Re: grocery store workers: I believe many of them are in a union, which makes a huge difference.
re: Fast food: I would have to agree that it is very difficult work. I did it for 4 years. Even the management is fast food. Put it another way: many of the fast food managers now (even those who are district managers,) worked their way up from the bottom.
Yeah, except… there are no strings.
If they extend unemployment benefits from 96 weeks, to “forever”, which seems likely, then I could afford to buy a little place out in the country and then live the rest of my life on unemployment checks until I get my Social Security at age 65.
A paid-for house out in the sticks, with food stamps, free/subsidized utilities, free health-care, and extended-unemployment checks coming in each monthly for the rest of my life is something I could easily handle.
I can do without the hassle of looking for a job. No more having a boss, no more commuting, no more getting up early.
When the business forms printing industry collapsed a little over 6 years ago I was out of work for 9 months and unemployment was running out when I decided that if I had to start over at the bottom then that was what I was going to do. I applied to a temp agency for a job building computers for a local major manufacturer at about 1/3 the pay I used to make as a press operator and no benefits. Today (6-21-2010) after 5 1/2 years as a temp at the same company I became a permanent employee of the largest IT manufacturer in the world with better pay and benefits than I ever had as a printer.
Don’t be afraid to make a major change in careers and to start over near the bottom even if you are in your 40’s or 50’s, I was 46 when the printing industry died and am 52 today.
Good luck and hang in there, it will get better if you are willing to work for it.
Peace
LIONsob
LOINsob, that is just it, according to what the media is saying for many workers over 40 it will never get better. Broomstick tells us that there is no help for retraining, so there is no help starting over. If I may ask, how old were you when you started at the bottom for the second time?
Again, I’m not currently unemployed.
Have you ever even *been *on unemployment? It’s not like they’re paying you huge amounts of dough, you know. :rolleyes: Most people get something along the lines of roughly ONE-THIRD of their previous salary. When you’re scraping by paycheck-to-paycheck to begin with, and then you lose your job, this kind of money will not be buying you a paid-for house with subsidized utilities. It’s often not even enough to cover rent at whatever shitty little apartment *used *to be your home before you lost your job.
Look, the only people who think being on unemployment is the ticket to an easy life of indolence and all expenses paid … have never been on unemployment.
I don’t see this as a bad result. There are many, many people who will want to earn more and would not be happy to stay in your idyllic scenario long term, and frankly, I would rather spend them money on a universal dole than on combating the problems that happen when thousands fall off edge, not being able to find work, and not having any safety net left. And if there are those who would use the dole to start new ventures, research, invent, or create, then we all might me much better off.
Frankly, idleness bores me, and unemployment would not be enough for me to keep my current home long term. The gap in employment history from choosing the idleness you describe would doom the career if it happens in a booming or even decent economy. If the scenario you describe is so tempting, why don’t we have more who choose to have one parent not work?
Actively searching for a job in this economy does take a lot of time, and even when not actively finding new positions to apply for, applying, interviewing and keeping up with the leads you have active, you need to be available to answer the phone and do a phone screen right then during all business hours. Miss that call and you might well miss your next job. I see many people assuming the unemployed are idle and getting at least some lesser job would be easy and it is just a combination of laziness and greed which keep people on unemployment for so long.
I was 46 years old when I had to start over in 2005. I didn’t have the benefit of retraining, just picked a job doing something that I had taught myself how to do on my own, building and working on computers and then worked my butt off being the best builder/trainer/troubleshooter in my dept.
Peace
LIONsob
I’m 58. In a classic bit of bad timing, I lost my last job just as the recession was starting. I exhausted even extended benefits some time ago. Since then, we’ve been living on my wife’s income and savings.
When I asked about retraining programs, I was told the budgets only allow for about 20 people at a time, and they don’t keep waiting lists, so I have to apply every time a new class opens.
The multiple employment agencies and temp services I’m registered with tell me their clients have told them to send only applicants with exactly the skill set that’s been specified.
Meanwhile, employers in my own field are looking to hire only marginally qualified entry level-types. I’ve had several interviews where the HR rep spent more time with me doing the standard salary and benefits shtick than the hiring manager spent actually talking to me.
