Employment Situation in the US: How bad is it really?

[HayashiTakara]

Well, I'm a bit curious about this. I have a few friends who recently became unemployed (up to roughly 1yr ago) and haven't been able to find employment since. One such friend, one of my best friends in fact. Lost his job, a year ago last month. He feverishly searched for work for about 3 months until his savings ran out. During that 3 month period his car got repossessed, his credit card went into default (although for only like $500), and before he got kicked out of his apartment he had to move out of state and back in with his mother.

He's been living with his mother while looking for work since about August of last year and still haven't found work since. My friend in Palm Springs is in a similar situation but worse he has 3 kids.

You always read in the paper about how people left and right losing work and either A. unable to find work or B. working at a fraction of what they use to (i.e from a 6 figure job to a 20k a year job) but you just think it sucks because no one you know is effected. But when someone close to you falls under a similar situation, it starts to feel more real.

Now, after all that, the question is again; Is the Economic (Employment) situation in the U.S really improving? Or my friends simply, just have bad luck?

[yoropa]

I think I got lucky. Even after the main economic crash, I managed to find a job that was only supposed to last for one year. Through hard work at said job I got it expanded to even during the heart of the recession, and I still work there. Even more, I'm starting a brand new job in May which is going to be awesome. It may just be your area as well. Where I am the jobs are quite plentiful. Everybody I know who has tried to seriously find a job has found one.

[Arbitres]

I'm going to be busy, believe me. Why? The job economy is a beautiful open field for the area I'm going into.

Linguistics. So it doesn't matter if the job economy is doing bad, I've got smooth sailin'. Which is actually quite hard nowadays. 2-5 years of college and I'll be golden.

'Course, if people took more interest in bilingual careering I'd be up the creek without the paddle, there'd be no sailing to it.

Edit:

Forgot the point: Whether or not it improves is irrelevant right until it affects my career. The employment has indeed dropped and risen several times in the past, but overall it shouldn't effect my job. That is all I care about anymore.

No one really took an avid interest in my future but me, why should I take an avid interest in theirs? The thing that needs to be addressed is the currency problem and the economy in general, not the job market or the employment economy.

Too busy sticking our noses into other people's business and using opportunities to get resources. (I'm fine with this right until it becomes counterproductive.)

[synaesthetic]

It's really bad. Especially in California. Thank the lawd I'm getting the fuck out of this hellhole of a state.

[cheyannew]

I've been out of work since Feb 09, when Mythic laid off 60+ of us in 1 day (was a rough day lol). Months after that, they laid off more people, and I believe the total's at or just above 100 people let go w/in a year. Some people found jobs in other gaming companies, but as I wasn't a programmer or anything of that ilk (I did administrative stuff, plus event planning, purchasing and a host of other things, so I didn't have a normal "job title" per say, I was the "get things done" woman), I'm having a much harder time finding jobs.
Add to that how close I am to DC, and, well, let's just say the Administrative Assistance field is overly saturated with people looking for work.
Unemployment ran out, but thankfully, my hubby's still got a job there at good ol' Mythic.
I'm still going stir-crazy, as never before have I been out of work involuntarily. Before, I'd take a year or two off to raise the kids or whatever, and could find work as soon as I went "OK the youngest is in school, back to work for me". Now? I must've applied for hundreds of jobs, with only a few nibbles, that didn't pan out (heck one place flat out lied about what the job was to get me in to interview, and didn't like it when I walked out of said interview haha).

The high cost of living here is NOT helping matters any, either. If you're not bilingual (aka english/spanish), lack a security clearance, you're pretty much boned, it seems.

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

It's really bad. Especially in California. Thank the lawd I'm getting the fuck out of this hellhole of a state.

Hey don't insult my state. We proud of our current economic stability!

Well it's always interesting to me to see how few people are able to get jobs, even part time, when I who is just a Freshmen in college, am easily able to find jobs back home.

