How many people do you personally know out of work.

[D7E]

Just about everyone one i know closeley are self employed and are very busy at the moment .

 

[MossRoad]

How many do you know and why you think that each individual is not working.

Perhaps you should change the question from:

How many people do you personally know out of work.

to:

How many people do you personally know out of satisfying work.

I have a few friends that have been RIF'd, which is an acronym for Reduction In Force. They are not layed off, they are severed, given a severance, and told not to come back. They spent 20-30 years in a very satisfying carreer that is no longer in existence. Most of them are working, but it is at much lower wages. They are only doing it to pay the bills. It isn't satisfying work.

So for some of the comments about lazy, only those that don't want to work, etc.... hope it never happens to you. We're at 11% unemployment here and 40% vacant housing rate. There are jobs, but they are extremely low wage, no benefits, etc...

When times are tough, you gotta work where you can work, but it isn't out of the question to be looking for several weeks - months before you find even a low wage job here.

 

[powerpace]

Perhaps you should change the question from:

How many people do you personally know out of work.

to:

How many people do you personally know out of satisfying work.

I have a few friends that have been RIF'd, which is an acronym for Reduction In Force. They are not layed off, they are severed, given a severance, and told not to come back. They spent 20-30 years in a very satisfying carreer that is no longer in existence. Most of them are working, but it is at much lower wages. They are only doing it to pay the bills. It isn't satisfying work.

So for some of the comments about lazy, only those that don't want to work, etc.... hope it never happens to you. We're at 11% unemployment here and 40% vacant housing rate. There are jobs, but they are extremely low wage, no benefits, etc...

When times are tough, you gotta work where you can work, but it isn't out of the question to be looking for several weeks - months before you find even a low wage job here.

Most people I have known were never satisfied with their labors. Like you mention low wages. But I know many people in the medical profession that earn more in one day than most people earn in a week. They still complain.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Back in Oct 2010 I lost my contract when Congress cut the budget on the DARPA project I was working on for over 2 years and it was my only contract. I was self employed. I did not work again that year, I could not find anyone "with a position at my level" I tried to take lower paying jobs nd they would not take me because they felt I would leave.

In Jan 2011 I found two small contracts for my conpany and managed to work/bill about 177 total hours from January to May 2011. Mid-June 2011 I took a job (the one I have today) that is basically the same job I left back in 1989.

I have 30 years experience in high tech, I've been technical, and marketing , sales, business development, and a VP. I am DAYUM good at what I do and I work hard. I've made great money, and so-so money and all in between.

I've NEVER been out of work like this last time... It was brutal. I am now working a job I could have got straight out of the service the first time (In fact I did get almost this exact same job back in 1986) My peer's are barely 30. I am making half or less what I used to make. For the first time in decades, I literally almost HATE my job...

One of my good buddies, solid as a rock, got fired over a trumped up (false) safety violation back in Late October and he just managed to find a job last week.

There are some deadbeats here, but I know a number of solid guys un-employed or like me UNDER-employed... I know a LOT of guys making lots less money, worse benefits, etc....

David

 

[Taylortractornut]

I dont know anyone that isnt out of work that wants to work either. It may not be what they want but its work. We finally got an older man at work that wants to work and can pass a drug test. I have afriend that works for a large company and runs a garden center. He has a couple part time employees and has trouble keeping them. Its a pretty easy job. I know alot of folks that are working a main good paying job and then doing side work. Right now Im making 200 rose trellis for the garden center.

I think some folks got spoiled at working one high paying job 8 hours then go home and God forbid overtime. I remember i nthe 80s mom and dad were having a rough time. Dad worked 70 hours a week road building away from home, and mom worked part time at the courthouse and cleaning houses as well as rebuilding our burnt house and watching us 2 little boys.


Later she just went to cleaning houses and went to college for a nursing degree. I do rembeber bak in those days folks pulp wooded, and did odd jobs and commercial fished. THen things boomed here with mobile home plants and furniture plants. Now were are in a slump but folks are working.

Theres several high paying jobs out there but they require an education or at least some initiative to get the training for the job. The last helper we hired at work couldnt pass a drug test and didnt want to meet the dress code. Plus he was holding out for a dish washing job in a restaurant.

I know a few folks that wore out their unemployment benefits the started to look for a job. 2 of them are classics. They both took layoffs for deerseason when called back mid season they didnt want to come back till after deer season so the bosses let them off and got new workers.

I have a farmer friend thats 85 and farms a few acres in hay and cows. He pays help about 12.50 an hour to load square bales. Last fall I helped him after work as a supplemental income for the new baby.

 

[ultrarunner]

I know at least 60...

Many are out of work because the company laid off 25% of the workforce two weeks ago...

