How many of us are out of work, actively looking for a job and cannot find one? (Scranton: health insurance, employment)

[coalboy]

Originally Posted by geminilady

thanks varminblaster for the suggestions. I will give that approach a try

yeah, he's a PITA more often than not... but he has a good heart...
politics aside... and is , IMHO, a good source of info to y'all in Nepa for any local info and help...

[DavidWebb]

For consulting work / working from home: Work @ Home

[mathjak107]

nepa is all based on tourism for the most part so if thats not booming everything else is dead in the water.

here in nyc the job markets are wierd. typically every industry has its best of breed heavy hitter employees companies would rather loose their arm then lose one of these employees. unless they are going out of business these employees are always taken care of and would never be layed off in a mass layoff.

of course we all like to think we are in that class but our companies view things different then we do.

right now we are hiring in all slots in my company and what we want are some of these best of breed employees but they are rare to find. a company i worked for and left went under this year. within one day we snatched up the best they had.

now we are still interviewing everyday but what we are getting really is that second tier of employees looking for work. to them they are saying there just are no jobs out there. the reality is there are jobs but unless you are known,well experienced and in that select group you are not being selected.

i have been in my industry for more then 30 years and when the company i worked for and i parted ways within 1 day the offers came pouring in.... i took a job ,didnt like it and decided to put feelers out. again offers poured in. took a job and still get offers. on the other hand my co-workers are still out of work.not that they arent good but they just arent looked at as best of breed in our industry because they never had an identity that put them on the radar of their competitors as the enemy and so they are un-noticed and just another faceless person looking for a job.....

starting new in a career is real tough right now its hard to get to first base. but one thing i will stress is make sure when you are working you always network with others so you arent buried in the rubel when the day comes you want a job.

you have to make yourself clearly visible to your competitors so you are always on their radar too. i never considered myself exceptional at what i do but the fact that wherever my competitors go they see my card, my products etc puts me on their radar. a competitor called me and said he was authorized to leave a blank check on the table to get me over on their team as they would rather have me with them then against them.....thats the name of the game folks. you dont have to be exceptional but you do have to have that mystique of being in that select group.

[bloominscranton]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

nepa is all based on tourism for the most part so if thats not booming everything else is dead in the water.

here in nyc the job markets are wierd. typically every industry has its best of breed heavy hitter employees companies would rather loose their arm then lose one of these employees. unless they are going out of business these employees are always taken care of and would never be layed off in a mass layoff.

of course we all like to think we are in that class but our companies view things different then we do.

right now we are hiring in all slots in my company and what we want are some of these best of breed employees but they are rare to find. a company i worked for and left went under this year. within one day we snatched up the best they had.

now we are still interviewing everyday but what we are getting really is that second tier of employees looking for work. to them they are saying there just are no jobs out there. the reality is there are jobs but unless you are known,well experienced and in that select group you are not being selected.

i have been in my industry for more then 30 years and when the company i worked for and i parted ways within 1 day the offers came pouring in.... i took a job ,didnt like it and decided to put feelers out. again offers poured in. took a job and still get offers. on the other hand my co-workers are still out of work.not that they arent good but they just arent looked at as best of breed in our industry because they never had an identity that put them on the radar of their competitors as the enemy and so they are un-noticed and just another faceless person looking for a job.....

starting new in a career is real tough right now its hard to get to first base. but one thing i will stress is make sure when you are working you always network with others so you arent buried in the rubel when the day comes you want a job.

you have to make yourself clearly visible to your competitors so you are always on their radar too. i never considered myself exceptional at what i do but the fact that wherever my competitors go they see my card, my products etc puts me on their radar. a competitor called me and said he was authorized to leave a blank check on the table to get me over on their team as they would rather have me with them then against them.....thats the name of the game folks. you dont have to be exceptional but you do have to have that mystique of being in that select group.

Exactly and very well said! While I am on disability retirement, once I get my health conditions finally resolved ( praying on it) I hope to re-enter the work force. While my former branch chief, HATED ME, my work was beyond reproach and my reviews reflected it. We would all like to think we are irreplaceable, but we are, yet there is always someone else waiting to pick up the good ones!

[PITTSTON2SARASOTA]

Originally Posted by theatergypsy

I don't understand the reason for your inability to collect UC. Can you please explain?

I am unemployed, involuntarily, for the last 10 years. I am no longer seeking employment. The company I worked for, making a good salary and good bennies, packed up and moved the operation to Allentown under a bankruptcy restructuring. (Our satellite office was profitable, but the overall company management was lacking). At the time, I was 65, and already collecting SS and Medicare-eligible.

I applied for similar positions in three local companies that did the same work. One didn't respond, two interviewed and said I was "over-qualified" which is CYA-Speak for "too old". I was willing to take the lower starting salary and forego the bennies, but no matter.