But it really depends. I have some friends with parents in the deep end. My parents are self-employed so they can't "lose" their jobs, but noticably a lot less income has been coming in .

[iceyfw]

Originally Posted by HayashiTakara

Now, after all that, the question is again; Is the Economic (Employment) situation in the U.S really improving? Or my friends simply, just have bad luck?

the answer is the employment rate in the u.s. is not improving AT ALL. obama has created negative 36 million jobs (sarcasm) over the health care bill he has been trying to pass since the moment he became president. i remember on CNN saying that he will try to create more jobs this year, but from what i've seen, that is far off from what he is currently doing. he has created about 162,000 jobs in the last two months, but that doesn't cover the MILLIONS that lost their jobs. it is also arnolds fault in this since he pretty much screwed funding for schools and that leaves a lot of teachers jobless looking for other jobs. in fact, i've watched the local k-cal 9 news station over here in california a few weeks ago and was watching this elementary school being closed down because they also couldn't get the funds needed to maintain the school.

your friends are not the only ones suffering. trust me. and it is about to get worse with the amount of college graduates each year. it'll be even harder for them to find jobs in this shit economy.

[Samari]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

It's really bad. Especially in California. Thank the lawd I'm getting the fuck out of this hellhole of a state.

Yes it's very bad here in California. I tried getting a second job and even all of the basic ones down to the service industry were difficult to try and obtain.

[HayashiTakara]

I remember reading about the UCLA and other colleges having riots and protests due to increases of tuition. Which leads to another question, what are the college graduate rates since the massive spike in school tuition?

[Kaijo]

I was out of work for a year, mostly, but I had savings and unemployment to keep me afloat. I've recently been getting some temp jobs, so that's been working out good. I don't need much to live on, as I'm pretty frugal and practical with my lifestyle, heh. So a two month temp job can usually keep me afloat for 3-4 months easy.

But yeah, I blame wall street for buying the deregulation of the housing market, so they could buy and sell riskier loans, pocketing the profit and passing the losses off to the people. That led to the crash, when all this "fake money" was shown to be non-existent. Obama, as much as I disagree with quite a few of his policies, is just in the wrong place at the wrong time for this. Although his health care bill was ill-timed in light of things.

[RadiantBeam]

It's been really bad here in New Jersey, especially with the pharmeceutical industry taking a nosedive the way it did. My dad's been unemployed for roughly four years; he was head of Greenstone for Pharmacia before that was bought by Phizer. After that he was unemployed for over a year before he was picked up by a small company, and he worked there for a year or two, but when sales weren't what they expected, guess who got cut again.

He's been unemployed yet again for over a year, though thankfully his consulting business seems to be getting some steady work. He still wants a dependable job so he can get my sister and I through school without risks, but what he's doing now is better than nothing.

Also, considering several of our close friends and family members are unemployed, no, the economic situation here for us hasn't improved much at all.

[tripperazn]

Originally Posted by HayashiTakara

I remember reading about the UCLA and other colleges having riots and protests due to increases of tuition. Which leads to another question, what are the college graduate rates since the massive spike in school tuition?

The tuition spike got repealed/canceled after just about every state college in California started protesting. UCs are breaking records for applications every year, so I don't think a 50% increase in tuition is gonna lower the grad rate at all.

Legalization of Marijuana might though

[Vexx]

The *official* unemployment rate in the US fails to track either those who have given up seeking work (chronic unemployment from job sector collapse), dislocated workers (need new career training but no systems in place), or the insidious UNDERemployment (was designing software but now in sweatshop call center via a temp contract). Politicians routinely like to extol numbers rather than job *quality* declines.

Unofficially, the number of unemployed in the US might be as high as 20% and is higher if you factor in the underemployed.

In other words, the treasury and granaries have been pillaged and looted by the robber barons who are quietly skipping town, while the peasants are left to deal with the burning houses, plague rats, and under-maintained infrastructure.