 

[MossflowerWoods]

One of my little brothers tends to be employed in stages, and to be unemployed in other stages, and he is incommunicado right now so I suspect he is in one of the less nice stages...

My other little brother is a square great guy. He was a small town cop and could not get promoted so he went to Afghanistan for a couple years as a police trainer and he got IED's a couple times and bottled it up so he came home for Christmas in 2010 and his wife sent him to shrink because he PTSD was raging...

Now he can't work as a cop, can't do armed security (he is a weapons expert after A-stan) and all he can do is cheapo rent-a-security gigs and his kids have no insurance. H3ll I paid part of his mortgage in Feb. The company will not settle his disability claim, but slowly with therapy his PTSD is going away, but they won't release him yet.

For many people, life is harder now than it has been in some time.

Not a political statement, but the government needs to get the @#$% out of the way and let business and economy grow again....

Just my :2cents:

Be well,
David

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

What amazes me is the number of "specialists" I see doing "average" work. Highly / specifically trained for something you would think would be a good career and they end up is some completely unrelated job.

 

[newbury]

I'm sure that a lot of knowing an unemployed person depends on what your cohort is composed of.

Just after I graduated college 'Nam had just ended and my cohort included a LOT of vets with no jobs and nowhere to go.

As the data from BLS shows unemployment in Jan of 1976 was 9.3%. I don't have the resources to fully dig down to the small differences (% black, % white, % redhead, etc) but I'm sure there were a lot more young males than 55 year old college educated males.

One of the large differences I've seen in this go around is the massive layoffs of state and local government workers that happened last year. Like another poster mentioned I've seen a lot of "early outs" and people deciding to retire rather than being moved around in jobs in the Federal gov.

What I'm waiting for is massive layoffs of defense contractors when/if our war machine winds down.

According to a 2008 study by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, private contractors make up 29% of the workforce in the United States Intelligence Community and cost the equivalent of 49% of their personnel budgets. [8]

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privat...n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company.

When they are no longer needed what will they do in private industry?

How many imagery analysts does GM need? What's the requirement for EOD personnel at WalMart?

Or will they just get moved to another theatre?

Donald Rumsfeld was just about to downsize the military

Rumsfeld wanted to eliminate two of the Army's 10 active-duty divisions, one of the Navy's 12 carrier battle groups and one of the Air Force's 12 active fighter wings.

Read more: Downsizing of military now unlikely - seattlepi.com

in this article fron August 11th 2001 (pre 9/11)
Downsizing of military now unlikely - seattlepi.com

But we went to war.

What's going to happen now? If we bring back 100,000 troops and downsize the entire support chain down to the burger flippers outside of military bases I expect at least another 500,000 unemployed/underemployed.

If your cohort is 20 to 30 year olds there will be a LOT of them unemployed. My cohort virtually noone works, we are all retired.

 

[powerpace]

I'm sure that a lot of knowing an unemployed person depends on what your cohort is composed of.

Just after I graduated college 'Nam had just ended and my cohort included a LOT of vets with no jobs and nowhere to go.

As the data from BLS shows unemployment in Jan of 1976 was 9.3%. I don't have the resources to fully dig down to the small differences (% black, % white, % redhead, etc) but I'm sure there were a lot more young males than 55 year old college educated males.

One of the large differences I've seen in this go around is the massive layoffs of state and local government workers that happened last year. Like another poster mentioned I've seen a lot of "early outs" and people deciding to retire rather than being moved around in jobs in the Federal gov.

What I'm waiting for is massive layoffs of defense contractors when/if our war machine winds down.
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privat...n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company.

When they are no longer needed what will they do in private industry?

How many imagery analysts does GM need? What's the requirement for EOD personnel at WalMart?

Or will they just get moved to another theatre?

Donald Rumsfeld was just about to downsize the military in this article fron August 11th 2001 (pre 9/11)
Downsizing of military now unlikely - seattlepi.com

But we went to war.

What's going to happen now? If we bring back 100,000 troops and downsize the entire support chain down to the burger flippers outside of military bases I expect at least another 500,000 unemployed/underemployed.

If your cohort is 20 to 30 year olds there will be a LOT of them unemployed. My cohort virtually noone works, we are all retired.

Some of those people will take advantage of the education bonus after the military. Some will be able to go back to work where they worked before. Especially true if they are in the National Guard. Some went into the military to make money and will be under employed or out of work. Some will be able to rejoin after the people retiring leave. There will be a little blip in unemployment figures for awhile but it will settle down.

When I left the Marine Corps in 72', I had Marine Corps Officers visiting me at my work (Fire Department) every 4 or 5 months for about three years. They even threatened me with the "personnel being vital to the defense of the Nation card) to bring me back in. This was because they had people retire and not enough trained people available for the MOS.