Of course, you have to contend with the fact that the agency you created to supervise the work of all these lazy unemployed people just got furloughed by the state government, so no one is available to assign the “necessary work” the lazy unemployed folks should be doing.
Tris
Somewhat off-topic:
Adjunct college faculty, at least in CA, can collect unemployment benefits when they’re not teaching classes, since they have no reasonable assurance of returning to work–ever. (No contract.) Some of them grab on to any part time work they can get, but most would actually make more money staying on unemployment than working piecemeal, since anything they earn, before deductions, has to be reported on the unemp. claim form. In those cases, it doesn’t even pay to go to work. Nutty.
This thread is just a slap at those who are unemployed. It ,of course, is aimed at those on the lower end. Who would question an educated person who has no job. They are not there because they are lazy and don’t want to work. But those little people just want to scam the system to live in luxury off our taxes.
These lazy people are losing their homes. But if they cared ,they would go out and get one of those high quality jobs that are screaming for an employee.
Unemployment Benefits Comparison by State - FileUnemployment.org Here are the unemployment rates by state. I am sure you guys could live well on 230 bucks a week. Why work with that kind of money being dropped on you every week?
I’m very curious about this as well.
$230 to do nothing except sit on my ass? Wow. I should file for unemployment. the main thing with this debt crisis is that we can keep raising the debt ceiling. If you go into it with the knowledge that you will never be able to pay it off, you can spend and borrow as much as you want. A lot of you are Baby Boomers. The National Debt is not your problem, it is the problem of my generation, and every generation that will follow. Congratulations, you have just fucked your descendants out of a future. -claps slowly- but here’s my request: If your going to fuck your great- great-grandkids, at least buy them dinner first?
I like the idea of some type of work or community service while you receive unemployment. Not because I think you MUST work to get the money, but I think it’s a benefit to the person - it get’s them out of the house. I know several people who got fatigued constantly applying for jobs and getting rejected.
I don’t mean they need to put in a 40-hour work week, but even 8 or 16 hours a week would be a good thing.
YES!!! Exactly this. I was on unemployment for eight months and after the first three months I got so tired of filling out applications and going to interviews and getting rejections that I just stopped. For months I just sat on the couch watching TV. I didn’t go anywhere because I thought that if I was going to go out, I might as well go look for jobs, and I didn’t want to go look for jobs. I got online once a week to certify my unemployment, and filled out a a fake log book with fake names and employers. By the way, my log book was never checked. Not once in eight months was I asked to verify that I was looking for a job. The only reason I ended up finding a job was because one of the employers that I first interviewed with actually called me a few months later and offered me the job. And yes, I would have LOVED a reason to get out and work.
To answer other questions, I currently work for a government agency in Oregon. The campus is hundreds of acres big, and we need everything from doctors to trash collectors. I can’t speak to why these jobs have been open for so long because I’m not involved in hiring, but I do know that with the seven in my department we offer them to people each month and they usually turn them down for some unknown reason. The jobs are clearly posted at the unemployment office (which is where I originally found my current job posted), and I’m assuming somewhere online as well.
Actually a totally serious question: do you have any openings for an IT supervisor in the GS-12 or better range? Regarding the actual question being asked: I find that every government agency that I’ve applied to in my life has wanted to promote from within for everything (despite publicly advertising the jobs) but the bottom-basement entry level stuff, so I wonder if some of those positions are being handled like that.
A few years ago we have a huge stimulus package which…supplied jobs to the unemployed. Worked OK, but was way too small. Does the OP think we need another? A bigger one? I’m all for that. Too bad one party thinks we need to provide less spending…which means fewer jobs.
The downside to that, of course, is that when I was in the Public Aid grist mill I was required to document 35 hours of seeking work a week. Now you want to add 8 to 16 additional hours on top of that? Please.
How about a once a week half hour massage for those on unemployment? I think I’d find that much more effective in reducing stress.
What makes you think I never got out of the house while looking for work, anyhow? Sure, you can apply on line to places, but interviews are still generally done in person, and even when I wasn’t getting interviews I was still required to show my physical face down at the public aid/work seeking office a certain amount of the week. I’m still a little cheesed at being forced to attend the baby care and child health seminars as I don’t have children and would have preferred some other activity for those two hour sessions, but the whole system is geared towards young, single mothers and just ignores everyone else.
You were actually required to show up somewhere?! Are there a lot of states that require this? Here in Oregon, you literally just log into a website once a week and answer about ten questions (e.g. Did you look for work? Were you offered work? Did you turn down any work that you were offered). That’s it. Then you get your money.
I’m not familiar with your personal experiences, but many people I have known who were on unemployment did not have that high of a requirement for hours seeking work.