My wife (clinical specialty pharmacist) is noting an accelerating number of patients who are stopping life-maintaining critical drug care because the bread-earners got laid off and the health insurance was lost. There are other signals (businesses dropping health benefits because the insurance companies are racing for that last dollar before the house of cards collapses). Its an accelerating spiral.

[chikorita157]

I have studied a sufficient enough economics from taking those Economics courses in college, but it will take time since unemployment rate is a lagging factor and it won't be awhile until the agency who records the start and end of recessions will officially announce that the recession is over. All what said and done is I am still in college and my mom still has a secure job in government. My dad is still working part time in retail, but have been threaten to get laid off if he doesn't make enough sales. However for myself, if the unemployment rate still pretty high by the time I graduate, I guess I should minor in another major to drive it out longer, but it should be back up in running in 2012... hopefully.

[Demongod86]

It's horrible. Not sure if as bad as a year ago, but still terrible.

[HayashiTakara]

Originally Posted by Vexx

The *official* unemployment rate in the US fails to track either those who have given up seeking work (chronic unemployment from job sector collapse), dislocated workers (need new career training but no systems in place), or the insidious UNDERemployment (was designing software but now in sweatshop call center via a temp contract). Politicians routinely like to extol numbers rather than job *quality* declines.

Unofficially, the number of unemployed in the US might be as high as 20% and is higher if you factor in the underemployed.

In other words, the treasury and granaries have been pillaged and looted by the robber barons who are quietly skipping town, while the peasants are left to deal with the burning houses, plague rats, and under-maintained infrastructure.

My wife (clinical specialty pharmacist) is noting an accelerating number of patients who are stopping life-maintaining critical drug care because the bread-earners got laid off and the health insurance was lost. There are other signals (businesses dropping health benefits because the insurance companies are racing for that last dollar before the house of cards collapses). Its an accelerating spiral.

That's a good way to put it.

Originally Posted by chikorita157

I have studied a sufficient enough economics from taking those Economics courses in college, but it will take time since unemployment rate is a lagging factor and it won't be awhile until the agency who records the start and end of recessions will officially announce that the recession is over. All what said and done is I am still in college and my mom still has a secure job in government. My dad is still working part time in retail, but have been threaten to get laid off if he doesn't make enough sales. However for myself, if the unemployment rate still pretty high by the time I graduate, I guess I should minor in another major to drive it out longer, but it should be back up in running in 2012... hopefully.

I graduated college about 3 years ago and am still unable to find a steady job for what I went to school for. Working at a job where you spend so much time, effort and money on and not have any work available, especially since entry level work is zero to nill right now, is rather sobering.

[Demongod86]

Originally Posted by HayashiTakara

especially since entry level work is zero to nill right now, is rather sobering.

Well that depends on what you studied.

It seems unless it was computer science, you're screwed.

Put it this way--you're not the only one =/.

[chikorita157]

It's also true that a company will be very hesitant to hire a person with a Doctoral degree. This is because they would have to pay even more money in salary and a company will likely hire a person without it, especially in a tough economy. But yeah, it will probably be best to go back to school to get a master degree or higher if you still can't get a job and double majoring increases the chance of getting a job, but not guaranteed since it is a very competitive market. With states cutting funding for universities... I begin to worry...

[Demongod86]

Bull @ master's degree. I'm about to get mine in statistics and...well...ugh.

Basically...if you can program a computer and have US citizenship, the market is yours right now.

As for PhDs, are you kidding me...

No, I mean are you f***ing kidding me? Know how many AMAZING positions you can get with a PhD?

One word: GOOGLE.

[kittybear]

Originally Posted by Demongod86

Well that depends on what you studied.

It seems unless it was computer science, you're screwed.

Put it this way--you're not the only one =/.

Damn I'm majoring in Computer Science, hopefully the job market will be stable in 3-5 years because if it doesn't I'm probably going to be in the same boat as you guys. A nice and comfy boat...or is it?