And why not?
I’ve been unemployed before, once for about 4 weeks. It wasn’t fun, but it was comfortable. I went to the unemployment office downtown, filled out some paperwork, and then checked my mailbox for a check every week.
I made a few efforts to find jobs that paid as much as the one I had lost. There were none.
Every two or three days I put on a suit and made the interview rounds, but The Cooking Channel beckoned. Blockbuster Video had tons of movies I’d not yet rented. Short trips to the lake were suddenly possible every day.
Various companies offered me jobs that were almost exactly the amount of my unemployment compensation. But why in the world would I want to take one of those and work for 40 hours a week when I could get the same amount by staying at home and learning how to cook Peking Duck and watching old episodes of Monty Python? Where were the incentives?
[Jackie Mroz, 22, of Oregon City] graduated in 2009 with degrees in international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African Studies.”
What could possibly go wrong?
Both links via the Captain. More on “perpetual unemployment extensions” here.
“Good jobs for Philosophers, too!”
— Firesign Theatre
What could possibly go wrong? Hmm. Other than the other people who are working and supporting you, via their taxes…and who eventually refuse to allow higher and higher cuts from THEIR salaries to enable you to watch videos and cook?
Other than the ratio of working to non-working, with the former supporting the latter, slips into a negative range? What would happen then? Oh, yes, the Obama deficits.
Then, the country slips into a reliance on borrowing from other countries..and can’t keep up the interest payments..and then…
It’s incredible what a sense of ‘rights’ and ‘entitlements’ and a degree in opinionated blather will lead to.
When I was young my rise from job to better job to better job was remarkable because I had done anything to make a buck. There was a list of dirty, hard, low-paying jobs on my resume which caught eyes. They told me I got my first low-level management job, and first decent-paying job, because they looked at my resume and said, ‘he’s not afraid to work’.
Times have evolved my thinking about the unemployed’s dilemma.
I can really sympathize with those unemployed, whose UIC has long run out, are over 50 and have just plain given up.
Here in Ontariario, welfare is called WORKS ONTARIO and all beneficiaries must go through the farce of documenting job search (names, contact names of all the places applied to).
It has now evolved that employers will not only not consider an applicant who has been unemployed for a period but has now progressed to not considering anyone who is unemployed.
Certification, experience, references are meaningless…..unemployed = not qualified.
This is having a cascade effect across the economy as the rate of personal backruptcies soar resulting in direct losses to individuals and businesses.
Tradesmen face stiff competition from skilled, experienced unemployed working for cash.
Auto-mechanics/body workers tell me that the shop’s trade is for the most part limited to warrenty work, mandatory safety inspections and mandatory emissions tests.
The Great Game.
Drive a snow-plough all winter at an airport – draw UI all summer.
Weld on the pipelines at $40 per hour for 8 months, enjoy the gov’t loto for 4.
Work construction from March to November, cut firewood all winter while you’re drawing unemployment, and undercut the guy who does it for a living.
Been going on for as long as I remember. Plus que ca change…..
What good luck for me. I just started a search for a graduate of international studies and sociology and a double minor in nonprofit administration and African Studies, to have someone to cut my grass.
Regarding the second link – I’ll suspend my usual sarcasm about humanities and social science majors and assume that they are not stupid, entitled boomer spawn but just naive about the job market. Universities rely on this ignorance to continue to peddle worthless degrees to students and their parents.
Perhaps higher education should be managed more like an investment. It should be mandatory that every major must include a detailed prospectus that outlines employment data, demand, average wages etc. The only figures pro-unis highlight is that the average wage of university grads exceeds the average wage of those without. This is misleading. The actual wage is highly dependent on the individual degree and many trades receive higher compensation than most “studies” grads.
The quest to push everyone towards university and the “knowledge economy” will end up like green jobs and extended unemployment benefits- successful in theory, a disaster in practice. A generation of over-educated, underemployed adults who are bitter and feel even more entitled to redistribute other people’s money.
