[MaryLou2007]

Hi!

Some of you already know me... 5 years in Orlando, moving away, etc. But after this weekend, I have to pose the question:

WHERE are the so-called "Good Paying jobs" in Central Fla??

Can anyone tell me?

I met with a large group of people this weekend (similar to a "job counseling camp") with over 250 people in Orlando. The general concern are jobs... WHERE are the jobs, where are the benefits, where are the sick-day allowances, where are pay increases to match the cost of living?

To clarify, these were not homeless people, those are not high school dropouts, those are not convicted felons. A lot of these people at this event had to submit their resumes in advance, as some unemployment people were there to help them get jobs. Lots of them came in to get answers as to why the bad job situation these days.

These people are medium to high middle class, college educated, mostly white and African American families people (many had kids with them). Those are transplants down to Florida, struggling to find work and those that find work are being paid so little, they feel the "weight of oppression and poverty over their shoulder" as one speaker noted. These people are basically scrapping by, struggling to keep the pantry with food until their next paycheck, while worrying about paying over $1,000 in rent in a disgusting apartment complex off of Americana Blvd in Orlando.

When people had a chance to speak (which was about 1/2 of the time), one person who is a lifetime FL resident stated that back 4 - 5 years ago, "you could quit your job with your employer on a Monday, get home and send out your resume to 3 or 4 companies and have an interview on Tuesday morning at 9am, actually 2 or 3 calls that very day". Now, he says, it has taken him 3 months and almost all resumes sent never generate any interviews or calls back. Yet another raised the issue of not being able to take jobs for $9.50/h as a legal secretary with an AS degree. Yet another said his last job as a citrus tech engineer down in Auburndale, FL was downsized for a "person who spoke virtually no English" and he got no reason as to why he was fired. Finally (the most shocking one in my opinion) this one individual was told by the company where he applied for turned him down because he "did not wnat to get paid under the table as it is common in the construction industry in FL". Seems like companies in the construction industry (some jobs paid as much as $20/h) only hire illegal aliens on a cash basis. What is going on?

I can say from my personal experience, my husband was fired for not speaking Spanish after 2 years at his job and he had a very difficult time finding real work after that. He was forced to live in a week-rate hotel (with a kitchen and all) for a couple months, so he could have A job. Then he took another job in Orlando making marginal wages compared to the rest of the country.

Please note that I don't want a poilitical discussion. After meeting with these people, I ask again: WHERE ARE THE SO-CALLED GOOD PAYING JOBS IN CENTRAL FLORIDA?

Anyone have any ideas?

[Jammie]

Mary Lou, that's a very good question and I believe that you've already answered it without realizing that you did. When we were staying at different motels down there, I'd strike up conversations with the housekeepers and the front desk associates. I'd ask how plentiful jobs were along those lines or if there was group healthcare offered and if they liked their job. Let's just put it this way~English was definitely not their first language. I'd try to speak slowly and clearly and we could communicate enough for me to learn that their wage was very low and there were no benies involved. It wasn't much different when I'd be in a convenience store and talk to the cashier. This is just becoming so frustrating for me cause I won't be able to move down there without securing employment. And no, I don't expect someone to hire me since I live many miles away and don't even know what month we'd be relocating, BUT I've been casing out employment sites and making a few phone calls and basically just chatting to get info and things don't look very promising. It just seems like there are many areas of the country where employment is available and they don't have anything near the tourism or retirees that Fla. has. I'm so glad you posted this because I've been wondering what's going on.

It just escapes me how there can be so many people there and so many of them are older people who don't work or only work part time. There should be a lot of jobs for caregivers and cooks and cleaners, etc. And that's no including all the employment that should be available because of the tourism down there which should produce many jobs.

[gypsychic]

I can't speak for all areas of the state, but the best jobs, best salaries with bennies, etc. would be in health care, and in various branches of government. My husband works for Hillsborough County in Tampa, and has a great job, great pay raises and benefits and pretty good security.

