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Well it seems that everyone is having a problem getting a job. See my post "Unemployed forever" I have sent resumes to over 43 job postings on line and have not gotten one call! I have applied at Home Depot, Loews, supermarkets. Yes, I worked and was getting 38,000.00 a year. Now I have not one cent coming in. I have been living on my savings since October 2006. I just want a job so I can pay my mortgage. I am a single women in my 50's. I enjoy working, if I can get a job I will probably work until I am 65. What do I do if I don't get a job? Will I have to sell my home and move into my car! I don't want to live with relatives. I have been on my own since I was 19 yrs old. I planned on working until I could not care for myself and then go into a Nursing home till the end. Where are the JOBS in Connecticut??
Location: Orlando, FL - used to be nice, a dump now. Anyone speak English down here???
340 posts, read 433,285 times
Reputation: 77
Quote:
Originally Posted by MEOWKATS4
Well it seems that everyone is having a problem getting a job. See my post "Unemployed forever" I have sent resumes to over 43 job postings on line and have not gotten one call! I have applied at Home Depot, Loews, supermarkets.
The job market in this country is going to hell in a handbasket. And to make matters worse, we have endless competition from illegal aliens who earn 1/2 of what US workers make, push everyone else in further poverty. How can anyone in the middle class compete with an illegal alien who makes 1/2 of what they make?? So we are outsourcing US jobs overseas (call center jobs, manufacturing, farming, etc) and we are outsourcing US jobs internally with massive immigration (mostly illegal).
No wonder large and powerful corporations WANT a "guest worker" amnesty. This way they can inflate the US workforce and depress wages. It is great for the rich!!
I think if you really look at the amnesty senators in Congress, you will see large campaign contributions from Walmart, Tyson chicken, Microsoft, etc. Companies that only care about paying workers nothing and adding to their porfits!
People need to get angry and make the illegal leave. They are illegal, what part of "illegal" do people not understand?!?
Finding good work in South Florida, little alone Palm Beach County is tough. I know of plenty of people who move here looking to start a new life and find out real fast that it's not a cake walk unless of course your rich. An I'm talking a few years ago when it was actually affordable to live here. Not anymore, even if you do get a job it won't pay a living wage. I struggled with a dead end job for two years and finally found something after sending out countless resumes, many of which fell on deaf ears.
Problem is, if you have experience and the degree for the job, you have to work just as hard to find a company that's willing to pay you a decent if not still poor (in relation to the area) salary. I had plenty of interviews or phone screenings which ended with, "I don't think I can afford you" and "The job only pay's so much and I think your over-qualified" and etc. Get the picture? The plain truth is here, companies don't want to pay period. Yes you may get lucky and get something that pay's better, but it still won't be enough in the end on average.
As negative as it sounds, I know of plenty of people who moved here from somewhere else, some with families some with not and a lot of them left and went elsewhere or back to where they came from.
What hurt Florida and in general Palm Beach County is one several things, home prices, insurance rates and yes Hurricane Season 2004/2005, Florida was always noted for not having much in the way of jobs or good paying ones at that. It has somewhat changed but very slowly and I don't see salaries rising to proportional rates to make things affordable, after maybe older employees retire companies will find it hard to place positions even more, it's already happening but it's not making them rethink their methods.
Location: Orlando, FL - used to be nice, a dump now. Anyone speak English down here???
340 posts, read 433,285 times
Reputation: 77
Quote:
Originally Posted by blauskies
Finding good work in South Florida, little alone Palm Beach County is tough. I know of plenty of people who move here looking to start a new life and find out real fast that it's not a cake walk unless of course your rich. An I'm talking a few years ago when it was actually affordable to live here. Not anymore, even if you do get a job it won't pay a living wage. I struggled with a dead end job for two years and finally found something after sending out countless resumes, many of which fell on deaf ears.
Problem is, if you have experience and the degree for the job, you have to work just as hard to find a company that's willing to pay you a decent if not still poor (in relation to the area) salary. I had plenty of interviews or phone screenings which ended with, "I don't think I can afford you" and "The job only pay's so much and I think your over-qualified" and etc. Get the picture? The plain truth is here, companies don't want to pay period. Yes you may get lucky and get something that pay's better, but it still won't be enough in the end on average.
As negative as it sounds, I know of plenty of people who moved here from somewhere else, some with families some with not and a lot of them left and went elsewhere or back to where they came from.
What hurt Florida and in general Palm Beach County is one several things, home prices, insurance rates and yes Hurricane Season 2004/2005, Florida was always noted for not having much in the way of jobs or good paying ones at that. It has somewhat changed but very slowly and I don't see salaries rising to proportional rates to make things affordable, after maybe older employees retire companies will find it hard to place positions even more, it's already happening but it's not making them rethink their methods.
Blauskies:
I guess the "Living Wage" as you describe is not longer available. Let me give you a simple example. Back in 1998, I worked for a import/export company doing basic administrative work (admn Assistant). I was being paid $8.65/h and I had health insurance 100% paid for by the company. Mind you, this is a small company (less than 20 employees). This was a starter position and I had barely no experience in the job.