I’m watching a network of contacts that I’ve built up over 30 years gradually leave the profession one-by-one, to become real estate salesman, insurance brokers and other new careers (which all seem to be 100% commission-based.) I’ve also seen more than a few long-time marriages break up during the process.
20 years ago, a former co-worker who had fallen on hard times told me “don’t be over 50 and out of work.” At the time I thought he was just bitter. Now I’m not so sure.
House and car already paid for… so…dont need “a lot”. $750.00 a month for the rest of my life, plus food stamps and plus utilities and plus free health care seems sufficient until social security and pension kicks in.
I dont see any boredom to it. Hunting, fishing, gardening, horseback riding, having the time to do a lot of research and book writing can easily fill up my time.
As long as they keep extending the unemployment benefits indefinitely it is not a bad life.
Besides, if somebody is over 50, there really arent many other alternatives during these times of “free trade”, NAFTA, CAFTA, etc.
Yeah, well, It wasn’t “my” idea to have high unemployment in this country.
I was against it.
I always voted AGAINST NAFTA, againt “free trade”, against CAFTA, against trading with Communist China, against giving tax breaks to our corporations to move their factories overseas, and I was against ending our protective tariffs and against sending all of our jobs and factories to asia.
I got outvoted.
750 a month? Why that figure?
No, not bitter. Although once you hit 55 you are generally “safe” if you company stays stable enough due to fears of age discrimination suits. Company falls on hard enough times and its bad news though.
I got similar advice. I’m 43. I’ve been working my butt off (and my husbands) and saving most of what I work off because I assume that at some point we will be in those shoes.
Unemployment benefits (the data I found is from 2009) range for $532 a month in Puerto Rico to $2564 a month in Rhode Island. Of course, to max unemployment benefits, you need to max the payscale, not everyone unemployed in Rhode Island is pulling $30k a year in unemployment benefits.
I still don’t see why it is terrible if we end up paying some $750 a month indefinitely, especially if it helps some others get back on their feet.
I think it’s always a good idea to try to be creative with your skillset about which other professions may be closely related to your old one as opposed to starting entirely from scratch and retraining to something completely different.
I’ve been unemployed for about a year and a half now. Most of my experience is in office work, but I’ve been finding temp/freelance stuff with my writing experience. Right now I’m working part-time as a caterer/server at a cafe and I’m hoping to leverage this part-time exp. into something full-time with the possibility of moving up?
I never dreamed of working in a cafe but now I’m happy to be working at all and, in some respects, working events is more satisfying than sitting doing data entry in a cubicle all day (which I did a few years ago between jobs). I think staying flexible and constantly re-evaluating your options is key.
ETA: I’ve been making just about $20k/yr on unemployment. I don’t have health insurance and I sometimes miss cc payments, but it’s certainly enough to live on as a single 20-something.
Well, who pays for it? Eventually, the unemployment insurance our employers pays into runs out (if it hasn’t already) and it becomes a burden on the American people - like everything else. We can’t afford to tax those that work to support the many that don’t if the American economy were to enter a permanent state of high unemployment coupled with baby boomer retirement and the solvency of social security. Something will have to give or we will be Greece. Which is why its important that we figure out how to solve the employment issues. Paying people to not be productive is a drain on society.
Not every country which does pay citizens a stipend indefinitely has the fate of Greece. I think Denmark is doing ok. I think we might well come out ahead.
If it takes you “indefinitely” that’s not really getting back on your feet.
I would like you to return my share of your $750, please. If you are going to fade into obscurity and not support the economy, you can do it on your own dime, not ours. If you can’t find a job in two years, you won’t find one. Broaden your search.
I’ve given up on being a (urban) planner after 2+ years of looking for work after finishing grad school. I was lucky to get an old job that I love as an instructor’s aide back, but even if that hadn’t happened, I would probably have just lost interest and tried to find work as an admin assistant, even if it meant moving. There are a couple of other fields I am interested in, but retraining is only an option if I can learn it myself from books or the web.
Plus, in professional-type fields, it takes work to keep up on things - reading journals, newsletters, keeping up with the trends local and global - necessary but it’s hard when you’re down and low on energy from job hunting! Not to mention pessimistic.