[txlady]

Many in the construction will not hire you unless you will work for pennies or will work under the table.this is thank s to large culture of people who have come into our state from less well of countries and it only benifits the rich.Stop the madness and wake up america! or as sunrico said put a blanket over your head cause were here to stay.soon there will be nowhere to go to find work unless you wanna say want fries with that?or you wanna do for 9.$ what you get paid 30$ for now .they are taking our jobs .stand up for youreselves instead of just talking about it here.Snub that illegal next time you see him ,remind him he is not welcome,quit getting trampled by the pc police and do something.the time to be polite has gone .let the illegal next door know how you feel.we are with you.

its kinda of cool because for every bad response i get to my posts here saying im a racist or just cant see the picture i get 20 pms telling me right on ,keep it up ,how can we get organized?let em know how you feel!!!!

[sunrico90]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

I can't speak for all areas of the state, but the best jobs, best salaries with bennies, etc. would be in health care, and in various branches of government. My husband works for Hillsborough County in Tampa, and has a great job, great pay raises and benefits and pretty good security.

The government, GOV contractors and health care does have a higher pay scale in the northwest area. I believe the demand and supply of jobs is greatly affected by the surplus of people in central Florida. I'll see if I can get a statistical comparison job/unemployment for central Florida.

I know of many military contractors companies in Central Florida that pay solid salaries and provide benefits....

[txlady]

The goverment will not help you .
WAKE UP

[Need_affordable_home]

I too cant get a job paying more than $10/hour in Florida and the last job I got, many employees were imigrants who spoke little english. Thats where all the jobs are going to. Those companies are more than happy to hire imigrants willing to work for chump change. You may need to be self employed or start your own business if you want good money, sorry to say.

[shedav]

I also noticed all the immigrants in Orlando on our last visit. Mostly working at the condo we stayed in and the gas stations. The most frustrating part was they were rude and never spoke English. We had an incident at one of the parking lots at Disney where my husband and I had to drive both vehicles because of our family size. They were directing us where to park and speaking choppy english at first when I realized my husband was being sent to a different area. He tried to explain this to the worker that we were together when all of a sudden he got very rude and started ranting my husband and him got into an argument and he of course started speaking spanish and acting like he had no idea what my husband was saying in the end. We ended up getting seperated which was horrible because it took us forever to get back together and get our belongings in order. I did complain to the main office that if they were going to hire immigrants that they should have to speak english.funny thing is they said that was one of there requirements and he seemed shocked, but under his concern I knew I was complaining on deaf ears. I also noticed while grocery shopping many of the foods packaged there were in english and spanish and anything said over the intercom was in both languages. I was upset. Like previous posts I am in no way prejudice and treat everyone the way I would like to be treated but I do agree that this is America and if you want to come here for a better life that is great but do it LEGALLY and learn our language ENGLISH.
I work with an obstetrician who is in her 3rd year of residency and she is applying to be a resident LEGALLY she has until 2011. She will be working as an obstetrician way before then. It just gets under my skin that you have people who are productive citizens and try and do the right thing and then you have the illegal ones who thinks they should have the same rights as her? rediculous.
If I moved to France I would not expect them to learn my language but I would accept the fact that I was in THEIR country and learn THEIR language.
Sorry about the ranting and really living in WV illegal immigration isnt much of an issue but I do keep up with what is going on around the US and it just makes me sick especially when I saw how they behaved on camera waving THEIR FLAG if they like their country so well...well go back then!!!!! or learn to live in our culture and respect our language and become citizens the LEGAL way!!!

[shedav]

One more thing I find rediculous. I was looking through my daughter ENGLISH book the other day and looked in the Glossary and dictionary section and guess what??? The parts of her english book was in BOTH languages. GO FIGURE! I thought they had english books to learn the english language?? It really just rubbed me the wrong way.

[Jammie]

Shedav, you can rant all you want cause I feel the exact same way. It appears that they're the ones who are getting most of the jobs that Americans would do. They rent one house and about 20 live there, they don't care about health insurance cause the county pays their healthcare bills and they don't need life insurance because the counties bury them. It's kind of a two edged sword though because it appears that a lot of Americans are willing to hire them just so they can keep the profits.