Unemployment

[petlisco]

Reply to Big Smoothy

What I want to spread is the message. I'm shocked by how many people have never even heard the term "99er"

I noted both major political parties and said they are the same. I don't expect the government to create a job for me, I would like them to nurture an environment where they are looking out for the interest of the citizens as much as they look out for the interests of big business.

I apply on average to 15 jobs a week located all over the country and state my willingness to relocate. Counting the 99ers, the unemployed and the under employed, we are over 20%. Got any viable job leads? I'm ready to move.

 

[billfred]

What I want to spread is the message. I'm shocked by how many people have never even heard the term "99er"

I noted both major political parties and said they are the same. I don't expect the government to create a job for me, I would like them to nurture an environment where they are looking out for the interest of the citizens as much as they look out for the interests of big business.

I apply on average to 15 jobs a week located all over the country and state my willingness to relocate. Counting the 99ers, the unemployed and the under employed, we are over 20%. Got any viable job leads? I'm ready to move.

most of the oilfield in Texas and North Dakota is being run by immagrant workers because Americans can't pass the drug test.

If you can pass a drug test and willing to locate, you can find a job in this industry.

 

[LAM]

why is a drug tested needed? what a person does on their own free time is of no business to their employer. drug testing workers is big gov not little gov

Texas has one of the worst public education system in the country how does this help future generations?

what is the average hourly wage for those jobs?

are the workers employees or contractors?

are there any benefits?

 

[oufinny]

most of the oilfield in Texas and North Dakota is being run by immagrant workers because Americans can't pass the drug test.

If you can pass a drug test and willing to locate, you can find a job in this industry.

WTF are you talking about can't pass a drug test? I work in the oil industry and unless you are some degenerate meth head or blasting down joints daily you are going to be fine for a drug test. Getting a job down here is not easy nor it is hard, you just have to have the appropriate skill set.

 

[oufinny]

why is a drug tested needed? what a person does on their own free time is of no business to their employer. drug testing workers is big gov not little gov

Texas has one of the worst public education system in the country how does this help future generations?

what is the average hourly wage for those jobs?

are the workers employees or contractors?

are there any benefits?

Education system aside, as all public education in the US is shit, TX has its shit together better than many states. I think if you are on federal unemployment past a certain period of time you should have to work for the government three days a week to earn the money doing something entirely menial as a motivator and you SHOULD take a drug screen monthly to prove you are not squandering the money. You want people to WORK to find a job, not sit on their fucking ass sucking at the government's teat. I am pro government involvement in that as it costs you, me and everyone else money so you have privilege of not working (regardless of if it was your fault or not).

 

[Dale Mabry]

I think if you are on federal unemployment past a certain period of time you should have to work for the government three days a week to earn the money doing something entirely menial as a motivator

I agree with this, but if they did it, attendance at tea party rallies would drop 3 days out of the week.

 

[Big Smoothy]

most of the oilfield in Texas and North Dakota is being run by immagrant workers because Americans can't pass the drug test.

Please show some data on this, billfred.

So, There is factual data that because Americans cannot pass the drug test, so immigrant workers are doing these jobs?

Are these immigrants, legally residents w/ green cards? Citizens?

Are they are H1-B visas?

Are they illegal?


Regardless, the are likely work for less that an American citizen would. This, is called Insourcing.

 

[MDR]

I just read an article from U.S. News and World Reports focusing on the earning power of American men that stated that only 63% of men of working age are actually working in this country, in any capacity, including part and full time workers. The shocking comparison is that in 1969 the number of men of working age that had a full or part time job was 95%. Also, the actual value of salaries in this country has gone down over 25% over the past 40 years when you figure in inflation. So in real dollars, our actual earning level is equal to the earning level in 1948. Frightening. The American working man is becoming a thing of the past.

