Job Market

I left my full-time perm job about 5months ago for personal reasons. I am still looking. I have had interviews, but no luck yet. I have been temping in the mean time, which has been helped with bringing money in. The unemployment rate is 5.5%.

I have tried the following:
www.indeed.com
www.simplyhired.com
www.monster.com
www.hotjobs.com
www.craigslist.org
www.usajobs.gov
Office Team
Nelson Staffing
Palo Alto Staffing
Career Group
Hallmark Personnel
California People Search

I am happy to have the temp job but it is frustrating when you apply everywhere and you only get a couple of call backs.
I just hope this terrible market will turn around at some point.

I know a couple of people who are having similarly tough times with the job market. It's good that you're able to get some work to help make ends meet. How's your husband faring?

Someone mentioned to me a while back that you know times are rough when Google has let people go.

Sheldon,

My husband is lucky, he has a decent job and there has been no indication of lay offs..which is good. He still has to travel for work but at least he has a job. Can you imagine both of us looking?

Anyway, I heard today that Northwest is laying off as well. It seems the airlines are laying off because of the price of gas.

That's one industry I have to feel sorry for, the airline industry, especially the flight attendants. They aren't that highly paid to begin with and they probably end up getting much of the ire of the especially irritated customers who have gotten used to a certain level of service and have become angry about paying extra to check in bags or get cheap snacks on the plan.

Personally, I'd rather see fees levied on people who are weighing down the plane with extra luggage than to have that fee subsidized across the board by light packers who have figured out exactly what they need on a trip... not that this is a totally fair game either though.

Some years ago I was friends with a bunch of flight attendants. They all lived in a house together, but by 2003, all of them had been squeezed out of their jobs or left for greener pastures.

I don't feel sorry for the Airline industry, they are not being replaced by cheap labor from China. I feel sorry for everyone else that is being WALMARTed out of existence. There was a joke on Leno that said China is closing factories in advance of the Olympics to clear the air. The notice was given because WALMART will be out of everything in a short time. People don't make the association: Buy from walmart, screw the workers and screw the United States Economy. Keep practicing you frugal behavior and we will all be replaced by chinese making $20/week.

Buy Japanese cars, buy chinese goods and you will lose your job eventually. They don't pay taxes; they don't pay their employees; and they get away with pollution/environmental atrocities. Japanese Auto makers ASSEMBLE cars in america. THe parts are made in third world countries tax free and exploiting their employees. 60 minutes reported that they sell the parts to US subsidiaries so they have no profit in the USA. They estimated that Japanese auto makers get a 15-20% advantage for screwing the United States out of taxes. Forget all the tax breaks they get from every country they operate in, including the USA. DON'T buy Japanese Cars unless you want to screw your neighbor and your tax base. It is up to you to spend with your mind and your conscious.

We make our manufacturers take care of their employees, pay taxes and negate their environmental impact. What a horrible scenario.... I know everything I sell makes us better off. And everything I sell is made in the USA. How about you..... ?

This post has been edited by techvbjoe on Jul 10 2008, 03:45 PM

And I don't shop at Walmart, ever since I heard they don't want full time employees so they don't have to pay for benefits. Ask a Costco, Safeway, Lucky's employee if they would leave their benefits for less money at Walmart. Even Dollar Tree pays its employees benefits: health, retirement, etc... Shame on WALMART! But hey, you saved a dollar and the Walton's need your money. Each kid is worth over a billion. Sam Walton is personally responsible for the destruction of many downtown business districts. He would put a store just outside the city so as to avoid the city taxes. Shame on Walmart.

There are some really good shows on CNBC. They have specials about Wal-mart and American Airlines that are regularly rerun. Catch this month's episode of Business Nation for the segment on American Airlines. It is the first segment in the hour. They spend so much on fuel, they are doing everything they can to conserve. With the cost of fuel continually rising, it is not a sustainable industry. Air travel is becoming a luxury instead of a right. I work for a large high tech corporation, and air travel is being severely restricted due to the costs. We Americans were too spoiled with cheap gas for so long, we do not know the meaning of the word conservation and want everything cheap. You have to look at both sides of the equation. Sure, big corporations are generally seen as evil but they also employ a lot of people and fulfill a need in the market. Not all of them are like Wal-mart. I support Target because I love their products and their regular prices are cheaper than sale prices at other stores. They also have been donating to local communities since the ‘50s. They donate $3 million a week (5% of their income).

http://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/...Id=PRD03-001086
http://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/...Id=PRD03-001811

Eight airlines have gone out of business in the past few months due to ever-increasing fuel prices. We almost got stranded in Hawaii in April because Aloha Airlines ceased services during our trip. Thanks to Hawaiian Air, we got home on the day we had scheduled.

If our pres had half a brain, we would already have a whole new green sector that would have created tons of new jobs. It's a win-win as carbon emissions go down, Americans can make a decent living, and our dependence on foreign oil is reduced. It is slowly but surely happening but could have happened a lot sooner.

