<p>There are so many open positions in my college town, of varying skills ... heck even on craigslist.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, my gf just nabbed a 17.50/hr internship as a first-year college student.</p>
<p>Sometimes, it just seems that people aren't being proactive enough in finding a job. I had one man snail mail me, after seeing my particulars in a Wall Street Journal article, about the optimal answers to the Unicru test.</p>
<p>Do the unemployed know how to google? Or do they give up after the first five email rejections and then ask for welfare?</p>
<p>A recession is a slowdown in economic growth, and that’s what has happened in the US. Many businesses were shut down and millions of Americans lost jobs, and some still struggle to find them. No one’s pretending there aren’t a lot of jobs out there, you can find them in the paper and on Craigslist, but don’t act like all the unemployed people are lazy idiots.</p>
<p>Only 1 out of 4 Americans has a Bachelor’s degree. Our generation takes college educations for granted, most people don’t have them. And while we grew up with computers, the old geezer who snail mailed you might not even know how to use email. Don’t be so harsh on these people. While there are lazy people who take advantage of the system, most people don’t want to be on welfare. They want to be able to provide for their families and send their kids to college. The recession isn’t a joke, sure there are jobs out there, just not as many as there were before.</p>
<p>In the past year, my company has laid off half the people in my regional office and we have cancelled our internship program entirely for this summer. Similar things are happening to our competitors. Projects that we had have been stopped or abandoned. Luckily, I’m on a long-term project and my job is somewhat safe.</p>
<p>You live in Virginia, and not in California.</p>
<p>I applied to like ten MickyD’s in the hopes fast food employment would still be attainable due to the fact so many declare such a venue the option of last resort. Still no luck. . .</p>
<p>I’m an OOS student from Maine.
chuy: I’m also a low-income student from a single-parent family. Say what? </p>
<p>The observation is: most unemployed people despair too much. They also seem to lack the proficiency to use tools that gets them allocated to their most economically useful positions. (e.g. not necessarily fast food.) </p>
<p>Meanwhile, they clamour for state-enforced protectionism that ensures the economy remains in its inefficient state, such that the market is unable to perform efficient market corrections.</p>
<p>How is it being discouraged? It’s not as if people aren’t claiming welfare “just because”.</p>
<p>Awesome that your town has jobs, and your girlfriend got an internship, but the world doesn’t stop at your town’s border. **** has hit the fan in many parts of the country, and jobs are literally nowhere to be found.</p>
<p>It must be nice to be 18-19 years of age and have all the answers. Wait until you’re out of your bubble and trying to pay 2 or more college tuitions, a mortgage, utilities, food, medical insurance, dental bills, property taxes, income taxes, life insurance, car insurance, etc. You don’t have a clue what it’s really like out there for the average working Mom and Dad.</p>
<p>I also checked for the next town. (Cuz you know, I could travel there.) And then the next town. The next state. My home state. </p>
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<p>By asking for taxpayer money to be used to save inefficient businesses or inefficient positions, and trying to ensure American employment by inserting Buy American clauses in bills?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there are positions that need people, that are being underfilled and underallocated to because of of people’s inertia. Oops, that American company can’t hire another worker (for a really efficient position) because the government forces it to buy more expensive American Steel.</p>
<p>So you think people would rather give up and live on welfare, jeopardizing their futures, than diligently search for work that would sustain them and their family? Just because your area managed to escape from recession?</p>
<p>I’m not getting much support from my single parent … I earn most of my budget myself. I cook and feed myself. I will pay the summer rent with my own income. I take cost-cutting measures. Oh did I mention I pay most of my own EFC?</p>
<p>Well, I live in Milwaukee and go to school in Madison. Both of those cities were listed in the top cities to ride out the recession (#5 and 1, respectively). I have a guaranteed job for next semester in school, but still have not found a job for the summer. I’ve had plenty of job experience (4 so far, never fired), leadership experience, and a great reference. I’ve applied online to many places, emailed others, contacted craigslist ads, etc. I don’t think I’m having problems from lack of trying or a bad resume, but I do think the recession is having an effect. I wanted a full time job, but at this point I might give my former employers a call and take what I can get.</p>
<p>You are still in a bubble. Come back and reread this thread and your posts when you’re about 50+ years of age. We probably pay more in medical insurance alone than you pay for EFC, food, and summer rent combined. As a small business owner, I can tell you that the recession is alive and well even in our area (where the rich and famous come to play).</p>
<p>Because people are poor because they want to be poor and unemployed because they want to be unemployed, right? </p>
<p>Things may be fine and dandy in your general area, but on a national scale, things aren’t so well. If we aren’t in a recession, tell me why my dad’s 401k has tanked? Why so many businesses are being forced to lay people off?</p>
<p>Market corrections for inefficiency, naturally.</p>
<p>I am no stranger to unemployment, my mother btw, suffered unemployment from Aug 2004 to January 2007. Sure she did ceremonial job searches, but I think she got the job when she got us out of our rut of despair and just went all-out. </p>
<p>That’s the secret really, go all out and scour, and seek a new niche. Open 92 Firefox tabs, not counting the tabs involved in research, send 92 emails and make 92 telephone calls.</p>
<p>You should consider more than the fact that “a job is a job.” Yay for your girlfriend working at $17.50 an hour, but that’s not really enough if you just got laid off and you have a family of 3 kids and a wife to take care of. Those open positions you so generally claim are in abundance out there are probably entry or lower-ranked positions. You’re telling me $17.50 an hour can send 3 kids to college? </p>
<p>I don’t know what’s more annoying, your ignorance about the reality of the unemployed (who by the way are actually defined as people who SEARCH for jobs, and are denied them, not just your run-of-the-mill beggar bums), or your thinking that hard work actually matters, that as long as you “try” hard enough, you can get the job you want/need, which is what people wish was true. The world doesn’t run on hard work; it runs on luck, the connections you have, and the ability to blame other people.</p>