Even Diligent Find Jobs Elusive

Fort Worth Star-Telegram ^ | 1 Sep 2002 | MARIA M. PEROTIN

[fogarty]

Even the diligent find jobs elusive
By MARIA M. PEROTIN

When Richard Grabowski was hunting for work in the 1980s, he mailed 200 resumes and promptly received two job offers.

Two years ago, Jim Morris received five offers from employers - without even picking up the phone. So when the manufacturing executives were laid off last fall, neither thought he'd still be hunting for work this Labor Day. "I had believed I'd be back in the work force lickety-split," Grabowski said. Instead, months after North Texas businesses began succumbing to a wobbly economy, the nation's frail labor market has left both men jobless. They're among thousands of displaced workers who fell victim to job cuts early, and haven't yet recovered.

For many, the long months without a paycheck have brought financial catastrophe. They've had to drain their savings, cut spending, sell beloved possessions and borrow money from relatives.

Unemployment insurance may have cushioned the initial blow, but they've depleted those benefits by now - even after a federal extension stretched the usual 26 weeks of coverage by another 13 weeks.

Some have wasted precious time with ineffective search techniques, and others have done everything right. They've written and rewritten their resumes, scoured the Internet for openings and schmoozed colleagues for promising leads.

Yet job offers remain elusive, and employers - especially in certain ravaged industries - remain stingy with their job openings. "They're cherry picking. They know there's 8 million people out of work," said Lee Brown, a displaced engineering manager from Fort Worth.

As companies have slashed their work forces, the nation's unemployment rate climbed to 5.9 percent in July. That's up sharply from 4.0 percent in 2000 and amounts to 8.3 million unemployed Americans - about 650,000 of them in Texas.

Companies announced more than 1.9 million job cuts in 2001 and have followed up with more than 800,000 so far this year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That compares with 614,000 layoffs announced in 2000.

Brown has been in the job market since August 2001, when the former vice president was let go by a Dallas firm that tests equipment for utilities and telecommunications companies.

"I thought I was going to have a job by October or November. You couldn't have told me I was going to be out this long," Brown said. "I've had several interviews, and always come in as a bridesmaid rather than a bride."

Brown has offered to take less pay, has considered launching his own business and has broadened his search to industries nationwide. Mostly, he spends his days "networking" with relatives, friends and former colleagues who someday may become the key to a new job.

Of course, unemployment has taken a financial toll. With his family's savings exhausted, his wife has returned to work for the first time in a decade.

He feels frustrated, but his anxiety is tinged with optimism. He was wiped out by a layoff in 1991, and he believes that he can rebound again.

"I have my moments during a day, but not every day," he said. "They don't last long."

Grabowski, the former manufacturing executive, won't entertain even a moment of despair - no matter how much hardship the economic recession piles on.

He has been out of work since the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks wrecked his employer's airport-related business. A month ago, his wife lost her job, too.

Their six-figure income has plunged to about $300 a week in unemployment benefits. They were forced to sell their boat, and they can't predict how long they'll be able to keep their family's Flower Mound home. Yet Grabowski isn't disheartened. In fact, he's downright serene.

"I used to be a task-oriented executive - get it done on time, on schedule," Grabowski said. "In today's world, I've changed. My opinion is, it's the relationships that will make or break the rest of my career. I'm in the business now of getting to know people."

That's the course advocated by outplacement experts, who say word of mouth goes much further for job seekers than help-wanted ads.

Still, Patt Slavin, a Fort Worth vice president at outplacement firm Meridian Resources, said even those tactics can't protect executives and managers from grueling job searches.

"It's desperate out there," Slavin said. "These days, it's taking at least 50 percent longer to find a job at the upper levels."

Although more than a third of job-seekers find work within five weeks, 1.5 million Americans in July had been out of work for 27 weeks or more, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That stacks up to 18.6 percent of the unemployed. And the average stint of unemployment in July lasted 16.4 weeks, up from 12.7 weeks a year ago.

