Unemployment

[LAM]

In D.C, you can collect unemployment insurance benefits for up to 99 weeks. Then, when that 99 weeks is up, there's an emergency extension program where you can continue to collect unemployment benefits, but the work contacts per week are supposed to increase from 2 to 4. I don't advocate being a load and living off the government, but I totally understand why/how people become dependent on government. 99 weeks to sit back and collect a check is a long time. I don't know many people that wouldn't become addicted to that.

Emergency Unemployment Compensation continues until the end of 2012. it takes a long time to replace a high paying white collar job these days. replacing a middle income white collar job with a $14/hr low wage service sector job is a dead end and a step to no where except poverty. most of the 5M jobs that were lost in large firms in the private sector in 2008 when they reduced workforces have been filled but they did so with new employees that required lower salaries, etc.

 

[dirtbiker666]

I just took a job working in Afghanistan...BIG paychecks...you can stay a year...or you can stay as long as you want.
It's not for everybody...but if you are about to be out of work and want to make a LOT of $$ in a year...might be a direction...

I don;t care how safe it is x military with a secret security clearance and have tons of Law enforcement training. Can you get me in bra ?

 

[Gregzs]

Unemployment could plague U.S. after jobs return - CBS News

[h=1]Unemployment could plague U.S. after jobs return[/h]By Constantine von Hoffman (MoneyWatch) America is facing an unemployment problem far more complex than what emerges in government jobless statistics. Changes in who the unemployed are and what has happened to them in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis could mean a starkly different economy even after jobs have returned.Going just by the numbers. it might appear things are getting better, or at least not getting much worse. The unemployment rate dropped in August to 8.1 percent, from 8.3 percent. Yet the main reason for that decline was that many job-seekers gave up looking for work. A more accurate picture is visible in the four-week average of the number of people applying for unemployment benefits. The Labor Department said today that nearly 378,000 Americans applied for jobless aid last week, the highest level in nearly three months and the fifth-straight week that figure has increased.

It isn't just the number of people out of work that matters; it's also how long they've been out of work. Of the nearly 13.3 million unemployed people in the U.S., 5 million, or 40 percent, have been without a job for more than six months, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of this total, 4 million, or 29 percent, have been jobless for a year or more. This is near the all-time and three times the rate at the start of the Great Recession in 2008. It currently takes an American 39 weeks to find a job after being fired.

The longer people are out of work, the harder it is for them to eventually make their way back into the labor force. And when they do find a job, it is typically for lower pay than what they previously earned. That doesn't only hurt individual households -- it's problematic for the entire U.S. economy, too, since employees facing lower wages and salaries are likely to reduce their spending, a serious challenge for a country that depends on personal consumption to drive growth.

It's well known that job losses have been lower among more highly educated people. In August, the unemployment rate for those with only a high school diploma was 10.3 percent, while for those with college degree it was 4.3 percent. But that disparity levels out once people lose their job.
An unemployed person with a doctorate has roughly the same chance of being out of work for more than a year as someone who hasn't finished high school, according to Pew Research Center. In fact, an unemployed worker with a PhD is slightly more likely to have trouble finding work again. That's because employers believe that the skills of these so-called knowledge workers decay the longer they are out of work.
Highly educated workers are also at a disadvantage because of the time required to acquire that education. Once older workers lose their job, meanwhile, they are are far more likely to enter the ranks of the long-term unemployed than younger workers are.
People returning to work after a long period almost always earn significantly less than they did before. The larger pool of job candidates, along with huge gains in worker productivity over the last decade, has caused the median income in the U.S. to fall. The median annual household income last year was $50,054, down 1.5 percent from 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It has now fallen back to the level it was at in 1996. This is shrinking the middle class as an income group and, perhaps even more fundamentally, may even be changing Americans' social identity.

(Credit: Pew Research Center)
Since World War II, most Americans have described themselves as belonging to the middle class. Indeed, the percentage of people who identify themselves as middle class has traditionally far exceeded the statistical definition of this group as measured by distribution of income. But that seems to be changing.
Pew, a nonpartisan think tank, also has found that nearly a third of Americans now describe themselves as belonging to the lower class -- that is up from 25 percent at the start of the recession.