Great topic Kate.
First, I’d love to take a year off and collect pogy except for one thing; it’s not likely I will progress in my skills and career development if I sit on my arse. No work, no learning! That doesn’t cut it for me.
Now, regarding these educated people who can’t find jobs; the root issue is their perceived entitlement to work in whatever field they wish. When I returned to school as an adult, my #1 priority was to find a career that had a high employment rate, and a great upside. Sure I’d have loved to challenge an English degree, or perhaps get a job as a talking head, but I had to feed my kids. To this day, I regularly have people tell me I’ve missed my calling even though I’m good at the job I’m doing. If I’d like to pursue my dream career, I’ll have to do it on my own time as a labour of love. On top of the feelings of entitlement to work in the industry they’ve went to school for, they also have envy and resent those that have less education and make good money. I’ve commented before that liberals despise the fact that Joe the Plumber will make more in a few years than the those liberals in a decade. In a liberal’s mind it’s just “not fair”; and we are talking about liberals here aren’t we?
Sasq
You’re bang on. I’ve been on many job interviews and conducted a few also. One of the FIRST things you check on a resume is Job History. You look for unusual patterns, extended periods of unemployment and the number of jobs in a set period of time. Too many jobs and long periods being unemployed are major red flags for someone looking to hire; and rightfully so. My dad taught me that looking for a job is an 8 hour a day, 5 day a week job. He also taught me that you should be able to find a job within a week with this strategy. It may not be the job you want, but it will get you by while you look for the “right” job. (This is what they should be teaching in high school)
I’m not in the capacity to hire someone at this time; but if I were, I’d be wondering why a potential employee sat on pogy for 12 months before they came to my office. Generally speaking, the fact that someone will willingly collect a check from the government for 12 months speaks volumes about the applicant. JMO
I believe this is why they call in “funemployment”.
Well, boo-hoo.
The statistics show that – all their belly-aching and caterwauling about poor job prospects notwithstanding – university and college graduates ultimately do get the better jobs and achieve a higher standard of living in (drumroll) the longterm.
In my experience, graduate unemployment is all too often a manifestation of personal inflexibility in two areas:
1. Unwillingness to broaden your horizons. So you can’t find much with that BA in philosophy? Take that assistant manager’s job at Sears anyway. I graduated with an arts degree, enrolled as an officer in the Canadian Forces and retired after 30 years in the most challenging profession you could want – and with a dandy pension. Oh, and that BA came in handy in ways I could never have imagined.
2. Unwillingness to move. Case in point: I graduated with two friends who had both studied to be teachers. One didn’t want to leave Montréal, couldn’t crack the union grip on positions and so ended up shuffling between the odd supply teacher job and being a cashier at a Jean Coutu. The other, determined to make a go of it, took a position in a reservation school w-a-a-a-y the hell out in the middle of nowhere in northern Québec. Today, that person is a superintendent in the provincial school system.
Welcome to Toronto. Work construction for long enough to qualify, then go on pogy… and keep working construction under the table. Sometimes for the same outfit.
Rinse, repeat.
I heard an interview on a trucking channel that the majority of large trucking firms are in fact hiring quite aggressively. The problem is many people that were laid off, or were looking for work previously, simply aren’t interested. The reason? Their unemployment benefits keep getting extended.
The lady being interviewed even made a direct link between the constant extension of benefits and the pesky high unemployment rate in the US.
JJM, thank you for your service. Certainly a pension well deserved. Also some very good points. At the beginning of the recession on the mop and pail comment board, someone was complaining how he couldn’t find a job in a certain specialized field “there are zero jobs” he said. I pointed out there were several of those jobs available here in Winnipeg, but he declined as it was “too far”.