 

[LAM]

I think if you are on federal unemployment past a certain period of time you should have to work for the government three days a week to earn the money doing something entirely menial as a motivator and you SHOULD take a drug screen monthly to prove you are not squandering the money. You want people to WORK to find a job, not sit on their fucking ass sucking at the government's teat. I am pro government involvement in that as it costs you, me and everyone else money so you have privilege of not working (regardless of if it was your fault or not).

there are no more extended unemployment benefits so it's moot to even talk about it. the US is short 14million jobs, to say that most are sitting around "enjoying" that measly unemployment check is laughable. check the BLS there are 6 people applying for every 1 job. and the older a person is the less likely they are to get hired. so a person that is 60 and gets laid off is pretty much fucked once their unemployment benefits run out.

you already did earn the money by being employed for a certain amount of time. you can not collect unemployment benefits if you are fired.

$400 a week is the max in most areas and is just enough money to keep most from blowing their fucking head off, you can't do shit with that kind of money unless you are 18.

 

[Big Smoothy]

I just read an article from U.S. News and World Reports focusing on the earning power of American men that stated that only 63% of men of working age are actually working in this country, in any capacity, including part and full time workers. The shocking comparison is that in 1969 the number of men of working age that had a full or part time job was 95%. Also, the actual value of salaries in this country has gone down over 25% over the past 40 years when you figure in inflation. So in real dollars, our actual earning level is equal to the earning level in 1948. Frightening. The American working man is becoming a thing of the past.

Thanks, MDR.

If you could post a link I'd be grateful.

I studied the stats in the past, and yeah, I call the year 1970 more or less, to be the start of the statistical decline in wages.

And only 64% of adult males working? That's a very bad number.

These numbers are for countries abroad that we've seen. And now, it's us.

 

[LAM]

I studied the stats in the past, and yeah, I call the year 1970 more or less, to be the start of the statistical decline in wages.

Labor's Share - FRB St Louis
http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/net/20040801/cover.pdf

 

[MDR]

Thanks, MDR.

If you could post a link I'd be grateful.

I studied the stats in the past, and yeah, I call the year 1970 more or less, to be the start of the statistical decline in wages.

And only 64% of adult males working? That's a very bad number.

These numbers are for countries abroad that we've seen. And now, it's us.

Took me a minute to find it again, but here is the article. Interesting stuff.