However, taking you at your word, the system could be easily adjusted to accommodate a few less hours of job seeking time for a few hours of community service or charity work.
Frankly, I really hate this debate tactic where an idea is put out there and someone says “oh it can’t work because of this one minor thing.” Obviously any change to the status quo will require minor adjustments (such as the number of hours of seeking work).
Do you really expect a response to this?
I wasn’t talking to you specifically so I don’t know why you are acting as if I was. There are a great number of people who spend a significant amount of time applying online for jobs because it’s a good place to start the application process.
Further, a great number of businesses now REQUIRE you submit an application online. Some have lengthy almost “pre-interview” questionnaires that can take a lot of time to fill out. See: Target & Best Buy
Exactly, you apply first before you interview. The more applications you put in the more interviews you get. Pretty basic concept.
nm…I don’t care.
That’s what happened after the unemployment eligibility ran out. If you apply for any sort of Public Aid in Indiana you are required to either work, look for work, or be in school. Hence why I said “Public Aid grist mill” as opposed to unemployment insurance. I was unemployed in both cases, just more destitute in the second one.
To the request for a weekly a massage? No, not really, but it’s no more ludicrous than thinking “oh, 8 to 16 hours of being compelled to do volunteer work would be good for the unemployed, it will get them out of the house!”. Because every unemployed person is exactly the same or something. One of the few plusses of being unemployed was having more time to spend with my family, which I found much more beneficial than I think forced 8-16 hours a week of unpaid labor on top of everything else I had to worry about.
Of course, the main difference is that a massage benefits me - compelling me to work for free instead of for pay benefits someone else.
But I WOULD be one of the people directly affected by any “forcing the unemployed to work” so why isn’t my viewpoint considered relevant?
Yes, I am aware of that. In fact, I find your assumption that I DON’T know that after four years of seeking permanent employment to be quite condescending.
Yes, I aware of that. In fact, I find your assumption that I DON’T know that after four years of seeking permanent employment to be quite condescending.
Except, that’s not the way it’s working anymore. I eventually wound up getting a job via friends/family/face-to-face contacts. The only job I got in the past four years via application was the US Census, which was strictly temporary. No matter how many apps I filled out I was only getting a callback about once every two months and an interview about every 6. I made more progress when I could approach a live human being, maybe because that’s the way I originally learned to seek a job. I do best in real life, in a live interview. These days, getting to that point is a daunting task.
When I work for a living it is for several times the minimum wage. Often MANY times. “A couple times,” ain’t shit.
But if she’s calling, I’m listening, because nobody’s calling.
Broom, don’t you just love how the kids assume we haven’t been looking for jobs BEFORE THEY WERE IN FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL?
Fuck you, punk. I’m trying to raise a fucking family.
**They obviously can’t conceive of themselves being unemployed for an extended period, either. ** They really should ask themselves if being forced to perform 8-16 hours a week of unpaid labor while they have little (on unemployment) or no income (after unemployment runs out) would actually be either beneficial or welcomed.
If someone looking for work is spending umpteen zillions hours applying on line, such that they don’t “get out of the house enough” then they need to schedule adequate breaks for themselves. Too many treat looking for work as a sprint, where the more hours a days you devote to it the quicker you’ll be back to work. Right now, looking for work is more of a marathon and you must pace yourself or you’ll burn out.
Even the most onerous requirements of Public Aid did not expect more than average of 7 hours a day looking for work, allowed for weekends off, and gave us holidays off as well. In other words treated looking for work as a job - and not one with 80 hour weeks, either.
What works for “downtime” will vary from person to person - some will benefit by going out, some will benefit by staying home. But for darn sure almost none of these people will benefit from a day or two a week of working for no money at all. Way to exploit people when they’re down and out. The unemployed should not be forced to labor for free, they should be looking for employment.
Take it to the BBQ Pit, not here.
[ /Moderating ]
Not particularly rooted in reality, but basic.
I will grant that the person who applies to 200 companies will have a better chance of getting an interview than a person who only applies to five. I see no indication that applying to 400 or 600 companies gets one more interviews than 200. Once the economy has tanked in a region, employers stop looking for the best candidates and begin looking for the “perfect” candidate. I have had headhunters mention that companies are specifying every single type of software that they are seeking and including the specific release and there are enough candidates out there that they can wait for that “perfect” fit; they never even bother to interview the “close” candidates. (The “perfect” candidate might be an idiot or a slacker while fifteen candidates have better skills, but each be one release off on one or more languages or DBMSs, but in a buyer’s market, the HR folks are willing to ignore the “close” candidates, hire the “perfect” idiot and then throw him away if he fails and go look for a new “perfect” candidate.)