J. Mroz’s cv sounds perfect for a government job.
Knew a family back home with 3 sons working in the family business. 2 were employed at any one time, the third on EI. Every 4 months, one would be “laid off”, and the one on EI was “hired”. Guy had all 3 sons working for him the entire year, but only paid 2 of them. He thought it was a great plan, so much so that he would brag to people about it. Some people just don’t understand where that money comes from methinks.
The massive welfare state, with its entitlements to the welfare “lifestyle” and its incentives not to work, has caused the need for an underclass of illegals to do the jobs Americans are unwilling to do. Businesses that employ the illegals like it, since it keeps their costs down. The welfare bums like it, since it preserves their superior status as the entitled unemployed. Preserving these arrangements is the cause of support for AliBama’s “comprehensive immigration reform”, a.k.a. amnesty. That’s the voting bloc he’s catering to with his suit against Arizona’s new law requiring enforcement of the federal law against illegal immigration. But what happens when the illegals are all made legal by fiat, and are then entitled to all the perks of citizenship, including the vote, unemployment insurance and welfare? Who will then do the work that Americans are unwilling to do? Hello more illegal immigration. That’s the scheme of the open borders crowd. It’s their way to a permanent majority.
Obvious, I know.
Learn to start using the “D” word when referring to the US protracted “recession”.
Market implosion imminent, either greenback melt down or exceedingly painful austerity measures next. All brought to you by shady Fed credit and currency policy and borrow and spend welfare state government. Live and learn eh?
daryl, usually anyone related to a business owner isn’t eligible for EI.
“Knew a family back home with 3 sons working in the family business. 2 were employed at any one time, the third on EI. Every 4 months, one would be ‘laid off’, and the one on EI was ‘hired’. Guy had all 3 sons working for him the entire year, but only paid 2 of them. He thought it was a great plan, so much so that he would brag to people about it. Some people just don’t understand where that money comes from methinks.”
Yes, and I’ll bet he constantly grumbled about the income tax on his business too:
“What the hell does the government do with all that money?!”
Seasonal fishermen get paid via their catch quota, ergo if they catch enough on the first day it’s pogey for the next year.
Here is another article on the same subject:
Is college overrated?
And though colleges blame us in the high schools for sending them kids who are woefully unprepared, they blithely pocket the tuition from such students lest they have to downsize and lay off professors and administrators.
But how much students with low skills, little motivation and lousy study habits are going to profit from going to college is not so clear.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-07-07-column07_ST_N.htm
Point well taken Nick, and this isn’t directed at you; but has there ever been a more obvious statement that’s been repeated more than: the Federal lawsuit against Arizona is an attempt to gain support from the Hispanic voting block(or some variation of)?
Let me try.
Breaking news: Chinese people like rice.
So much to comment on here:
First, let’s start with some facts, courtesy of Dave Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin-Shiff in Toronto:
Net new employment in Canada for the first six months of 2010: 308,000 new jobs, which Rosie notes is usually an entire year’s worth during a boom. Of the 93,200 new jobs in June, more than half were full time jobs, and even more were private sector jobs, so this is not a case of just increased government hiring.
Canadian unemployment rate drops from 8.1 to 7.9% at the same time as the labour market participation rate increases, and the employment rate (employment to population) grew from 61% in January to 62.1% in June. So, even though more people were looking for work, fewer people were on unemployment.
Rosie also notes that while Canada added 93k jobs, the US lost 300k in June. In over 40 years of data, his staff were unable to find a single instance of such a discrepancy. As he notes, “maybe Canada isn’t the 51st state anymore”.
Finally, he notes that the total employment figure in Canada is just 14,300 shy of its all-time high, while the US is 7.4 million away from its high. So, compared to our friends down south, things are clearly not so bad here.
I don’t know if Daryl’s story is true or not, but if it is, let’s assume the two working sons are making $40k each, and Dad makes $60k. The composite EI son is probably drawing less than $400/wk, or $20k annually. I’d bet that the taxes paid by Dad and 2 working sons more than cover the cost of EI for son #3 (their EI payments alone cover off nearly 10% of it). So, in effect, what they’ve done is found a way to lower the family’s effective tax rate, but I hardly think they’re getting more out of the system than they are paying.