About three-quarters of those who think of themselves as lower class say it's harder to get ahead today than it was 10 years ago. Only half believe hard work brings success, a view expressed by overwhelming majorities of those in the middle (67 percent) and upper classes (71 percent). People in the lower classes are also significantly more likely than middle- or upper-class adults to believe their children will have a worse standard of living than they do, Pew's research shows.
The expectation that each generation will surpass their parents is, of course, central to the American Dream. But with the middle class shrinking and the lower class expanding, that defining social and economic narrative in the U.S. may soon need revision.

 

[LAM]

Marx theorized that as capitalism increased over time in the US and other advanced economies that more and more of the offspring of those born into the working class would eventually slip into the underclass as social mobility continually decreases over time.

 

[Big Smoothy]

^ As for Marx I have his book Capital and David Harvey's companion reader.

I have not read it yet, but because it's kind of deep, but I hope to get at it, and understand it.

 

[Gregzs]

Start-Up Bright Uses Technology to Improve Job-Seeking Process - The Daily Beast

Startup Bright.com aims to use big data to make the job-seeking process more efficient and effective. by Melissa Lafsky | October 4, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
The information technology revolution is often portrayed as a job killer. ATMs eliminate the need for bank tellers, voice-recognition software has put many stenographers out of business, and payment-processing applications will reduce the need for checkout-counter workers.




But it?s also quite possible that number-crunching machines and algorithms could help reduce the unemployment rate, by tuning up the highly inefficient job-seeking and hiring process. That?s the bet Bright.com, a Silicon Valley start-up, is making.

As we gear up to dissect another monthly jobs report, analysts overlook a largely ignored problem. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 3.7 million jobs open in the U.S. at the end of July, up a mere 0.2 percent from July 2011. But only 3.2 percent of those posts were filled in the month. Why aren?t available positions being filled?


Some experts claim that these ?jobs open? numbers are lip service. Companies post jobs but refuse to fill them while they fret over Europe?s instability, market volatility, and the fiscal cliff. But there?s a larger defect at work, one that?s less the fault of the economy and more a byproduct of the way both job seekers and hiring companies use (or don?t use) technology.


Today?s job search is a goldmine of inefficiency. For starters, job seekers reach out to their swelled-to-bursting social network for leads. Then they comb through the millions of listings on Monster, CareerBuilder, and other sites, spending hours uploading millions of r?sum?s (many of which aren?t right for the position), which employers then have to sort through. By the end, both sides have wasted an absurd amount of time and money. Job sites may hinder the process more than help, since applicants can each apply to hundreds of jobs. The creation of the multi-lane information superhighway has created a traffic problem.


Systems management companies are using big data to tackle the problem of congestion on the roads. Now serial entrepreneur Steve Goodman is using algorithms and cheap, powerful processing to develop a system to match employers and employees more efficiently. His company, Bright.com, is a machine-learning algorithm that aims to connect job seekers with the right jobs.

Launched in June 2012, Bright, based in San Francisco, works by creating a score for every would-be job applicant who visits the site. Users upload r?sum?s and any other information they?re willing to share?location, Facebook page, etc.?and the algorithm delivers a score. It?s free for job seekers; the company makes its money by charging employers for its recruiting tools.
The trick?and it is quite a trick?is taking a host of ingredients, from the highly tangible (location, education, salary level) to the highly intangible (right level of experience, right background) and cooking up a single value that matches people with the jobs they not only want but can get.


The point of the algorithm is to have information that the individual user or human-resources executive can?t possibly access. Bright.com mines social- media contacts, and suggests jobs that come through people you already know. It pushes users toward companies that are more likely to hire from their college or grad school. It crunches numbers to determine a person?s preferred career path, even if she hasn?t thought it through herself, and suggests jobs she could be right for but may not have picked out of a search lineup. Salary is taken into account?applicants won?t be put up for jobs that are not in their desired range. (Users don?t have to share how much they make?the algorithm will guess.)