Right now, you can open to local newspaper and see the same exact jobs out there. The starting pay for a similar position is at the MOST $9.00/h. No health insurance.... you will be LUCKY if you can get even more than 6 days off/sick time/vacation time per year. Now the competition for this position will be so brutal, interviewers often will call in 3 people for a group interview. This is basically an interviewing system where the company wants to scare the applicants into lowering wage expectations. It has happened to me before, I had never experienced that, but it bacame clear to the 3 other people that left after the interview that this is a trick to lower wages and make the applicants paranoid of competition.
If you look at the job wanted ads these days, companies do not even list the wage they pay, the name of the contact person, or the name of the company. In the legal field, companies do not even list what area of the law it is!!! All to the benefit of the hiring company. A "livable wage" these days is a wage that would cover basic expenses, and maybe even a cheapie car or bus fares. Seems like more and more people are using credit cards to cover for what the current GFL wages are not paying.
How is this keeping up with the cost of living? Rents back in 1998 were very affordable in Central Florida. You could rent a a 2/2 in Orlando in a very nice area for $700/mo. Now a 2/2 apt in orlando will cost you at the very least $1,300/mo. How is a .35 cent increase in the hourly wage make up for this difference?
How can anyone even afford to have a car and pay the insurance rates on such pay??? Can you even afford the bus fare on let's say $8/mo, still have a place to live (not your parent's house)?
Does anyone have any clues on how people in the Disney (let's raise it to $8.00/h) make it through the month??? Any money-saving tips I may not be aware of??
I guess the "Living Wage" as you describe is not longer available. Let me give you a simple example. Back in 1998, I worked for a import/export company doing basic administrative work (admn Assistant). I was being paid $8.65/h and I had health insurance 100% paid for by the company. Mind you, this is a small company (less than 20 employees). This was a starter position and I had barely no experience in the job.
Right now, you can open to local newspaper and see the same exact jobs out there. The starting pay for a similar position is at the MOST $9.00/h. No health insurance.... you will be LUCKY if you can get even more than 6 days off/sick time/vacation time per year. Now the competition for this position will be so brutal, interviewers often will call in 3 people for a group interview. This is basically an interviewing system where the company wants to scare the applicants into lowering wage expectations. It has happened to me before, I had never experienced that, but it bacame clear to the 3 other people that left after the interview that this is a trick to lower wages and make the applicants paranoid of competition.
If you look at the job wanted ads these days, companies do not even list the wage they pay, the name of the contact person, or the name of the company. In the legal field, companies do not even list what area of the law it is!!! All to the benefit of the hiring company. A "livable wage" these days is a wage that would cover basic expenses, and maybe even a cheapie car or bus fares. Seems like more and more people are using credit cards to cover for what the current GFL wages are not paying.
How is this keeping up with the cost of living? Rents back in 1998 were very affordable in Central Florida. You could rent a a 2/2 in Orlando in a very nice area for $700/mo. Now a 2/2 apt in orlando will cost you at the very least $1,300/mo. How is a .35 cent increase in the hourly wage make up for this difference?
How can anyone even afford to have a car and pay the insurance rates on such pay??? Can you even afford the bus fare on let's say $8/mo, still have a place to live (not your parent's house)?
Does anyone have any clues on how people in the Disney (let's raise it to $8.00/h) make it through the month??? Any money-saving tips I may not be aware of??
I agree, "living wage" doesnt' exist. I see jobs in the paper here offering a little more $10-$12/hr, a joke if you ask me when you figure out the cost of living. Most people are spending 50% of the income on rent if not more here. I see plenty of kids in there 20's living with their parents and driving new cars that cost $20-30K. That's not a solution, since they are basically pigeonholed and will not be able to go out and work afford this lifestyle on top of paying for their own place.
I don't know how people that work at Disney can afford it, my guess is as it is many times when I look around here is, people that are getting by probably moved here when it was cheap and already have the house paid off. Even here, 10 years ago or so you could buy a brand new CBS construction/barrel tile roof 3/2/2 in a gated community for less then $120K. Figure in low interest rates, these people are paying less per month then the same person that lives in a 1/1 apartment here at $1,100/month at the minimum. The only thing that is hurting or should I say rearing it's head is Property Taxes and Homeowners Insurance, all the sudden "affordable housing" is not an issue, it's "affordable insurance".
If the answer for affordable housing is tight row homes on zero lot lines then you can imagine how it will look in 20 years.
I agree, "living wage" doesnt' exist. I see jobs in the paper here offering a little more $10-$12/hr, a joke if you ask me when you figure out the cost of living. Most people are spending 50% of the income on rent if not more here. I see plenty of kids in there 20's living with their parents and driving new cars that cost $20-30K. That's not a solution, since they are basically pigeonholed and will not be able to go out and work afford this lifestyle on top of paying for their own place.