A smaller share of men have jobs today than at any time since World War II
As President Barack Obama puts together a new jobs plan to be revealed shortly after Labor Day, he is up against a powerful force, long in the making, that has gone virtually unnoticed in the debate over how to put people back to work: Employers are increasingly giving up on the American man.
If that sounds bleak, it's because it is. The portion of men who work and their median wages have been eroding since the early 1970s. For decades the impact of this fact was softened in many families by the increasing number of women who went to work and took up the slack. More recently, the housing bubble helped to mask it by boosting the male-dominated construction trades, which employed millions. When real estate ultimately crashed, so did the prospects for many men. The portion of men holding a job???any job, full- or part-time???fell to 63.5 percent in July???hovering stubbornly near the low point of 63.3 percent it reached in December 2009. These are the lowest numbers in statistics going back to 1948. Among the critical category of prime working-age men between 25 and 54, only 81.2 percent held jobs, a barely noticeable improvement from its low point last year???and still well below the depths of the 1982-83 recession, when employment among prime-age men never dropped below 85 percent. To put those numbers in perspective, consider that in 1969, 95 percent of men in their prime working years had a job.
Men who do have jobs are getting paid less. After accounting for inflation, median wages for men between 30 and 50 dropped 27 percent???to $33,000 a year??? from 1969 to 2009, according to an analysis by Michael Greenstone, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor who was chief economist for Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. "That takes men and puts them back at their earnings capacity of the 1950s," Greenstone says. "That has staggering implications."
What is going on here? For one thing, women, who have made up a majority of college students for three decades and now account for 57 percent, are adapting better to a data-driven economy that values education and collaborative skills more than muscle. That isn't to say women have yet eclipsed men in the workplace. They continue to earn about 16 percent less than men and struggle against gender discrimination and career interruptions as they disproportionately take time away from the job to raise children. And both men and women have confronted job losses in the weak economy. In July, 68.9 percent of women aged 25-54 had jobs, vs. 72.8 percent in January 2008. (In 1969, however, fewer than half did.) After a long decline in men's work opportunities, the recession worsened things with a sharp drop in male employment. Unemployed men are now more likely than women to be among the long-term jobless.
The economic downturn exacerbated forces that have long been undermining men in the workplace, says Lawrence Katz, a Harvard professor of labor economics. Corporations have cut costs by moving manufacturing jobs, routine computer programming, and even simple legal work out of the country. The production jobs that remain are increasingly mechanized and demand higher skills. Technology and efforts to reduce the number of layers within corporations are leaving fewer middle-management jobs.
The impact has been greatest on moderately skilled men, especially those without a college education, though even men with bachelor's degrees from less selective schools are beginning to see their position erode. "There's really been this polarization in the middle," Katz says, as men at the top of the education and income scale see their earnings rise while those in the middle gravitate downward.
For generations, American workers kept up with technological change by achieving higher levels of education than their parents. High school education became the norm as the country progressed from an agrarian society to an industrial one. After World War II, increasing numbers of Americans went to college as the economy became more complex. But for reasons not fully understood, college graduation rates essentially stopped growing for men in the late 1970s, shortly after the Vietnam War ended, perhaps in part because draft deferments were no longer an inducement. Women, on the other hand, continued to pursue college degrees in greater numbers and have been more responsive to the changing economy in other ways, taking many of the nursing and technician positions in the expanding health-care industry and making greater headway in service jobs.
While unemployment is an ordeal for anyone, it still appears to be more traumatic for men. Men without jobs are more likely to commit crimes and go to prison. They are less likely to wed, more likely to divorce, and more likely to father a child out of wedlock. Ironically, unemployed men tend to do even less housework than men with jobs and often retreat from family life, says W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.
The long-term fix is simple to spell out and tough to achieve: getting more men to attend college and improving the skills of those who don't. Reducing financial barriers to higher education would be a start. But there isn't much political appetite for spending the billions it would take to make that happen. Even once-sacred Pell Grants are on the block as Washington looks for budget cuts. A strapped public education system that leaves many young men unprepared for the workplace, let alone college, doesn't help. It's noteworthy but not especially comforting to know that this is not just an American problem. The same gender differences in college attendance and employment are emerging in rich societies around the world.
Grappling with these intractable problems won't likely be Obama's top priority. He is under pressure to do something that will be felt now, not a generation from now. The longer people who are currently unemployed remain out of work, the more their skills will atrophy and the greater the risk of a cohort of men???and women???who become permanently detached from the workplace. Anything that raises employment overall would help. Obama is expected to propose tax incentives for employers to hire workers, a reduction in payroll taxes employers pay, and spending on infrastructure. Money for labor-intensive projects, such as retrofitting buildings for energy conservation or refurbishing aging schools, would be especially effective in putting men back to work in construction???though Washington is likely in no mood to pay for that either.
Other ideas that economists have proposed are geared toward keeping men with diminished opportunities from drifting out of the workforce altogether. They include reducing unemployment-benefits extensions for those who have been out of work for a year or more???to give those who are getting by on an unemployment check a stronger incentive to take a job, even if it's not the most desirable one. Others have proposed modifying the Social Security disability insurance system so that it is no longer an all-or-nothing proposition and instead subsidizes employers for hiring workers with partial disabilities. Since 1970, the fraction of 25- to 60-year-old men on disability has more than doubled, from 2.4 percent to 5 percent. Once they begin receiving disability payments, few return to work.
If there is any upside to recessions, it's that they tend to expose deep problems that go ignored or at least overlooked in better times. The short-term fixes the President proposes may provide much needed relief for the millions of people looking for a job. The danger is that the fixes will work just well enough to let us pretend???for a while longer???that the real problem is no longer there.
The bottom line: As women saw workplace gains in recent decades???68 percent of those 25 to 54 have jobs???men's prospects have diminished.
by Mike Dorning - Bloomberg Businessweek