Once someone uploads their information and receives a Bright score, the site generates a list of jobs that present the closest numerical match. People can keep searching for more listings, but search results will be ranked according to the Bright score match. Users then decide which jobs they?d like to pursue.

Today?s job search is a goldmine of inefficiency.
​

To make the whole system work, Goodman hired dozens of human-resources professionals to evaluate piles of r?sum?s and train the Bright score algorithm in how to think like the world?s fastest HR exec. He also hired a neuroscientist, Jacob Bollinger, as well as a former nuclear physicist, a geophysicist, and other data crunchers to build and test it.


To date, the site has listed more than 2.6 million jobs, mostly pulled from partnerships with Career Builder, Jobs Center, Beyond.com and around 20 other sites. The employers include a range of buzzy companies like Amazon and Zynga, plus Fortune 500 firms like Aetna, Nestle, and Wells Fargo. The biggest placement areas so far have been health care and telecom, as well as manufacturing?all industries that have helped make a dent in unemployment over the last few years. ?Bright?s data-science team spends more time [focusing] on blue-collar and middle-office worker positions,? said Goodman. ?Our sweet spot is people who make between $20,000 and $90,000?which makes up between 80 to 90 percent of America.?


For companies looking to hire, the upsides are clear: the same algorithms that spit out the right jobs for individuals likewise spit out the appropriate individuals for jobs. Bright allows hiring divisions to filter massive piles of r?sum?s in seconds. What?s more, an HR professional, with seconds to spend perusing each r?sum?, may not realize that certain key skills or details indicate better qualification for a job?another problem that can be solved by technology.


Bright isn?t the only tech venture looking to remodel how we look for jobs?startups like Brewster aim to take our Facebook and Twitter friends and organize them into searchable networking categories that better enable us to find useful connections during a job search. And of course there?s LinkedIn, the pioneer, and reigning monolith, of online career development. But LinkedIn?s products focus primarily on leveraging your profile and connections to put yourself in potential employers? line of sight, rather than handing the keys to a jobseeker. And while LinkedIn?s reach is huge?the company boasts over 175 million members, 62 percent of which are international?using all the site?s tools requires a level of savvy and knowledge that isn?t readily available to everyone.


While Bright couldn?t be more straightforward to use, its system is far from perfect?Goodman and Bollinger both acknowledge that it is still in the early stages. And while Bright has anecdotal reports of success from both job seekers and companies, there?s not enough data yet to hand our careers over to a jumble of code and say ?go.? The good news is that, as a machine-learning algorithm, the more data the Bright score acquires, the more accurate it gets, and the more jobs are filled.


One thing we do know: simply moving along with our current hiring system isn?t an option?the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that employers spend an average of $5,504 and two to six months per hire, while job seekers spend a median 19 months looking for their next gig. A lot of time, energy, and money are wasted as people attempt to find jobs. The economy would function a lot more effectively if jobs could find people instead

 

[Swiper]

To limit health care costs, Olive Garden keeping more workers on part-time status

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, October 9, 3:38 PM


NEW YORK ? The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants is putting more workers on part-time status in a test aimed at limiting costs from President Barack Obama?s health care law.
Darden Restaurants Inc. declined to give details but said the test is only in four markets across the country. The move entails boosting the number of workers on part-time status, meaning they work less than 30 hours a week.