I do not shop at Wal-mart as I do not support their practices but in many areas of America, people don't have a choice. In addition to shopping local and supporting American business, check out my post on Fair Trade.

http://www.socialwave.net/topics/4850/??hl=fair trade

I have made a conscious effort to avoid products made in China when possible. If you shop at Target, their receipts always have a link to a survey where you can rate your shopping experience and provide feedback. I always tell them to stock organic and locally-made products.

Some Toyotas and Hondas are assembled in the U.S. so it’s not fair to say that only the Japanese profit from them. I have only owned Japanese sedans in my 17 years of driving and as far as reliability, safety and value, they are the best. My family has only owned Japanese sedans in the last 20 years and they all last at least 10-15 years. My current car, a ’93 Accord, is 15 years old and still runs great. I keep current on regular maintenance, which is minimal, and haven’t had to do any major repairs. I have driven American rental cars, BMWs and Mercedes as well, and I do not feel safe in an American car. I would love to own a Beemer (it's called The Ultimate Driving Machine for good reason -- but hey, I haven't had the pleasure of driving a Ferrari yet ) but the high cost of maintenance, repairs and insurance is not worth it. I think Mercedes are crap but that's a personal issue. It is also worth noting that the previously best-selling American cars are gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks.

This post has been edited by mobyfan on Jul 15 2008, 01:01 PM

To add to what Mobyfan said about Japanese cars, I have found that the American car companies simply do not get it in regards to fuel economy, and our vehicles impact upon our earth. We need to continue to be looking towards green cars, and accepting the fact that the time of the gas guzzling mega cars is over. We need the American car companies to retool and become part of the 21st century.

As far as shopping at Walmart, I don't shop there because of the way they treat their employees. For me, the last straw was when they tried to sue a severely disabled woman for her share of the proceeds of her lawsuit against the trucking company which caused her accident and disability. She had been an employee for 8 years at the time of the accident. Walmart wanted to recoup the payments made to her through her insurance. There are many other stores that can provide the products for purchase that actually care more about their employees and a little less of the bottom line on their balance sheet.

QUOTE (Callmemiki @ Jul 17 2008, 08:20 AM)

As far as shopping at Walmart, I don't shop there because of the way they treat their employees.  For me, the last straw was when they tried to sue a severely disabled woman for her share of the proceeds of her lawsuit against the trucking company which caused her accident and disability.

I think this is the Wal-mart story Miki is talking about.

Brain-damaged woman at center of Wal-Mart suit
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/25/walmart.i...iref=newssearch

I believe Wal-mart has since reversed their opinion and is paying for her medical care.

Former Intel chief Andy Grove wrote this recent article:
Americans must switch over to electric-powered cars ASAP
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9895907?IADI...mercurynews.com

This post has been edited by mobyfan on Jul 17 2008, 12:03 PM

I have a 92 buick, love it. I have a 95 dodge, love it, I have a 95 VW jetta, love it. DON'T own a japanese care and never will. Do you like that you pay taxes and they don't? Do you like that we are growing ever more in debt to Japan, while they cheat in the market place? They reverse engineer everything, including cars, disk drives, mobile phones and don't allow us to compete in their country. Our rice, our cell phones and our cars are not welcome. We beat them in any market as long as we compete fairly. We invest billions in engineering. They invest in cutting corners and cheating. We have sued them, won and they have paid millions for violating american laws. It still is cheaper than competing with the USA. We make better cars, better everything. Theirs just cost less. No taxes, what a coincidence.

BTW I love Target, been good to my family and my community. They used to own mervyns and one of my favorite charity ideas was outfitting women to work. I forget the name of the program but my mom said it helped many women.

Here is an example of the cheating: Have you ever heard of an american company being sued by a japanese company for stealing a technology? I have not. Applied materials, adobe, apple, motorola, you name it, have sued japanese companies for stealing trade secrets. I was at IBM when japanese companies got caught hiring people away for the technology. They paid.

Support your idealogy with your pocket book.

This post has been edited by techvbjoe on Jul 17 2008, 03:40 PM

Be positive Joe!

This post has been edited by techvbjoe on Jul 18 2008, 03:39 PM

I am working a temporary assignment that has lasted 3months and there is a possiblity of me staying longer. I am working at a Japanese firm. So, it is funny how the conversation here was talking about Japanese cars and American Cars. I myself have a Japanese and American car. So, I cannot say whether I like one more than the other. I love our Toyota Camry but I also love our Chevy Tahoe. With gas prices, we have been driving the Camry more on the weekends. I have to tell you though that if the Tahoe ever broke down and we could not afford to fix it, we thought about getting a Toyota Highlander hybrid or if we could afford it Lexus SUV. Reason why we would want a big car again is that they are so convenient to have espeically if you need to move or you buy something big or even in our case you have lots of room for your pet.