Finally, Homez and Samsquanch, I’m over 50, currently unemployed, and looking for a job. I’ve gone on hundreds of interviews. I have an engineering degree and an MBA. Think I can find a job? If I go for jobs that I think I’m qualified for, I’m told that I “don’t have the specific experience they’re looking for”, and then later find they hired a kid right out of school.
After six months of that, I started to set my sights lower (and BTW, I wasn’t on EI; I left my last job to find a better one, so I was living off my savings), and apply for lower level jobs – marketing assistant or junior analyst. Here, I was told constantly “You’re over qualified” (which I read as code for “you’re too old”), and didn’t get the job.
Worried that my savings were going to run out, I set my sights even lower – I applied to fast food places like Timmie’s or McD’s, figuring they must have a management training program. Same story: too much experience, no job.
Then, someone gave me a great job hunting tip: take the MBA and engineering degree off my resume. While I haven’t found anything permanent yet, this did allow me to get a series of short term contract jobs that kept the wolf from the door.
It’s pretty discouraging to hear that at 50, with a wealth of business knowledge, the only way I can find work is to hide my lamp under a bushel. It’s discouraging to hear, over and over, that the same companies whose CEO’s decry the lack of talent and training in the work force don’t feel I have anything to offer. I can understand why people just give up. My doctor has told me I suffer from clinical depression, and I can certainly attest there are days when I don’t even want to get out of bed.
I have a third interview on Monday with a start-up restaurant, where the guy actually seems delighted that I understand how to make a business plan, how to build a marketing program, and what the restaurant business is about. I truly hope this pans out for me; I want to work, and I don’t just want a “job”, where someone tells me exactly what to do and how to do it – I want a role, where I’m expected to think, and be creative, and solve problems – where I’m involved, and not just employed. And I suspect there are thousands out there, in both Canada and the US, just like me.
Hate to say it Kevin, but having been where you are, there’s two words that match your expectations for a decent job:
Self employment.
But not when you’re depressed! Get something going, feel better, get some more money under you, THEN start a business.
I’ve been looking into wood working robots, seems there’s some opportunity there if you’re enough of a salesman to keep a robot fed with jobs. (I’m -so- not a salesman.) Engineering background couldn’t hurt.
That’s what outsourcing brings.
You are reaping what you saw: funds flow away from North America into the coffers of corrupt socialist governments in Asia and pay for building ICBMs pointed at us and corrupting our government into screwing our countries even further.
nick – I think that it’s a myth that ‘the reason for illegals is because they do the work that Americans (snooty people that they are) refuse to do.
I strongly disagree with this view. You don’t have to be illegal to do this work; you could do the same work legally.
The argument that it’s costing less for the employer to pay these cheap workers because there’s no income tax deduction, no education deduction and so on..if invalid. Why? Yes, these taxes are not deducted. They are ADDED to the tax burden of the legal citizens!
So that same employer pays high corporate taxes, high municipal taxes, income taxes, education taxes etc..to cover the use by these illegals of: education, hospitals (where they get all their medical care), roads, water…you name it. The legal citizen’s costs RISE because they must pay for the illegal use of these services.
The reason for the illegals is Mexico. Mexico is offloading its poorest class to the US taxpayer. Rather than Mexico establishing roads, schools, hospitals..and an infrastructure of factories and work…it does NOTHING. NOTHING. They flee to the US. They work – and get ALL the services of the US, but don’t pay for it. And..they send billions, yes, that’s right, billions back to support their families in Mexico. So, Mexico has no intention of losing this lucrative support for their own economy..which is built around a middle class and ignores the Mexican poor.