 

[petlisco]

there are no more extended unemployment benefits so it's moot to even talk about it. the US is short 14million jobs, to say that most are sitting around "enjoying" that measly unemployment check is laughable. check the BLS there are 6 people applying for every 1 job. and the older a person is the less likely they are to get hired. so a person that is 60 and gets laid off is pretty much fucked once their unemployment benefits run out.

you already did earn the money by being employed for a certain amount of time. you can not collect unemployment benefits if you are fired.

$400 a week is the max in most areas and is just enough money to keep most from blowing their fucking head off, you can't do shit with that kind of money unless you are 18.

Thank you LAM. As one of those fucked 60 year old guys I can tell you that I paid the maximum into unemployment for decades while I was employed so I did not feel any guilt for collecting for 99 weeks. I'm stuck at now what?

I don't think the guys in the oil fields are looking to hire someone like me.

I worked in Hollywood for 30 years but as a below the line guy, no residuals. I have a wealth of knowledge and experience that I would love to share but I do not have teaching credentials. I was accepted into the MFA Film Production Program at RIT to earn the degree so I could teach but that would have put me $120,000 into debt and I can not bring myself to borrow more than I could repay before I die. I find in unconscionable that they would loan it to me. Just another part of the problem.

Please help spread the word about the plight of the older, long term unemployed. Help spread the link to my song and video.

OUT OF WHACK - YouTube

I have been searching the Internet for unemployment and 99er forums and I must say that this is one of the best I've seen so far.

 

[Big Smoothy]

Best of luck, Petlisco.

Hope you stick around here.

 

[petlisco]

Thanks

Thanks, Big Smoothy.

After almost 3 years of being unemployed, I have just started to explore the online discussions. I am surprised by the number of people who do not realize how big a problem this is. Counting the unemployed, the under employed, the 99ers and those who have just given up, we are looking at numbers over 20%. So to those people who respond that we are just lazy, get a job, I have to respond by saying that I work harder trying to get a job than I did when I had one. Job searching has become an obscession that absorbs the majority of my waking hours.

At 59, all I want is a reasonable wage and some health benefits.

 

[LAM]

I am surprised by the number of people who do not realize how big a problem this is. Counting the unemployed, the under employed, the 99ers and those who have just given up, we are looking at numbers over 20%. So to those people who respond that we are just lazy, get a job, I have to respond by saying that I work harder trying to get a job than I did when I had one. Job searching has become an obscession that absorbs the majority of my waking hours.

unfortunately the US is the land of economic ignorance, it's how politicians continue to sell bullshit policies to the people that are not in their own well-being. nobody truly fights for labor anymore only capital.

it's a sad state of affairs when the masses listen to politicians and not the words of academia.

 

[Big Smoothy]

. Counting the unemployed, the under employed, the 99ers and those who have just given up, we are looking at numbers over 20%.....At 59, all I want is a reasonable wage and some health benefits.

Yes petlisco, I have a few relatives in my family with mortgages and kids. They always worked and had decent jobs as they got into management or had skills, and, etc.

When they got laid off in 08/09 they could not find work at all. They are in their learly 50s but look like they're in their late 30. My point, is that age discrimination exists for many reasons.

At least one of these relatives was a 99er. He planned on retiring about about 6 years. House is nearly paid off, some investments here and there, and the 401K. Well, now he probably won't every retire. After his bennies ran out he went to selling cars at a dealership (he was a salesman over 20 years ago), but selling cars right now is a very tough games. Be on the lot 80 hours per week, and sales are way down. (2 huge dealerships in my homeotown recently closed and they had been in business for decades.)