In Texas, technology workers, who started seeing widespread layoffs in 2000, have been especially hard hit.Several Metroplex companies, such as Nokia, Alcatel, Nortel and Ericsson, laid off thousands last year. Now, many of those ousted employees are vying for work in a cutthroat market where few companies are hiring and some still are shedding employees.

For example, Texas' business services sector - a broad category that encompasses a variety of jobs including computer- and data-processing - has shrunk 10 percent since January 2001.

Employment in electronic equipment manufacturing has plunged 18 percent statewide since January 2001. And the state's major airlines have also been reeling, with thousands of furloughed workers still off their payrolls. Texas' air transport industry shed 13,800 jobs in the four months after Sept. 11 - losing 11 percent of its work force before regaining about a quarter of those jobs.

The dearth of technology jobs has been devastating for Bedford engineering technician Jerry Wilkins, who was laid off in March 2001.

Unable to land another post in his field, Wilkins has applied at warehouses, fast-food restaurants and the airport, to no avail.

"I've had more luck butting my head against a brick wall than I've had talking to employers out there," Wilkins said. "I've just lost faith in everything and everyone."

Wilkins' unemployment benefits ran out long ago, and the 401(k) nest egg that he built over two decades is gone.

[fogarty]

An indication of the job market out there. The DFW metroplex right now is in a hurt-locker.

[thegreatbeast]

Well, I'll tell you one thing, they might start looking for their jobs on the other side of the border! What was that loud sucking sound?

[glc1173@aol.com]

The fastest, cheapest way to create one programming job for an American is to deport one H-1(b) back to India.

The fastest, cheapest way to create one manufacturing job for an American is to deport one illegal alien working in such work.

[TheDon]

The difference is rather dramatic in the tech sector. Ask anyone you know who has been laid off in that sector how long they've been looking for work, and how long those they know in the industry have been looking for work. A couple years ago, you could always count on several offers immediately, now many have been looking for a year or more.

I personally know many in the industry who have gone into new careers, or started their own company. I'm betting many visa holders are heading back home.

If you have a job, don't lose it in this market!

No doubt it will turn around in a year or so, but for now it is pretty brutal.

[gcruse]

I can remember when the Dallas Morning News had six to ten pages of help wanted ads. Now it has half a page. And being over fifty, getting another job is a joke now. I hadn't planned on retiring now, but guess what?

[RLK]

So when the manufacturing executives were laid off last fall, neither thought he'd still be hunting for work this Labor Day.

-------------

And they are probably not listed in any system as being unemployed.

[RLK]

Ericsson,

I think they went Chinese.

[soccermom]

Yeah, but THIS GUY still has a tech job! I just have to shake my head....

[RLK]

No doubt it will turn around in a year or so, but for now it is pretty brutal.

-----------------------

Some technical areas started deteriorating in the late '80s. They plauteaued briefly in part of the '90s, but have never come back. Don't expect a turn around in a year or so.

[irv]

Ask anyone you know who has been laid off in that sector how long they've been looking for work, and how long those they know in the industry have been looking for work.

I'm a network administrator. I got laid off from my job in April. Last week I started a new job for a lot more money.

Others who were laid off at the same time I was are also starting to get jobs (or more consulting work for those who've gone that route).

And we're in Western New York - where the state government has been chasing away jobs as fast as it can for twenty years. That means, if we're finally doing better, the rest of the country should be, too.

[RLK]

Been there. Done that. Although I'm busy as hell with various projects and make money as a writer.

The strange thing is, I love engineering research work and would do it for free or expenses just for the enjoyment. It's dried up at any salary.

[soccermom]

From your post to God's ears!

[RLK]

I can remember when the Dallas Morning News had six to ten pages of help wanted ads. Now it has half a page.

----------------------------

I used to follow the Washington Post ads. D. C. is the high tech capitol of the world because of the beltway bandits. The tech section used to be 20-30 pages. Now it's almost nothing.

