<p>I don’t know how they can say the “recession” is over. Maybe over for CEO’s who are back to making those nice bonuses, and for certain hi-tech areas, but this unemployment rate is horrible!</p>
<p>And that doesn’t even count people who are underemployed (took anything just to get a job) or dropped out of the job search.</p>
<p>A big obstacle for graduates is that older workers aren’t leaving the workforce. They can’t. 401K balances lost too much ground in the recession. Housing equity is down. And then the cost of educating their kids was often massive. They have to keep working and continuing to occupy their cubicles.</p>
<p>Oh, but some older workers are getting offers they can’t refuse. I have friends who didn’t want to retire, but the plan is better if they take it now than later. Companies want to hire young, cheaper workers, in some cases.</p>
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<p>Recession is an objective economics term and relies on GDP numbers.
Companies are making tons and tons of profits - especially those that
export products. Demand is great for food, commodities, finished goods
and electronics.</p>
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<p>I posted a link to a WSJ story a while back where older people are
doing internships now to get experience with new technologies and
processes and this makes it harder for college students.</p>
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<p>The building where I work is mostly older workers. Younger workers are
cheaper but older workers will generally stay put as they are more
likely to plant roots in the community.</p>
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<p>Son asked friend on materials to read up on for his company and he
replied. We ordered a genetics textbook for him to read while he’s
doing the other contract. I will probably get him a bioinformatics
text when he finishes the genetics textbook.</p>
<p>The genetics book arrived and he’s starting to read that. The job is going well - I’m an expert in the software that he’s working with so he always has backup if he needs it. I asked him if he knew why they wanted to get him up to speed before they hire additional grad students - it was so he could train them and answer their questions. The math part starts in August and I think that will be more fun than learning the base software and data environment.</p>
<p>On the hiring front: JP Morgan has hired 10,000 so far this year. That’s a stunning number considering how the banking sector overall is doing. On the other hand, Cisco announced that they were laying off 10,000. It’s up a little here and down a little there. At the moment, the economy is approaching stall speed as indicated by the economic numbers for the past three months.</p>
<p>Fed Chief Bernanke said yesterday (Congressional Testimony) that they are looking at further monetary stimulus this fall if the economy continues to falter. That got the markets out of a steep tailspin that started on Monday. The debt-ceiling issue is also starting to weigh on markets.</p>
<p>On a positive anecdotal note, the son of a guy that I work with is very, very happy in his new job as a civil engineer. He was interning but the job meant that he had to withdraw from two courses. After he did that, they terminated him which meant that he lost the money for the two courses and his job. It appears that the company was doing something funny with their interns related to unemployment. At any rate, he’s at a company that is in hiring mode. We have some old Mill Cities in Southern NH, and tech and other companies are moving into the area because the rent and taxes are cheap. Basically very small companies in growth mode. It’s good to see in the greater economic malaise.</p>
<p>It all depends on the industry. My division at work (which is made up of serveral different departments) is hiring about 500 people this year alone.</p>
<p>Yay! Graduated nephew just got his job offer in his field - microbiology-good growing company, good starting salary and benefits that start immediately. He doesn’t even have to move. He is so excited and we are so relieved. One down …</p>
<p>Woo Hoo!! Congrats Singersmom!!!</p>
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<p>Very, very nice!</p>
<p>Unemployment numbers came in at 404,000; much better than the expected number of 420,000. The number included about 11,000 laid-off employees from Minnesota that filed first time claims because of the budget impasse in that state so the number would have been under 400K without that problem.</p>
<p>I know of 2 people who were asked to leave in a management shuffle…1st got 2 years full pay and benefits,regardless if he found a job the next day…the second is going to get at least 18 months full pay and benefits,but negotiating for a better deal…granted both have worked at this place for 20+ years,but very generous,don’t you think…another person was recently ‘laid off’ after 30 + years and was given only 1 month severance…</p>
<p>CISCO is going to layoff 5000+ in Silicon Valley. Not good news.</p>
<p>I know of people who are taking or have taken “early retirement” offers, but plan to re-enter the job market. That doesn’t help the unemployment rate. (Yeah, I’m sure they won’t be counted in the “unemployed” category, but they will be competing with the unemployed and everyone else for the few jobs that are out there.)</p>
<p>Congratulations singersmom!</p>
<p>My rising junior son finally got an intern yesterday. Yeah! He had interviewed non-stop since he arrived home, at all sorts of places, from scam places to mom 'n pop, to corporate. Thank goodness his school doesn’t start until Sept, although I think it’s ending in June rather than May was a negative.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, my college graduate continues at his part-time job. He’s totally underemployed. Someone explained to me that part of this hiring crunch is b/c interns have taken over so many entry level positions.</p>
<p>An update- My recent grad found a job in his field with a one man operation. My grad is working hard and learning and gaining experience each day. Monday was the 2nd payday. His boss did not have enough money to pay him all he was due. He paid him 90% and owes him the rest. We are encouraging our S to keep his eyes open and look for another more stable employer. S feels for the guy and will continue to work for him. He feels like the employer has plenty of work but due to the nature of the work has cash flow problems. Employer wants to pay him the rest when he gets paid for the completed work.
The upside is my S is learning some areas of the business that he did not learn in school. He is also seeing how difficult it can be to work for yourself. In his field if you are self employed or own the company you have to continue to find new clients and get people to pay you all the while also getting the job done.</p>
<p>Tomorrow it will have been two weeks since my last interview and I haven’t heard yet, I’m considering calling. I’m not as worried as I would be since they called HR in front of me last time I was there and were discussing how to go about getting me scheduled for the final interview, and at this point it seems like we’re just getting everyone’s approval and seeing which department would be a good fit so unless I tanked (and I didn’t) I would think things would be looking good. I know now we’re working around the head of the company’s schedule since that’s who the final interview is with, so it’s probably just that. But man, the waiting game sucks! I didn’t get my harry potter midnight show tickets because I figured there was a good chance I’d have a job by now and didn’t want to be out that late. I don’t like being an adult. :P</p>
<p>“Monday was the 2nd payday. His boss did not have enough money to pay him all he was due.” #554</p>
<p>My intern kid also didn’t get paid for two weeks by a contractor to a government job. They said it was a software problem. I had to pay $1500, until he was reimbursed. It happens.</p>
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<p>I think that this would be illegal in MA if the employer doesn’t pay
for work after two weeks unless it’s a contractor position or there’s
an arrangement such as an unpaid intern. I have seen unpaid intern
positions in tech but I think that I’d only suggest them if there was
some equity component.</p>
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<p>I think that you learn some good life lessons running your own
business - you can see the other side of the company that way.</p>
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<p>You know what? It’s illegal pretty much everywhere, including ancient Babylon and Judea. What’s more, in every state I know of the responsible officers of the employer are personally liable for unpaid wages, even if the business is a corporation or LLC. Still, this happens all the time in the real world.</p>
<p>BCEagle- My H runs his own business. Plenty of great perks to being your own boss. My H would not enjoy being an employee. I don’t see my S being his own boss.</p>
<p>You can bet H and I are not happy with it.The boss is already questionable in his practices. He is treating S as an independent contractor, which technically he is not. He has S invoice him for hours worked and has my S list each project and number of hours worked.
In a perfect world my S would report the guy and go out and get another job. In these times S is happy to have any job in his field. The positive is that my S feels this man is teaching him a lot about the field.</p>