So my point, like your, is that it's a real problem. And yes, many people employed don't see it clearly or are cognizant of it - until it's them.

 

[petlisco]

Benefits?

Your relative that is working for the car dealership, does he at least get health benefits for those 80 hours a week?

 

[Gregzs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/n...abbies.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha29

October 14, 2011

Eyes Once on the Ticker Are Now on the Meter

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

SCOTT CURTIS spent 25 years trading stocks on Wall Street before he lost his job in the recession.
Now he drives a yellow cab, not just to make a living, but also to find his next post: He hangs a hiring pitch in the back seat. ???Three interviews so far,??? he said with a grin.
At his taxi garage in the South Bronx, Mr. Curtis, 47, shares job-hunting tips with another felled financier, who drives home after shifts to Westchester County in his own car, a BMW. They wave hello to a pal, laid off from JPMorgan, who drives to help pay for her son???s European study-abroad program.
It is a long slide from the trading floor to the driver???s wheel of a taxicab, but these former bankers have adopted a bullish outlook on their new profession. They say taxi driving, with its flexible hours and all-cash wages, is an undervalued asset ??? and an efficient way to meet potential employers face to face.
???There are 20 million other people on Monster.com,??? said Mr. Curtis, who chats up his fares in case a chief executive or headhunter has stumbled in. ???I thought people would see this, and think, ???He???ll go the extra yard to go and get a job.??? ???
More accustomed to the back seat of a taxi, these cabbies are importing skills from their former world to the front seat, dressing well to impress their ???clients??? and finding ways to exploit the inefficiencies of the taxi market.
While most cabbies view the meatpacking district in Manhattan as a must for late-night fares, Herb Reyes, once a financial director at a major entertainment company, sees a market with excess supply. So he heads to the usually deserted Avenue of the Americas in Midtown, where he knows bankers who work the Asian markets will be looking for rides home.
Tough times have prompted more New Yorkers to seek financial relief and upward mobility in the taxi trade. The number of licensed city cabbies has risen by 10 percent since the stock market began its decline in late 2007, according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission. License renewals are up, too, officials said, suggesting that drivers who used to move on to higher-paying jobs are sticking with the hack trade for now.
At Master Cabbie Taxi Academy in Long Island City, Queens, instructors have noticed an increase in former financial workers since the recession began. ???As they lay off, people come through,??? the owner, Terry Gelber, said. ???I haven???t driven in 18 years, but somebody I drove with back then was a broker. He was back last year to get his hack license again.???
Mr. Reyes, 38, registered for a cabby license after the severance from his former job ran out. ???People weren???t hiring at the salary I was making,??? he said on the phone from Westchester, where he lives with his wife and two sons, who both attend private school. ???They weren???t offering jobs at a level below, or even two levels below, where I was.???
When a friend suggested he look into taxi driving, he scoffed. ???I was born and raised in the city,??? Mr. Reyes recalled saying. ???I???m not driving a cab in New York.??? But on his first night in a taxi, he cleared $180 on fares. It was a Tuesday. ???I could only imagine what Saturday and Sunday would be like,??? he said.
Passengers who climb into Mr. Curtis???s cab are greeted by a laminated sheet of paper reading: ???Ask to see my résumé. You won???t be sorry!??? It has led to three interviews, one with a major British bank, though none has yet resulted in a job offer.
Mr. Curtis, who is hoping to land a hedge-fund position, said he decided to become a cabby after having little luck with traditional headhunters and job Web sites. ???I just figured the best way to market myself was to be driving around town with a sign that said: ???Hey, help me! I need a job!??? ??? he said.
Mr. Curtis, divorced with two children and living in Cliffside Park, N.J., is earning a small fraction of his former income, he said. He is asked for his résumé about four times a day but acknowledges that after five months, he had hoped to already be back in an office. ???I get guys who say, ???This is ingenious!??? I???m like, if I???m such a genius, why am I driving a cab????
The stigma of the job, although softened, is not entirely gone. The JPMorgan veteran agreed to be interviewed on the condition that only her first name, Janet, be published. Her job, she said, could prompt her condo board on the Upper East Side to consider ousting her from the building.
Janet was finishing an afternoon shift the other day in her work uniform: a navy blazer, floral scarf and Ralph Lauren sunglasses. She was raised in Manhattan; cab driving was never part of the plan. ???I always thought cabdrivers were idiots,??? she said. ???I still do. If anything, that has been reaffirmed.???
The regulars at the garage in the Bronx did not think she would last a week; two years later, she is still driving. She keeps a stack of 20 résumés by the driver???s seat, handing them out to passengers. One man submitted her name for three jobs at UBS, but it came to nothing.
???I wanted a job while my son was in Europe,??? she said. ???I set myself a benchmark that by the time he???s back, I???d have a real job. And when he came back, and I didn???t ??? ???
Her voice trailed off. ???I was depressed for a week,??? she said. ???I picked up some young kids from JPMorgan, who I knew didn???t know what they were talking about in the cab, but they had the job. I didn???t.???
???There???s a lot of people doing things now that they didn???t think they???d be doing,??? Janet added.
The new crop of cabbies might do well to consider the example of a predecessor: James Williamson III, an M.B.A. graduate who gained some renown in 2008 for his own résumé-in-the-backseat routine. Although his efforts earned a segment on CNN, Mr. Williamson, who studied business at La Salle University, never found a job after 18 months behind the wheel.
???I never really got any leads,??? he said on the phone from Philadelphia, where he now lives. ???It was always ???Keep your hopes up; things will work out.??? And I would say, ???Are you guys hiring???? They???d say, ???Nobody???s hiring.??? ???
Last year, Mr. Williamson gave up his hack license after an aunt found him work as a nursing assistant. Today, he drives a van for disabled travelers. He is still looking for a professional position.

