in this position is unlikely to be able to save anything for an emergency or for one’s retirement. Even a short illness could put one in a very precarious position.
A lot of people doing delivery driving don’t, in fact, have proper coverage. They probably have coverage for a personal vehicle, but not for using it for commercial purposes.
This has been a problem from time to time with Uber/Lyft drivers - they get in an accident and because they were using their personal vehicle to earn money it turns out their car insurance won’t cover them for an accident while working as an Uber/Lyft driver. It’s only within the last couple years I’ve seen auto insurance companies offering policies to cover that sort of work, and they do cost more.
I looked into working as a delivery driver (I like to have a back up plan - although my current job seems secure and pays adequately you just never know in today’s world). Both my vehicles, although reliable, are considered too old for the work. I suppose I could like about that, if I was desperate. Also, all companies I looked into were very up front that getting proper vehicle insurance was MY problem, not theirs. But I’ve met delivery drivers with vehicles older than mine, who have admitted to me they aren’t properly insured. Why do they do that? They’re desperate to have a job, they need the money, and they’re gambling they won’t get caught in their deception.
Others do have younger vehicles and proper insurance - I think most such folks would prefer that circumstance, but you have to be really hustling to get to that point on such driving alone.