[gcruse]

Same here. I'd almost work for free in my profession.
Here I am at the peak of my technical powers, and no one is
hiring. Two years until social security can start. It's beginning to look like the future.

[RLK]

The paradoxical thing is, at one time I was contacted by mainland China to go there and work. I was on their list of American critical and talented personnel. I declined the offer.

[henderson field]

Re: "not listed in any system as being unemployed." Yes the details of establisheing the statistic are problematical. What is the unemployment rate? 5.9% How many unemployed? 8.3 million? How do they know? Maybe it's 9 million, or 12. Maybe there are 10% unemployed. Someone who knows what they're doing should put the figures together. One thing's for sure, immigrants are not helping the jobless rate or the salary levels.

[gcruse]

Whoa. I worked for a few years in Canada. But China?
I don't think so. Why did you decide not to?

[gcruse]

The figures for new unemployment applications should be reliable. But as for the unemployment rate, the last I read, it is actually just a survey that take and extrapolate
to the entire nation, seasonally adjust it, then pull some other number out of the sky for political reasons and use that one.

[dfwgator]

An indication of the job market out there. The DFW metroplex right now is in a hurt-locker. You're not kidding, I've been looking for a little over 3 months now myself for a programming gig. Thank God my wife still has her job. Oh well, at least my two young kids get to spend a lot of time with their Daddy. I've been doing so much reading that Half-Price Books is practically my second home.

[RLK]

I have my social security and I have my retirement for the remainder of my life. I'd rather be working, and I do for myself. I have designed and constructed by own laser-driven research interferometer. Very few people in the country could do it. There was a time when people would be breaking through my door to get someone capable of work at that level. Now there's no interest or market for it.

[Mini-14]

I was laid off from a job in Dallas last year in June. In March of this year I moved to Illinois to accept a job offer.

[RLK]

For one thing I was a student organizer for Goldwater after leaving the regular army and returning to the university. I am diametrically opposed to communism in any for, If you have read my articles you will know how aoopposed I am.

Secondly, when anyone enters their borders there is no guarantee you can leave. You lose all rights. You are owned by the state.

[gcruse]

I hear that. Those would have been my reasons too.

[RLK]

I am amazed by the thoroughness of Chinese servailance. They keep track of everything. If you present a paper at a meeting here, they will have it in print over there before it can be printed here. If you were exceptional they would research you further and you would receive a phone call from a law firm in Washington that handled Chinese affairs.

[pt17]

The difference is rather dramatic in the tech sector.

Hmmm. Would you believe it, TheDon, but I am having (a lot of) trouble filling two tech positions for people who have good communications skills (this eliminates many/most of the H1Bs), know Oracle/SQL very well and can code decently in some language. One could easily get the opinion that the highly skilled are not out of work since the few I've interviewed have had multiple offers even when they didn't meet our three criteria (e.g., in three interviews, no one knew what a "Materialized View" or "Cartesian Product" was - very basic DB stuff here). Where are they?

[mikeb704]

More job searching blues . . .

Looking for a job can be tough work

[staytrue]

One thing's for sure, immigrants are not helping the jobless rate or the salary levels.

Immigrants have helped the boom in real estate by increasing the population and increasing demand and by making the larger homes more affordable via their labor.

[staytrue]

The fastest, cheapest way to create one manufacturing job for an American is to deport one illegal alien working in such work.

Illegal aliens are rarely employed in manufacturing. As a matter of fact, native born americans are rarely employed in manufacturing as is evidenced by our 500 billion a year deficit in manufactured goods (including services reduces the deficit to about 420 billion a year). Illegal aliens have not moved here to take manufacturing jobs. The factories have moved over there to take advantage of cheap, reliable labor.

[staytrue]

Chinese servailance. They keep track of everything. If you present a paper at a meeting here, they will have it in print over there before it can be printed here

A college classmate of mine started a medical transcription service in India. Voice transcripts are sent via internet to India and transcribed copies come back to the US, also via internet. It could be that is what is happening here in that the transcription is going on in India or China and in fact is available there first before it gets back to the states.

