Job situation

I found the above to be a very interesting read. It sums up the job situation for many very accurately. Lower paying jobs, temp jobs, no benefit jobs.

Here's a little bit of the article:

"But most Americans have been left behind," said Robert Reich, the labor secretary under President Clinton. "They're without jobs, or their jobs pay badly, and their benefits continue to shrink. They're still buried under debt. Their economy hasn't recovered at all."

Corporations are profiting from sales in their foreign operations, especially in China and India. But the most important key to the rise in corporate profits has been reduced costs, especially payrolls. The result has been fewer jobs and lower pay.

"The Great Recession accelerated trends that started three decades ago — outsourcing abroad, automating work, converting full-time jobs to temps and contracts, undermining unions, and getting wage and benefit concessions from remaining workers," Reich said in a recent column.

 

Sad but true. I've been looking off and on for over a year. 90% of what I see are things like admin assistant, receptionist, customer service, selling cell phones, or something so highly specialized you would need to at least take an advanced course or two (ie: Medical billing, or full charge bookkeeper/tax accountant).

Most of these jobs are advertised between $9 and $13/hour. A few have benefits but who could really live on $300 a week take home? If I am able to find a full time job I will still have to work as many hours for myself as possible just to pay bills.

 

It's so true. A family member lost his job (company merged with another). He has 30+ years in his field. He is of an age close to retirement and financially stable, but he thought he'd like to work a couple more years. He recently applied for a job. Same field, same requirements BS degree and additional certifications, but the job is part time, no benefits, and pay rate, while decent, is no where what he was making before.

This would be OK for him, he can afford to work part time. However, the younger people in his field or someone with more financial obligations, part time work isn't going to pay the bills. Unfortunately, those are the jobs that are available. The companies that hire experienced people, at part time/no benefits are getting a lot for the amount of $ they are paying. It's all about cost cutting/containment.

 

Our company has gone to a 20/70/10 policy. 20% are rated top performers, 70% middle performers, and 10% bottom performers. Every year they plan to cut the bottom 10%. They have been replacing them with low paid contractors with no benefits.

The low paid contractors are good, educated, qualified people that have been cut from other area businesses and forced to fight for the lower paying jobs.