I don't know how people that work at Disney can afford it, my guess is as it is many times when I look around here is, people that are getting by probably moved here when it was cheap and already have the house paid off. Even here, 10 years ago or so you could buy a brand new CBS construction/barrel tile roof 3/2/2 in a gated community for less then $120K. Figure in low interest rates, these people are paying less per month then the same person that lives in a 1/1 apartment here at $1,100/month at the minimum. The only thing that is hurting or should I say rearing it's head is Property Taxes and Homeowners Insurance, all the sudden "affordable housing" is not an issue, it's "affordable insurance".
If the answer for affordable housing is tight row homes on zero lot lines then you can imagine how it will look in 20 years.
blauskies,
I believe the lack of a diversified economy is the problem. The area depends entirely in tourism, the hospitality industry does not pay well and the supply of individuals waiting to be hired is greater than the demand for jobs, immediately drives wages low.
I would like to see a post from a Disney employee and view the comments .
I believe the lack of a diversified economy is the problem. The area depends entirely in tourism, the hospitality industry does not pay well and the supply of individuals waiting to be hired is greater than the demand for jobs, immediately drives wages low.
I would like to see a post from a Disney employee and view the comments .
Well Palm Beach County and Jeb were googa gagga over Biotech, luring Scripps to build a research institute, problem measurable results won't be evident for a long time and even still the average salary of $40K a year for those who even have hopes of getting employed isn't enough to live off of. The few high paying "Scientist" jobs they have may fare better, the thing is luring these folks to the area.
Tourism here is somewhat different then Orlando, still drives the economy but how long till they have to bus in low paid workers who can't afford housing from places like Belle Glade and around Lake O? Probably the only place they can afford to live and it's not a nice area.
Location: Orlando, FL - used to be nice, a dump now. Anyone speak English down here???
340 posts, read 433,285 times
Reputation: 77
Quote:
Originally Posted by blauskies
I agree, "living wage" doesnt' exist. I see jobs in the paper here offering a little more $10-$12/hr, a joke if you ask me when you figure out the cost of living. Most people are spending 50% of the income on rent if not more here. I see plenty of kids in there 20's living with their parents and driving new cars that cost $20-30K. That's not a solution, since they are basically pigeonholed and will not be able to go out and work afford this lifestyle on top of paying for their own place.
I don't know how people that work at Disney can afford it, my guess is as it is many times when I look around here is, people that are getting by probably moved here when it was cheap and already have the house paid off. Even here, 10 years ago or so you could buy a brand new CBS construction/barrel tile roof 3/2/2 in a gated community for less then $120K. Figure in low interest rates, these people are paying less per month then the same person that lives in a 1/1 apartment here at $1,100/month at the minimum. The only thing that is hurting or should I say rearing it's head is Property Taxes and Homeowners Insurance, all the sudden "affordable housing" is not an issue, it's "affordable insurance".
If the answer for affordable housing is tight row homes on zero lot lines then you can imagine how it will look in 20 years.
The "living wage" used to exist. I have worked for a import/export company back in 1998 (a long time ago) and got paid a lot more back then than current Disney, hotel, fast food, cleaning, gas station jobs pay NOW. See before, we didn't have this swarm of illegal taking the jobs and lowering US wages.
Man, we spend almost 45% of our combined income on rent alone. We pay for renter's insurance too, because had we had a hurricane in 2006 or a fire, we'd lose everything, then we could become homeless. Not taking that chance I already don't have health insurance (even though I work FT), why risk not having renter's ins?
Oh, I remembered.. one way Disney people afford living here at $6.15/h is called the "Disney College Program". It is basically an "internship" program where students from all over the USA come down and live in the Disney apts and pay them super low rent. It is basically a prostitution apt complex, everyone is screweing everyone, Ruffies get used, cops are there weekly. I knew a girl who was in that program way back when, it was mess, man.
In 20 years, there will be no people in their 20's with homes. They either live with parents or rent an apt and pile up 5 roommates in.
Come on, South and Central Florida are a mirror of Los Angeles, minus the earthquakes, add the hurricanes.
I agree, "living wage" doesnt' exist. I see jobs in the paper here offering a little more $10-$12/hr, a joke if you ask me when you figure out the cost of living. Most people are spending 50% of the income on rent if not more here. I see plenty of kids in there 20's living with their parents and driving new cars that cost $20-30K. That's not a solution, since they are basically pigeonholed and will not be able to go out and work afford this lifestyle on top of paying for their own place.
:
You describe a good chunk of the population of the planet, the same goes for Christian11's comments above, where people even well into their 30s live with their parents (Europe is a good example, but not only).
The "golden age" of the middle class, when almost anyone with half an education could leave his parents' house and more or less replicate the same lifestyle through an "ordinary" job, is over.
US society, the middle class in particular, is declining towards a level approaching that of a significant portion of the rest of the world, and another significant portion of the rest of the world is slowly rising to the new, lower level of most of the current US middle class.
We are all meeting somewhere at a mediocre, low-level middle, and Florida, with all its particularities, is part of that general process.
Last edited by bale002; 12-20-2006 at 01:50 AM..
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the hospitality industry does not pay well and the supply of individuals waiting to be hired is greater than the demand for jobs, immediately drives wages low.