 

[maniclion]

I had a hard time finding 2 assistants who had even the basic qualifications. There are just too many dumbasses out there who don't have their shit together. One guy came to the interview in his workout gear, another had just lost his cellphone so we had no way of contacting him, another had his computer conveniently stolen the day before so he had no resume, and other bs.

 

[Doublebase]

I had a hard time finding 2 assistants who had even the basic qualifications. There are just too many dumbasses out there who don't have their shit together. One guy came to the interview in his workout gear, another had just lost his cellphone so we had no way of contacting him, another had his computer conveniently stolen the day before so he had no resume, and other bs.

We just hired two new warehouse guys. Simple job, loading and unloading trucks basically. We posted it on craigslist. Got about 150 applicants. Our HR lady was showing me some of the responses. My favorite was a guy asking "I jus have a couple questions", "what is the pay rate?" First question he asks. Lol. And he spelled just like jus. We ended up having a job fair. 18 people came. Ended up hiring two guys. We're talking 10-11$ an hour jobs. I wasn't part of the hiring but these kids haven't impressed me in the least. I mean its a low paying job but you can move up pretty fast in my industry if you are smart and work hard. Hope they come around.

 

[danzik17]

We just hired two new warehouse guys. Simple job, loading and unloading trucks basically. We posted it on craigslist. Got about 150 applicants. Our HR lady was showing me some of the responses. My favorite was a guy asking "I jus have a couple questions", "what is the pay rate?" First question he asks. Lol. And he spelled just like jus. We ended up having a job fair. 18 people came. Ended up hiring two guys. We're talking 10-11$ an hour jobs. I wasn't part of the hiring but these kids haven't impressed me in the least. I mean its a low paying job but you can move up pretty fast in my industry if you are smart and work hard. Hope they come around.

Damn - those must have been some pretty stupid people to not impress you enough to allow them to unload a truck.