Under the new health care law, companies with 50 or more workers could be hit with fines if they do not provide basic coverage for full-time workers and their dependents. Starting Jan. 1, 2014, those penalties and requirements could significantly boost labor costs for some companies, particularly in low-wage industries such as retail and hospitality, where most jobs don?t come with health benefits.
Darden, which operates more than 2,000 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, employs about 180,000 people. The company says about 75 percent of its employees are currently part-timers.
Bob McAdam, who heads government affairs and community relations for Darden, said the company is still learning from the tests, which was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
?We?re not at a point where we have results,? he said. McAdam also noted that Darden is not alone in looking at ways to keep labor costs in check, with companies across the industry prepping for the new regulations to take effect.
In fact, Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Statistics, noted that follow-up legislation might be needed to ensure that companies do not shift more workers to part-time status to avoid providing coverage.
?There?s not a company in those industries that aren?t looking at this,? Keckley said.
This summer, for example, McDonald?s Corp. Chief Financial Officer Peter Bensen noted in a conference call with investors that the hamburger chain was looking at the many factors that will impact health care costs, including its number of full-time employees.
Nationally, 60 percent of companies offer health benefits, but the figure varies depending on the size of the company. Nearly all companies with 200 or more workers offer benefits, compared with 48 percent for companies with 3-9 workers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Even beyond health care costs, however, Darden has made cutting labor costs a priority in recent years as sales growth has stalled at its flagship chains. In the most recent fiscal quarter, the company?s restaurant labor costs were 31 percent of sales. That?s down from 33 percent three years ago.
The reduction was driven by several factors. Given the challenging job market, Darden has been able to offer lower pay rates to new hires, as well as cut bonuses for general managers as sales have stagnated. Servers at Red Lobster now handle four tables at a time, instead of three.
And last year, the company also put workers on a ?tip sharing? program, meaning waiters and waitresses share their tips with other employees such as busboys and bartenders. That allows Darden to pay more workers a far lower ?tip credit wage? of $2.13, rather than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Starting next year, the company will change the way it offers health insurance to full-time employees, to keep costs more predictable. Instead of offering one insurance plan for all 45,000 employees, it will give workers a contribution toward buying coverage and then send them to an online health insurance exchange where they can chose from five medical, four dental and three vision plans.
More employers are looking at this concept, known as defined contribution health insurance, as a way to stabilize health insurance costs.
Darden said it decided to do it because a survey indicated that employees wanted more options.
To limit health care costs, Olive Garden parent tests keeping more workers on part-time status - The Washington Post

 

[LAM]

nice try at people using the healthcare law for that, it's only been going on for decades...the sad thing is that so many actually believe it.

 

[Big Smoothy]

LAM,

Is right.

This was going on over 20 years ago, and I'm sure longer.

Gee....during a tight election there is all this "talk of health care keeping Americans from keeping their jobs."

It's B.S.

And also, it's pretty pathetic that actually having access to health care AT ALL by working adults would actually hurt.

I mean, come on.

 

[Big Pimpin]

Health Ins or lack thereof

Here's a recent post on an aviation forum I'm on from a Fortune 500 pilot:

10-06-2012, 05:37 PM #13 (permalink)
HS125PLT
Line Holder

Joined APC: Nov 2011
Posts: 28

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​

Currently flying for a Fortune 500 company that is not suffering financially. Health care premiums are on par with what JetBlue will be charging next year. We were also informed that our company will not be offering Health insurance after next year and will be paying the $2000 fine per employee.

 

[Big Pimpin]

Here's JetBlue's Insurance disaster which the thread is about:

LifesNotBetterInBlue

 

[Big Pimpin]

From a bean counting perspective, these companies are crazy not to pay the $2000 fine vs provide the insurance, but then again the law/mandate was designed that way.

Much like what they actually pay in taxes, I honest to god believe the average corporate slave has no clue how much his healthcare really costs the company vs the share he pays.

 

[LAM]

some large firms actually stopped providing healthcare after the gov stopped subsidizing them AND stopped allowing them to write off the expense that they weren't paying...

 

[Dale Mabry]

If Obamacare is saving these companies all of this money on healthcare, this means the job creators are gonna get cracking on hiring, right? BTW, I think it's stupid for companies to provide healthcare to employees if your intended goal is to lower healthcare costs system wide. Perhaps now that the cost of health insurance is being put on the person using it they may start making better decisions wrt their health. I'm sure they could give a fuck when the onus is placed on the company to foot most of the bill.

