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I'm one of the underemployed, but I'm not going to complain about it because it's due to my own choices. I left a good career job to take care of my kids. When the surprise last baby came along - giving us three kids in four years, and my fourth child - we realized that with what we'd pay in child care, commuting costs, taxes, etc., may take-home pay wasn't great enough to justify not raising the kids myself.
I'd love to go back to a higher paying design job, but after 12 years at home, the time elapsed and the technology has left me almost unemployable in that field. Fortunately, I have a great deal of skill as a seamstress, so I'm working in the bridal field. Pay isn't fantastic, but it's a lot better than what you'd make at a dry cleaner or somewhere similar.
I'm hoping we can pass along some skills to our kids, since I also framed our kitchen and dining room, laid all the hardwood floors in our house, did the exterior trim, installed the toilet and shower upstairs and did all the tile work, and am in the process of putting stone veneer on the exterior. I thought about trying to get a construction job, but the kind of unlicensed work I'm capable of doing can be done faster and cheaper by .... do I really need to say it? Plus, as much as I think women have pretty equal opportunities, it's harder to find work in physically demanding/male dominated jobs. It can be done, but it's not for me.
Get contract work in your old field. You will be snapped back up in no time. Contact Aerotek for one.
The media tells us we have a record low unemployment rate. As I walk through strip centers and look at the help wanted ads online there seem to be lots of organizations looking for workers. But are they really hiring people?
I know hundreds of people. And lots of them are not working. This is in a major metro area with a low official unemployment rate. They tell me they are sending out tons of resumes and are filling out online employment applications all day. Limited reply and they can't get hired.
I tell them about the many help wanted ads on the windows at the countless strip retail places in town. They say those are not real jobs just advertisements. And they are minimum wage and a few hours a week anyway.
The many people I know who are unemployed seem pretty nice, attractive and well spoken to me. Maybe there is really a shortage of jobs and the low unemployment rate is fake news. (The people I know who are jobless are not bums but seem like they would be great workers.)
Do you know many people who are either unemployed or are only working a low wage part time job because they can't find anything else?
"Jobless rate low but I know lots of unemployed people- do you?"
No I do NOT.
"I know hundreds of people" And? EVERYBODY knows "hundreds of people!.
"And lots of them are not working."
My question to YOU is, WHY are they still unemployed?
" but seem like they would be great workers"
So, you base OTHERS hiring practices on you, "seem like "?
Don't know very many unemployed people but underemployment is still a big problem that nobody wants to talk about.
I know the Millennial generation is taking a beating right now when it comes to public perception due to social justice issues, but a large number of them have college degrees yet are still working the same service industry jobs they had in college. This is a problem.
"a large number of them have college degrees yet are still working the same service industry jobs they had in college"
Goes to show just because you have a sheet of paper, does NOT guarantee getting a good job.
The question always is , "WHAT WAS THEIR MAJOR?"
MANY companies have found, by hiring them and then letting them go, out just because someone "graduated" from college, does NOT mean what it used to.
WAY too many have lived a life in a protected bubble. Never made to do anything around the house, clean their room, make their beds, etc., never held any kind of a job through high school and college, they have NO "work ethic". Been told THEY are entitled to (fill in the blanks).
They get hired at entry level jobs and DEMAND top pay and great benefits.
Companies have learned this and are becoming more selective who they hire.
I know lots of other folks who are in the same boat with me.
We're retired.
"And unemployed."
Technically you are NOT.
To MOST INTELLIGENT people, "unemployed" means, CANNOT FIND WORK.
Being "retired" WAS A CHOICE YOU MADE!
Retired people are NOT counted by the gov't as "unemployed"
I guess you DON'T know everything!
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