[thirst4truth]

Real Estate is carrying the economy right now. 6.25% for 30 year fixed mortagages all over the place. A little more for a second home. Invest in real estate, get rentals and will it provide income and a future retirement.

[Red Jones]

bump

[fogarty]

No kidding man. Everyone who has a job right now needs to hunker down, and save 6-9 months of income. Layoffs are still coming fast and furious, and there are no guarantees of employment anymore.

With regards to our rainy day fund, my wife and I are about halfway there - and this rainy day fund is totally apart from our retirement accounts, which God willing we will never touch. It cannot be stressed enough that every American family who is fortunate enough to still be employed needs to save at least 6-9 months of income, not in stocks or in retirement, but in a separate bank account. People who have not done so need to avoid any unneeded luxuries (dining out more than required, movies, extra entertainment) until they have stashed that much away.

[bankwalker]

Well, now that I'm a little older and a little wiser, I am building a business so I won't be dependent on a job. It was the best thing I've ever done, but choosing the right one is of utmost importance. I chose low startup costs, working from home, no employees, and associating with a network that has a proven successful system. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket, IMHO.

[RLK]

One could easily get the opinion that the highly skilled are not out of work since the few I've interviewed have had multiple offers even when they didn't meet our three criteria (e.g., in three interviews, no one knew what a "Materialized View" or "Cartesian Product" was - very basic DB stuff here). Where are they?

----------------------------------

Perhaps you don't know how to interview. You seem to be checking for buzz words instead of analytical ability.

Some years ago I applied for a job in quality/product failure analysis with a government contractor. They wanted someone familiar with the Tanaka system of analysis. I have a minor in statistics in addition to being an instrument machinist and being knowledgeable about electronics and materials. I can go through an entire factory and analyze it in minutes. I have no idea what the Tanaka method is.

[fogarty]

Yep your last statement is especially true. Especially today - the Dow is down over 350 points now as we speak. Double dip recession here we come...

[pt17]

Perhaps you don't know how to interview. You seem to be checking for buzz words instead of analytical ability

Perhaps you're not that familiar with database systems. A cartesian product is something any database developer or SQL programmer should know about and a materialized view, which was introduced by Oracle in 8i, is something our developers have to know (both in terms of what it is, how it works and how to build one that works effectively). These terms (i.e., products and views) are not buzzwords or theories, RLK, they're part of the basic knowlege set we need.

[bvw]

RLK is right, better someone that can learn, can self-educate than a thousand lemmings that have the latest feature down pat -- if you really wanted to get thngs done. I'd bet you hire on the basis of minimizing your own risk. That is, candidate passed the buzzword and most reecent features screen and he doesn't work out, you ain't responsible. Whereas if you used your considered judgement and said -- hey this guy will be able to do the job, even though he only has a few hours of Oracle 0.01a, you'd be axed.
That's okay, most managers like that -- you aren't alone. Why risk your career?

[RLK]

I have done considerable programming. I have done economic modeling. I have created SWR analysis programs. I have written complex optics ray path analysis programs. In one instance the task was to stretch a fluffy cotton-like yarn a distance with a tension of a gram or less over a prescribed distance. I designed and build the tension sensing mechanism. I wrote a program to acquire the profile of the action at 1,000 readings a second. I have written programs to run semiconductor manufacturing processes. I designed and constructed the amplifiers. If necessary I would have built a computer controlled servomechanism to stretch the yarn. I have never taken a course in that area of computer programming and know no technical names for what I do. It is an inate talent combined with transfer of training. I do it better than just about anyone else. If it were so requited I could design a system to monitor the progression of a nuclear explosion occurring in microseconds using parallel processing systems.

Were I to walk into your office and apply for a position doing such things I';; bet my life against a mule turd you would ask me irrelevant questions with a haughty attitude, declare me incompetent, then complain about the difficulty of finding skilled personnel.

I have no sympathy with your complaints.

[Glenn]

(e.g., in three interviews, no one knew what a "Materialized View" or "Cartesian Product" was - very basic DB stuff here).

