Job Market is good ar bad? (San Diego: college, floor, move to)

[beachrescue]

How is the job market right now for unskilled labor. 23 year old college student.

[NYSD1995]

It's the worst job market in thirty years.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by beachrescue

How is the job market right now for unskilled labor. 23 year old college student.

AWFUL

Nita

[moved]

Forget it!

[Bigfoot Tracks]

Not good at all, there are listings for jobs but it seems like they either are all filled fast or are filled by in-house.

[Cerberus]

Forum-members at large,


I’m still surprised at the number of people that request how the Job Market is in San Diego. For the OP (beachrescue) and future readers, the market sucks right now for anyone that doesn’t have some “specialized” training, which I refer to a “niche” jobs.


Unless you have on of these “niche” jobs, the market IMHO, is extremely poor and probably will remain so for a long time.


For unskilled students, etc, and not picking on beachrescue, I can relate my own wife’s recent forays into the job market in San Diego.


My wife applied at the Wal-Mart career center. We were both surprised when they called ~ 4days later. An interview was set up very quickly. The wife went to the first interview and was rescheduled for a later interview with the Floor Manager. She attended the second interview and then found out that she was one of 6 applicants out of 600 plus, which applied for a SINGLE graveyard shift cashier position!

If this story doesn’t give you some idea of the job market; then you may have some true reality issues.


I’m just thankful that I have a career choice that does have a well-paying, stable “niche” job, which allows me to remain in San Diego. Lord! I would hate to think about returning to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where I was before San Diego 2.5 years ago!


I wish all job seekers the best of luck, and they are able to find something!

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by Cerberus

I’m just thankful that I have a career choice that does have a well-paying, stable “niche” job

Even for the specialized worker it is not easy. It is better for sure, but very slow. The major problem is that when you reach a certain pay and experience level (think 10+ years and 100k+) the job market thins out so much that you end up looking at very few possible jobs.

I am in that position right now. It is very hard to find anything at my level in San Diego. I could take a step down in responsibility and probably maintain my pay level, but it would be a pretty significant career setback. I will most likely have to move to another city to progress beyond my current level.

[thepinksquid]

So my husband and I own are own business (web related) and, luckily, we're doing okay at the moment.

A few weeks ago I got a little antsy and paranoid at being "self-employed" and started to apply for jobs. Now mind you, I have decent experiences, a good resume, and solid references to offer. Unfortunately my degree is only in Business Admin. but I have a good deal of specific experience from various projects I've done on my own. I have a solid knowledge of several programming languages, and I used to work in database administration. Anyhow...

I ended up applying for 35 jobs of varying levels of relevancy. Do you know how many contacted me back? Zero. None. Not one.

Now... I'm lucky enough to be doing "fairly well" with my work, and the idea of going back to working in a cube 50 hours a week makes me want to gag, but still... let that be a lesson on how the job market is. It sucks.

[Cerberus]

Originally Posted by thepinksquid

So my husband and I own are own business (web related) and, luckily, we're doing okay at the moment.

A few weeks ago I got a little antsy and paranoid at being "self-employed" and started to apply for jobs. Now mind you, I have decent experiences, a good resume, and solid references to offer. Unfortunately my degree is only in Business Admin. but I have a good deal of specific experience from various projects I've done on my own. I have a solid knowledge of several programming languages, and I used to work in database administration. Anyhow...

I ended up applying for 35 jobs of varying levels of relevancy. Do you know how many contacted me back? Zero. None. Not one.

Now... I'm lucky enough to be doing "fairly well" with my work, and the idea of going back to working in a cube 50 hours a week makes me want to gag, but still... let that be a lesson on how the job market is. It sucks.

TPSquid,

You are absolutely correct regard to submission for applications and resume submittal. My wife did the same thing. I believe the last count I had was 85 or so. Only two firms actual contacted her to set up interviews. One was Macy's (she was previously employed here as seasonal help), and the other was Wal-Mart, I spoke of previously.

The only thing that I disliked was the electronic submission of applications/resumes. IMHO, this is ideal for a X,Y or Z recuiter, for whatever firm. It is akin to shouting into a cave and no "voice" returns. I understand that this is a filtering system. However, the very least a firm that uses this method could have some courtesy and simply state they have nothing. NOT let the applicant just sit needlessly by. My wife stated she would just be happy, if they would just tell her F#$% you. At least she knew that someone was inside the cave, listening! LOL

Are most forum members having this same problem with electronic application submissions? Or is there a hole in my umbrella, and I'm the only one getting wet?

I do agree with Sassberto regard to higher niche positions. Seems that higher echelons jobs have to take a step backwards to exist at times. Most of our engineers are having their hours at work reduced. AND BTW, don;t even talk about overtime. Our firm uses COMP time. Time and half indeed!

[thepinksquid]

^^ Probably the scariest thing for me is that for those that DID contact me back, it was mostly messages saying "we're sorry...this job is no longer available" rather than "we did not select you to interview" ...so it's basically that companies aren't filling positions that they have had postings for. Weird.