 

[Big Pimpin]

If Obamacare is saving these companies all of this money on healthcare, this means the job creators are gonna get cracking on hiring, right? BTW, I think it's stupid for companies to provide healthcare to employees if your intended goal is to lower healthcare costs system wide. Perhaps now that the cost of health insurance is being put on the person using it they may start making better decisions wrt their health. I'm sure they could give a fuck when the onus is placed on the company to foot most of the bill.

I'm curious why would they give a fuck now when pre-existing conditions are no longer a barrier to health insurance? Sure, pre-existing condition exclusions sound horrible when some 12yo with cancer can't get on momma's insurance but they don't sound all that bad when some fat pile of shit can't get insurance due to complications relating to diabetes.

 

[Dale Mabry]

I'm curious why would they give a fuck now when pre-existing conditions are no longer a barrier to health insurance? Sure, pre-existing condition exclusions sound horrible when some 12yo with cancer can't get on momma's insurance but they don't sound all that bad when some fat pile of shit can't get insurance due to complications relating to diabetes.

Lifestyle stuff like Type 2 diabetes will either be dealt with in higher premiums or copays or by taxing shit that leads to it. The problem is that is more than likely decades away.

 

[Swiper]

can someone explain to me why about 1500 plus companies were able to opt-out?
Also why does the law apply to some and not others? I thought laws are suppose to apply to everyone/business?

 

[LAM]

business and trade laws are not similar to the criminal code, there are numerous exceptions depending on the type of business structure (corp, LLC, etc.), NAICS code, size, etc.

 

[Swiper]

business and trade laws are not similar to the criminal code, there are numerous exceptions depending on the type of business structure (corp, LLC, etc.), NAICS code, size, etc.

if u say the health care law does not hurt companies, why did the obama admin give waivers to them?

 

[LAM]

if u say the health care law does not hurt companies, why did the obama admin give waivers to them?

that is that nature of business laws and regulations there are always variances for the different types, sizes and revenues of business. it differs vastly in nature from civil and penal statues.

http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/finalhcr.pdf

at the part titled "Individual Mandate" it states:

"Exemptions will be granted for financial hardship, religious objections, American Indians, those without coverage for less than three months, undocumented immigrants, incarcerated individuals, those for whom the lowest cost plan option
exceeds 8% of an individual?s income, and those with incomes below the tax filing threshold (in 2009 the
threshold for taxpayers under age 65 was $9,350 for singles and $18,700 for couples)."

that right there eliminates almost 60% of the US workforce. if low wage workers can not even save 1% of their annual income they are certainly not going to be expected to pay an additional expense that is 8% of their income.

Here is some data which shows the number of businesses in the US, how many employees they have etc. there is a gap in data from the recession in 2008.

Statistics about Business Size (including Small Business) from the U.S. Census Bureau


* obviously it's not the greatest legislation in the world but some improvements is better than none

 

[Swiper]

I see, its because of financial hardship on the companies. so the Olive Garden restaurant owner is correct. the health care law puts a financial hardship on companies.

 

[LAM]

http://247wallst.dailyfinance.com/quote/nyse/darden-restaurants-inc/dri?source=esadlfltnal0001

Darden Restaurants, Inc. was just ranked the #2 in the US with the least valuable employees. the average check at their restaurants ranges from $15 at Olive Garden to $90 at Capital Grille.

with inflation on the USD averaging 25% every decade gee I wonder why he's not doing the same business that Yum Brands is doing...the fucking working class is broke tuff titties jackass

Romney's strong debate showing puts Europe on edge | Reuters

 

[Gregzs]

States' Jobs Picture Improves: Behind the Numbers - US? Business News - CNBC

In a sharp turnaround, most states saw their unemployment rates drop in September.