Geez. You trivia masters take the cake. Do you think we professionals actually sit around talking about Cartesian Product? You pompous little ass. Come interview with me. We'll see what you know about the craft of computing. We'll see if you can walk the walk. Just how long have you been in HR, by the way? Jerk. Moron. Poser.

[bvw]

Hard to call him myopic -- that would imply some vision.

[pyx]

No doubt it will turn around in a year or so, but for now it is pretty brutal.

ROFLMAO ! People have been tellin' me that since the end of 1999 when technology market started to collapse. Its comin' up on three years of brutal for some of us.

[pt17]

If you think asking people to explain such concepts as Cartesian Products and Materialized Views is bad or pompous, you would really love the audition part of the interview where we ask a candidate to demonstrate his or her competence by actually coding something using, say, SQL Navigator to build, say, a materialized view in front of three of my database developers. And, BTW, the questions about views and products were theirs, not mine. I'll be sure to tell them what pompous asses they are. LOL.

[Glenn]

SQL Navigator to build, say, a materialized view in front of three of my database developers.

Interesting use of the personal possessive my there, ace. A little insecure, are we? And for you to lay the questions off, at this point, on your developers suggests you are trying to distance yourself from that little piece of the interview now that you've been called on it. Tell me where you work. Forgive me. I meant manage. You are a manager, right?

[pt17]

A little insecure, are we?

Projecting, are we?

[Glenn]

Projecting, are we?

Coward.

[bvw]

For my part you may also inform them that as real programmers they are likely to suck eggs -- for missing anything whatever they are currently overfocused and circle-jerking on.

I mean, I could be wrong, say as wrong as not betting the house on a four of a kind in straight draw poker.

[bvw]

typo: "for missing anything other than whatever"

[pyx]

One could easily get the opinion that the highly skilled are not out of work since the few I've interviewed have had multiple offers even when they didn't meet our three criteria (e.g., in three interviews, no one knew what a "Materialized View" or "Cartesian Product" was - very basic DB stuff here). Where are they?

A materialized view is an aggregate of preselected data. In short, my SQL query grabs a whole whack of already sorted stuff and I use further refined queries to more or less grab from that subset. In Oracle, the materialized view is a data structure created using the data definition language. Its pretty elementary.

A Cartesian Product (I really hope you are not not talking about pure math here and matrix multiplication) in the context of a database is when you join every row in one table with every row in another table or by joining a table with itself. Obviously, you're SELECT statement would have the asterisk wildcard and typically each table has a unique key.

Either of these methods can be accessed using various languages connected to the API such as C, C++, Java, php4 etc. In multi-tiered, multi-platformed distributed environments, there will be considerably more overhead than a simple API.
But since you won't be offering me a job any time soon, it might be that the only problem with hiring someone like me is, I am over 40 years of age and I am white.

Then again after three years of being told, "Gee, we're sorry, you were our first choice until [fill in some bullsh!t lame assed excuse here]", I won't be holdin' my breath. Besides, there's lotsa H1B's from Pakistan, India and the TURD WORLD who will do all these nasty old jobs, lazy, unproductive, bad attitude, bad tempered Americans like me wouldn't want to do anyways, right ?

[pt17]

For my part you may also inform them that as real programmers they are likely to suck eggs

Nope, I don't need to tell them anything. They're the best of the best and, I might add, they're also very courteous, polite and paid very well.

[pt17]

Besides, there's lotsa H1B's from Pakistan, India and the TURD WORLD who will do all these nasty old jobs, lazy, unproductive, bad attitude, bad tempered Americans like me wouldn't want to do anyways, right ?

There's lots of H1Bs from India and Russia who are very accomplished Oracle developers/programmers that I could get tomorrow. Having some say in the matter, I am holding out for a U.S. citizen who can demonstrate competence by talking the talk and then walking it. To us, being able to talk the DB talk, as well as walking the coding walk, is important when dealing with clients who ask you technical questions.