Not much choice

[ricksfolly]

Those of you out there who are unemployed, bite the bullet and take the first job you can find, even if it's washing dishes or sweeping the floor. You can alway quit when times get better. It's better than sitting around waiting for a letter, knock or phone call.

ricksfolly

 

[MaggieD]

Those of you out there who are unemployed, bite the bullet and take the first job you can find, even if it's washing dishes or sweeping the floor. You can alway quit when times get better. It's better than sitting around waiting for a letter, knock or phone call.

ricksfolly

Fine sentiment that lacks practicality, Rick. Taking a job means losing one's unemployment benefits. Those benefits might be more than that job you recommend people take.

Only people who really should heed that advice are new college graduates -- not washing dishes, but taking a job outside their chosen field for the interim.....or WASHING dishes if that's what it takes to pay the bills. And those whose unemployment benefits have run out. For those, your sentiments are excellent advice.

 

[Simon W. Moon]

When you have a family to support, you have to make the choices that are best for the family even if they aren't the ones you would prefer to make.
Giving up unemployment benefits that pay much better than a dishwasher's job to satisfy one's pride isn't really a responsible option for a grown up with kids.

 

[ricksfolly]

When you have a family to support, you have to make the choices that are best for the family even if they aren't the ones you would prefer to make.
Giving up unemployment benefits that pay much better than a dishwasher's job to satisfy one's pride isn't really a responsible option for a grown up with kids.

Both std minimum wage $290 week and unemployment compensation $205 to $405 wk have to pay income taxes. The difference is the min wage worker gets health coverage, and has an opportunity to see what average working people are really like, definitely not what he sees in movies or TV.

ricksfolly

 

[TheGirlNextDoor]

When you have a family to support, you have to make the choices that are best for the family even if they aren't the ones you would prefer to make.
Giving up unemployment benefits that pay much better than a dishwasher's job to satisfy one's pride isn't really a responsible option for a grown up with kids.

That's true and I am fortunate to not be in that situation, as are many others. For the people out of work who are looking feverishly and trying to make ends meet - my hat is off to them.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

Both std minimum wage $290 week and unemployment compensation $205 to $405 wk have to pay income taxes. The difference is the min wage worker gets health coverage, and has an opportunity to see what average working people are really like, definitely not what he sees in movies or TV.

ricksfolly

You have to consider that some of these jobs offer less than 40 hours a week.
If that's the case, unemployment is superior.

 

[1069]

Those of you out there who are unemployed, bite the bullet and take the first job you can find, even if it's washing dishes or sweeping the floor. You can alway quit when times get better. It's better than sitting around waiting for a letter, knock or phone call.

ricksfolly

If somebody like me- an eighth grade dropout with only a GED and no legitimate work history- can score a nice, fulfilling, decent-paying job without even trying very hard, it boggles my mind that anyone can't.

Maybe the degreed unemployed simply need to move elsewhere, where there are more job opportunities. Or update their wardrobes, or check their breath to make sure it's not offensive, or something, hell.
Pull up your socks, people. The job market's fine, as far as I can tell.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

If somebody like me- an eighth grade dropout with only a GED and no legitimate work history- can score a nice, fulfilling, decent-paying job without even trying very hard, it boggles my mind that anyone can't.

Maybe the degreed unemployed simply need to move elsewhere, where there are more job opportunities. Or update their wardrobes, or check their breath to make sure it's not offensive, or something, hell.
Pull up your socks, people. The job market's fine, as far as I can tell.

Some of it is definitely people, that think there to good to do manual labor.

My company did a short temp hiring stint this summer and from what I know, 0 people with degrees, want a job working as a laborer in manufacturing.

 

[Donc]

Those of you out there who are unemployed, bite the bullet and take the first job you can find, even if it's washing dishes or sweeping the floor. You can alway quit when times get better. It's better than sitting around waiting for a letter, knock or phone call.

ricksfolly

I’ve did that when my children were young and in school…took a job that was the most sorryass job I ever had.

The reason I took it was that it provided pretty good heath insurance. When the economy took off I was out of their like Jumpin Jack Flash.:2wave:

 

[samsmart]

Well, there's a lot of factors this.

1) Student Loans
Maybe people with degrees get them from student loans. And student loan payments are generally a large sum of money. Now correct me if I am wrong, but if someone is employed they usually can't get their loans deferred, even if the wage they are earning is too low to pay them off. So someone can get on unemployment and defer their loans until they can get a job at a salary that will help pay off those student loans.

2) Transportation
There may be jobs in a certain area. However, not everyone who is unemployed can get to those areas. If someone is on unemployment, then they may not have the money to move. Also, there may not be adequate transportation to get the unemployed back and forth between their job and their homes. It may just be me, but public transportation is pretty piss poor in this country. Also, many streets don't have bike paths and sidewalks separated, and that's even if a road has a bike path or sidewalk for it. That makes pedestrian and bicycle traffic very dangerous.

3) Training
"Unskilled labor" is really a misnomer. Pundits generally use unskilled labor to refer to employment that does not require a degree to be trained in. That does not mean, however, that the work is so simple that it does not require training. If you don't know how to check in inventory and properly place it where it belongs, then you're going to **** up the entire store and cost it money. If you don't know how to flip burgers properly, then you're going to **** up the entire diner and cost it money. If you don't know what you're doing, then you're going to cost that business, no matter what you do, money. So some training is still required for those jobs, and so previous experience still counts for some business owners who don't want to take on the costs of training a temporary employee. That can cut some people out of a job market right there.

4) Burn-out
There's a lot of bosses out there who don't treat their employees very well, and the lower they're paid the worse they're treated. That can mean a lot of physical and emotional abuse gets heaped on them. This is made even worse by the fact that employee rights aren't very strong in the U.S. Why should someone get a low wage job and get **** on when he can instead stay home and chill out for the same amount of money? There's also less of a chance he'll get hurt, so he won't need health insurance. That's even if a company provides it for them - not every business, especially small businesses, can afford to do so.

 

[Simon W. Moon]

Both std minimum wage $290 week and unemployment compensation $205 to $405 wk have to pay income taxes.

Where did you find these numbers?

The difference is the min wage worker gets health coverage

I believe that these jobs exist, but I have never had a minimum wage job with health care.

and has an opportunity to see what average working people are really like, definitely not what he sees in movies or TV.

Who are we talking about?

 

[Barbbtx]

It'll never happen... but what should happen is that anyone who collects unemployment must take any job they are qualified for. If the pay is less then the government could make up the difference.

I was watching a show a while back that made me wonder what the hec is happening in this country. I guess we truly are a nanny state.
There was a couple we were supposed to feel sorry for. (I didn't) It took the man many many months collecting unemployment before he found a job that paid as much as his last job. He had turned down a dozen jobs in the mean time. His wife was still collecting unemployment looking for just the right job.
During all this they had (almost) lost their home and had to sell one of their cars.
I'm sorry, if MSNBC was looking for a sob story about why we need to extend unemployment indefinately, they failed miserably.