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Spencer Platt | Getty Images​

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 41 states saw their jobless figures decrease, and only six saw them rise. Three report no change at all, including the state with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, North Dakota, holding steady at three percent. This is a big change from the month earlier, when most states ? 26 ? reported an increase in unemployment.
The states with the highest unemployment continue to be Nevada (11.8 percent), Rhode Island (10.5 percent), and California (10.2 percent), but all three figures were down from the month before.
California is adding jobs faster than the national average, and the Golden State has added the most jobs in the country in a year ? 262,000. (Read More: Weekly Jobless Claims Drop Proves to Be Short-Lived.)
Hiring is happening at companies large and small.
"We have six employees and we're hiring two more right now," said Andy Moeck, CEO of mobile gaming startup MOEO in Santa Monica, Calif.
He said he's offering similar pay to what he might have offered a few years ago, "but it's harder to find all the applicants with the skill set that we need." Competition has heated up in California for programmers, and Moeck is fielding resumes from outside the state.








As for the election, Moeck said he's too busy trying to build a business to think about politics. (Read More: Election is Bumming Out Small Businesses.)
"When we decide we're going to hire someone or not hire someone or grow our business, there's absolutely zero input into that as to who's holding office," he said. "We start companies because that's what we do."
A few blocks away at a Santa Monica hotel, Chevron [CVX 112.74 -0.64 (-0.56%) ] held a job fair for workers willing to move to Bakersfield to join the resurging oil boom there.
"You have to go where the jobs are," said civil engineer Christopher Rowda. "You have to follow the work."
The picture in some states shows there is still a lot of work to be done, especially for the long-term unemployed. Michigan, a key swing state in the election, saw the largest drop in total jobs in September, 13,000 jobs. Coming in second, another key swing state, Ohio, with 12,800 job losses in a month (though total employment in the Buckeye State has grown 88,000 in a year).
Jeff Jacobs, an architect in Columbus, has been out of full-time work for nearly five years.

Jane Wells
CNBC Reporter
"Right now I'm applying for temporary holiday work like department stores," he said.
Jacobs searches Craigslist daily for openings in architecture, hoping to get back into that field of work. "In Columbus there aren't many posted ads, with some exceptions, and believe me, I've already applied to them."
Like many Americans, Jacobs is getting by on his savings and by living frugally. He wants only one thing out of this election ? jobs. (Read More: Top Destination States for Jobs.)
"Honestly, I don't give a damn about the deficit. ...We need to get everyone back to work, including me. Especially me," he said.

 

[Swiper]

that's what happens when people leave the work force because they can't find a job.


Weekly Jobless Claims Drop Proves to Be Short-Lived
The Associated Press | October 18, 2012 | 08:35 AM EDT
Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped 46,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the highest in four months.
http://m.cnbc.com//id/49460659

 

[jay_steel]

oh yeah...I went to Afghanistan...
the job I had been doing th past year...actually expected me to work, so I couldn't get on here too much...and then got the job, ball rolled pretty quickly and here I am! TA DA!

I got offered a job in afgan making 1000-1500 a day running field communications/cypto, I did tactical cryptologic support in the Navy for 10 years.

 

[Swiper]

 

[Big Smoothy]

gregzs:

In a sharp turnaround, most states saw their unemployment rates drop in September.

Gregzs,

A love these reports for ONE MONTH. Even worse, are the weekly reports.

One month means.....nothing. And, what type of jobs were added? The BLS knows. They study this with a fine-toothed comb. These are sh*t jobs.

The US labor force is adding 125,000 adults per month to the labor force.

For the US unemployment situation to ever get back to where is was 5 years ago, there would have to be 550,000 continuous jobs added per months for 3+ years.

 

[heckler7]

its not right to charge pilots more of an ER co-pay, they are gone from home mostly so they cant use their family doctor and have to use the ER because thats all thats available.

 

[heckler7]

the man tells the truth

 

[LAM]

And, what type of jobs were added? The BLS knows. They study this with a fine-toothed comb. These are sh*t jobs.

The US labor force is adding 125,000 adults per month to the labor force.

with those jobs paying between $8-$14 or an inflation adjusted $4-$7 in 1990's dollars.

the problems with the US economy are so obvious. those that don't get it have to be dam near functionally retarded.