I ended up collecting UC for 26 weeks and then a second and yet a third tier for a total of 52 weeks.

I am no longer seeking employment.

NO......you can DM me if you are sincere in your request........Florida's "right to work" laws are archaic.

[frank754]

Asking around this week at Weis Markets & Wegmans, I found neither one is a union shop, and that Wegmans only pays $7.25 to start for part-timers. A full 40-hour week would barely pay my monthly gas bill, let alone make inroads on the other stuff. I wonder if Gerrity's or any other is union. If not, I guess that's the reason a lot of the unionized stores went out of business, high labor costs. I was thinking that if all else fails, a retail job could be a temporary option. I remember working for A&P in the mid-late 80's, a newcomer wouldn't make much more than minimum wage, but once you got full-time the wage would more than double, there were around 60 employees and only 10 fulltimers, but back in 1988 or so, the fulltimers were making around $11 an hour, with good health care, $100 a year optical, full dental with a $25/yr deductible, a pension plan which kicked in starting in just 10 years, and life insurance. In the past 20 years everything has gone up, but not the wages that much. I worked for RGIS inventory as a team leader in Binghamton and was making almost $11/hr in 1996.
Nowadays, even if you own your own home free & clear, in W-B it's costing me & my wife (monthly) about $200 for natural gas, $150 for electric, $56 for internet, $40 for water, $60 each for cell phones, $50 for car ins., $40 for homeowners, and $120 for property taxes, and say about $400 for food & misc, not including gasoline. We don't have cable tv or a home phone bill, but that's almost $1200 right there, with no provision for car repairs, clothing, emergencies, medical, etc.
We don't have medical insurance, and my wife works part time for $9.25 and has recurring med bills, back IRS taxes from her better times, etc., so I have to pay 100% of the food/shelter expenses. So I would have to take home about $1400/mo just for us to break even, and that's with no kids or major things that could come up.
I think that's a story which is repeating itself too often in recent years, and a lot of the free-lance jobs out there are working for some middleman that charges the clients a professional rate (like my wife who does in-store marketing/resets) and then the actual person that does the work gets paid very little.

[Magritte25]

Wegman's has consistently rated as one of the top 100 employers in the nation.

100 Best Companies to Work For 2010: Wegmans Food Markets - from FORTUNE

They may not pay much at first but I know several people who have been at Wegman's since the 90s. And they are very able to support their families nicely.

[MatildaLoo]

Originally Posted by Magritte25

Wegman's has consistently rated as one of the top 100 employers in the nation.

100 Best Companies to Work For 2010: Wegmans Food Markets - from FORTUNE

They may not pay much at first but I know several people who have been at Wegman's since the 90s. And they are very able to support their families nicely.

From what I understand, Wegmans also offers benefits for p-t employees, which is nice.

[gal_in_NEPA]

Left my last F/T job voluntarily (so no unemployment) a few yrs ago... we cashed in some saved $ so I could take a couple of classes and get computerized in what I'd done earlier in my career and have a degree in. With the current conditions, and the fact that I'm now in that 5-0 age group, it's not at all easy like it used to be for me. Besides, (and this is a kinda small thing for some) I'd gained some weight.... I REALLY didn't think it would make a difference, since my work and great work ethic should speak for itself, RIGHT?!) , but a couple of key people I knew in my industry do react differently. Confirmed. ANYWAY, I do some p/t "as needed"... some weeks there isn't anything... but I can still allot this time to that job, as it is, on my resume. That's one good thing. In the meantime I'm searching the sites mentioned above, and learning new things on the computer on my own. BTW, I did apply for retail etc jobs but they're looking for people who specifically and/or recently did the exact job requiremts.

[frank754]

Another thing (I may have mentioned it before), is that beyond the old-fashioned brick & mortar jobs, a lot of the "service" sector jobs out there have become more national and not run locally. This includes just about every area. There are big banks that hire local appraisers as well as notaries, and you have to join some sort of internet referral group to get in on that, as well as the marketing work like my wife does (cell phone & video racks & resetting displays in stores), they pay a lot less than if you got in with a local company or contracted it yourself. So there's a big "middleman" sector out there charging professional rates, and getting the foot-people to do it for cut-rate, just making a buck on other peoples' work. I've looked for work on various boards, and I actually did find one direct free lance job this month via my own web advertising efforts, but that's rare. Too much of the stuff out there is commission-based or self-starter work, where you could make a good pay if you are aggressive, but still only 20% or so of what the people you work for rake in. And it's at no risk or cost to them. There was this one ad on Craigslist to fix computers, the job might only take 1/2 hour or so and they'd pay you $18, but you'd have to drive up to 30 miles each way and there was no mention about how many assignments you would get per week. Truly a lot of this is geared to the desperate, rather than those who actually think they could make an honest and profitable living out of it.