Mexico has it just fine now – it doesn’t have to spend one single penny on providing services to these poor, AND…they work in the US ..and send money back to support their impoverished relatives. Mexico gets off any requirement to support them. No schools, no hospitals, no work, no welfare. Nothing. The US taxpayer provides it all.
8-10yrs ago Dude at the UI desk says,”You’re only qualified to collect UI for 9months and after that you’re on your own”.GRAVELY as if I would perish without their generous help. Course six months later I was working for myself, and making less than an overly qualified elect-tech..but so what.
ET: I certainly agree with everything in your 5:10pm post. However my confidence was a bit shaken last weekend when I was doing some back-road riding in the Washington, Okanogan (nog, not nag as in BC).
I went by some huge industrial scale orchards. Warning signs in English + Spanish. But here’s the thing: I didn’t see one single non-Mexican.
I’m with you, but I really don’t think this labour is available domestically. I could be wrong.
Small Dead Animals,
Thanks for the link, and for the traffic !
Allen in Fort Worth, who mowed his own damn yard.
“large trucking firms are in fact hiring quite aggressively.” Spoken like a true government bureaucrat. Maybe there is a reason trucking companies, for years cant find drivers?. The trucking course I took was full of Immigrants that couldn’t speak English, and were funded by your taxes.(they drove down wages) None wanted to be there. I on the other hand, paid with my savings 25 thousand later. I got my license and then no one would hire me, as I was a new driver.When I found a company willing to hire me I was exploited paid next to nothing treated like garbage couldn’t pay rent. I got shot at robbed and took my life in my hands daily, drivers I drove with are now dead. I was forced to cook my books to keep my job, the fines no longer go to the company but to the drivers. In the end I was clearing a little more then $800 every two weeks. I will never drive again.I worked 24 7 for months on end. Go for it buddy I dare you.
Peter
Where did you take your course? I took my class 1 with Fox Consulting a couple of years ago and it cost me a little over 3 thousand. 25 thousand, you got took. Not getting much work, but I will only drive local, no over night long hauls for me.
Pogey is pogey. I remember when they paid farmers tax dollars, NOT to grow grain.
Companies covered by taxes so no one else can compete. Preferential treatment of other Identity groups, again not only stifles productivity, it decreases it. When you know you have no chance when a notch is sewn up by tribe or clan, why invest? So quality never get better.
Than of course the part time worker. Work in the winter. or summer. Than take holidays for 4 months of the year. Lot of Women who have kids do this. Work six months than Parent the other six.
Its why the Ladies as a group will never have the same income as Men.
Its just the Ladies find other things more important.IMO
The nerds love the lifestyle.
Why work when you have a job waiting? Than almost for months, make almost as much made at the job?
What incentive is that?
There are ways to fix this , but why bother stating the obvious when it will never happen.
JMO
“Where did you take your course?”
The course was around 3 grand but was really just a money grab. You need further private lessons on top to pass. Anywhere from 3.5 to 7 grand was the norm, it depends how good you are.
It was full time during the week and I wasn’t working or collecting any government living cash, unlike how the Immigrants did. Not to mention all the time wasted looking for a job when no one wants you (new driver) thus the 25 grand later.
Peter said; The course was around 3 grand but was really just a money grab. You need further private lessons on top to pass. Anywhere from 3.5 to 7 grand was the norm, it depends how good you are.
It was full time during the week and I wasn’t working or collecting any government living cash, unlike how the Immigrants did. Not to mention all the time wasted looking for a job when no one wants you (new driver) thus the 25 grand later.
Some years ago I was chronically unemployed and decided I needed to change my life…started paying hourly for truck driving instruction..I was on EI at the time…got a cheque and spent as much as I could afford on training til I was able to get my license..then I talked someone in to giving me a job and worked like my life depended on it…cause it did. From there I moved to better and better jobs. I’m no longer trucking but make well into the six figures directly because of my earlier efforts. Moral of the story; You get out exactly as much as you put in…The law of physics demands it.