Posted on 08/08/2009 8:12:52 AM PDT by Son House
People who have been out of work for months are lining up for jobs at places they once considered unthinkable: slaughterhouses, sewage plants, prisons.
"I have to just shut my mouth because I can't do anything about it," said Nichole McRoberts of Sedalia, Mo., who pictured more for herself at age 30 than working in a poultry plant, cutting diseased or damaged flesh off chicken carcasses.
Recessions and tight job marketsalways force some people to take less-desirable or lower-paying work than they are used to. But this recession has been the most punishing job destroyer in at least 60 years, slashing a net total of 6.7 million jobs.
All told, 14.5 million people were out of work last month, with a jobless rate of 9.4 percent. The result is that many people have had to seek jobs they would not have considered in the past.
The desperation of the long-term jobless has rippled through the labor force. More skilled and educated workers have filled clerical or restaurant jobs. So unskilled workers such as teenagers or high school graduates who once held most of those positions have displaced those even lower on the economic ladder, such as immigrants, Freedman noted.
The intensified competition has hurt all workers even those who are still employed because it shrinks wages. Employers don't have to pay more to lure workers.
That helps explain why personal income fell 0.1 percent in June, excluding the one-time benefits of the government's stimulus program. Wages have fallen each month since October a total of 5 percent over the past eight months.
Indeed, many people who have had to downshift to unsavory jobs have found they're now earning less, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
NO cheers, unfortunately.
I bet they can't even use their IPhone while doing it. This has to stop, its unsustainable.
Do not forget the Mouse recipe book. Fried mouse..Mouse tartare..Baked Mouse with SpanishMoss Salad. All delicacies after Obamanomics takes hold. On thanksgiving they may even give out Rats for a really big extraveganza.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/09/news/economy/jobs_december/
“The existing unemployment figures are greatly understated,” said billionaire steel tycoon Wilbur Ross in a recent interview with CNNMoney.com. “They count as employed someone who used to have a high-paid manufacturing job, and now is working at a Wal-Mart or a Wendy’s.”
If you really want to get one of these jobs, do not put on your job application that you were previously the CEO of some large multi-national corporation.
Just put down that your prior job was shoveling elephant crap at the circus or that you were a carnival barker for The Yak Woman until you came down with laryngitis.
They won't hire you if you are overqualified.
Unless you’re a lazy democrat who would rather whine than do a job you find not to your specifications. I know ONE like that. Still blames his lack of work on the Bush economy.
Stimulus may spur jobs - abroad
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/08/news/economy/stimulus_jobs/index.htm?postversion=2009010815
But many of those mill jobs may not go to American laborers. Many materials for highway construction, namely steel, are produced cheaply in foreign countries, and contractors have an incentive to buy the most efficient and inexpensive materials for their projects.
“Some of the stimulus money is bound to spill over overseas, since we import about 50% of our gross domestic product,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist for the Economic Outlook Group. “If the goal is to buy materials from the most efficient producer, and foreign countries produce them at a cheaper cost, U.S. firms engaged in construction will likely buy materials from abroad.”
The issue is likely to spark a debate in coming weeks as Congress takes up Obama’s recovery package.
From December;
Small companies, giant job losses
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/07/smallbusiness/smallbiz_job_cuts.smb/index.htm?postversion=2009010715
The small businesses sector in December suffered its largest one-month jobs decline in at least a decade, according to an employment report by payroll processor ADP, which estimates that small companies shed 281,000 jobs last month.
ADP (ADP, Fortune 500) defines small companies as those with 49 or fewer employees. Add in companies with staffs of less than 500 and the job-loss number increases to 602,000 - 87% of the total number of private sector jobs lost last month, according to ADP’s National Employment Report.
“I’m not surprised by ADP’s numbers,” said Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business. “Retailers and restaurants all count on the fourth quarter to make it.
But it was a really bad fourth quarter. Profits were killed, and because 80% of costs for small businesses are labor costs, they had to take drastic action.”
From December;
Small companies, giant job losses
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/07/smallbusiness/smallbiz_job_cuts.smb/index.htm?postversion=2009010715
Michael Thurmond, commissioner of labor in Georgia, described ADP’s results as “deeply troubling,” adding that small business, the backbone of the country, should be the primary generator of new jobs.
“This shows the rippling of economic pain,” he said. “It began in housing and broadened to other sectors of economy. The credit crunch exacerbated the situation, which began to impact consumers, which then hit small businesses.”
Thurmond expects that because most small businesses are in the service sector and depend on consumers who use credit cards, the nation can expect more rounds of deep layoffs.
“This data does not bode well for the future,” he said. “We’re in a terrible economic cycle.”
Many of the best executives _started_ their careers in equally humbling positions. They know that where they are does not have to be the end of the line.
Oh, but hadn't you heard? Obama rescued the economy! We're in the boom times NOW!
Wow.
Thank God I can retire now on my inflation-indexed federal pension and continue my government-subsidized health insurance for as long as I live.
Remember the scene from the movie ZORBA THE GREAT. When asked, “What work do you do?” He ansewers...”I have hands, they do the work. Who the hell am I to choose.”
I’ve done many a dirty job in the past. Incenitive to work comes from not wanting to starve. I have never been without a job of some type since 1964 when I graduated from High school unless I didn’t want a job.
bean picker
dairy operator
chicken house cleaner and hauler
road construction
home insulator
cement worker
hay hauler
horse shoer
iron and steel fitup and welder
general laborer
Power plant operator.
Now retired and loving it but I still have my steel layout and fitup tools just in case.
“If you only had one neck I would hack it through!”—Caligubama
lol....at least for as long as there’s government money to pay out. That may end sooner than we would like to believe at this rate.
Gentlemen, we should go into business together. Hear me out before you say "no." You've discovered a market for my new product. It's called, "Vermin-Helper."
Brilliant! I’m in!
3 years....
It’s a democratic recession and not a “Bush” recession. The dems have controlled the money since well before this recession hit, and it hit because they were playing games with the economy in order to hurt Pres. Bush and the republicans.
you can also thank hillary and soros for pushing the post sam, all-chinese, walmart. their actions drove walmart suppliers offshore into china... fueling their military machine and strengthening their economy, while undermining the foundations of ours.
all this can be quickly resolved. put tariffs on all incoming goods. this will enable domestic suppliers to compete, bringing the jobs back here.
would the chinese put a tariff on goods imported from America? probably. so what? the average salary in china is around $2,000/year. they aren’t buying squat from us. what they are buying are the resources with which to build the things they sell back to us. ($10/ton for cotton comes back as a 100 x $40/shirt)
If you like “Vermin-Helper,” you’ll love “Rat-a-Roni!”
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