 

[Dark Geared God]

 

[Doublebase]

Damn - those must have been some pretty stupid people to not impress you enough to allow them to unload a truck.

Certain things like age, physical shape and personality play into it.

 

[LAM]

One guy came to the interview in his workout gear,

I would have just laughed at him while pointing to the exit door!

 

[Gregzs]

I had a hard time finding 2 assistants who had even the basic qualifications. There are just too many dumbasses out there who don't have their shit together. One guy came to the interview in his workout gear, another had just lost his cellphone so we had no way of contacting him, another had his computer conveniently stolen the day before so he had no resume, and other bs.

It does not help that employers are posting listings of vague jobs. I have passed on more than I can count that made no real sense or had unrealistic requirements. Some looked like an IT and a finance job merged into one.


Firms' lack of job description, career path turns off recruits - InvestmentNews#

[h=2]Firms' lack of job description, career path turns off recruits[/h]By Lavonne Kuykendall
April 22, 2012
Financial advisers may be ready to hire this year, but many aren't in a position to attract the brightest young candidates, according to a recent survey and participants in a related recruiting round table last week.
According to the fiscal-first-quarter TD Ameritrade Advisor Index of 502 registered investment advisers, just over half said that they don't have written job descriptions for the positions in their company, and two-thirds have no defined career paths for new hires. Yet younger and less experienced job candidates typically want both those things, advisers with recruiting experience said.
That may partly explain why 22% of the RIAs surveyed last month by phone ranked hiring as their biggest challenge in managing people, compared with 18% who said firing.
“We try to put ourselves in the employees' shoes and understand what is of value to them,” said Nathan Paulson, managing partner of Paulson Wealth Management LLC, which has been actively recruiting entry-level advisers.
“In our rush, we can sometimes forget to do that,” he said, speaking as a panelist during the round table held in Chicago on Thursday and sponsored by TD Ameritrade Institutional, a unit of TD Ameritrade Inc. The company plans to release the survey in the next few weeks.

Younger hires in particular may be wary of taking a job without a clear set of responsibilities and a timetable for moving up, along with the training needed to advance.
It could even be a deal breaker for some, according to the advisers who took part in the round table.
Experienced hires don't really need a career path, though having a formal hiring process in place is still a good idea, Mr. Paulson said.
But having a long-term plan that can be communicated to younger job candidates is essential.
“You may be in a smaller role in the beginning, but we are setting a path to where you want to be,” he said he tells potential hires.
Advisers generally seem more optimistic about their hiring plans now than at the beginning of the year, with 38% saying that they plan to hire, according to the TD Ameritrade survey. In its January survey, however, just 30% of advisers said that they expect to hire specialists or experienced staff members in the next 12 months.
Smaller firms in particular may have trouble attracting young talent if they can't offer career paths, clearly defined job descriptions, training and regular performance evaluation, according to TD Ameritrade's research.
“When you recruit high-potential candidates, they want to know the career path,” said Susan Chase Korin, chief operating officer of Balasa Dinverno Foltz LLC, an advisory firm that manages about $2 billion and hired eight new employees in 2011. “They know it is not written in stone, but it allows them to see the potential of coming to a smaller firm rather than going to the large brand name.”
Part of the problem could be that advisers seem to take an ad hoc approach to personnel issues, with 52% saying that they turn to other advisers as their top source for advice on human resources management. Having a formal hiring process in place, including personality and aptitude testing, makes firms more comfortable allowing new hires to have direct client contact right away, which just 61% of advisers said that they do.

Advisers may not realize they need professional HR management, said Amit Dhawan, chief operating officer and quantitative-research analyst of Geneva Investment Management of Chicago LLC, which hired its first human resources manager in recent months.
“In the early days of a firm, everyone wears many hats,” he said.
That changed as the firm grew and people no longer had the time or knowledge to handle tricky personnel issues. The firm has developed wide-ranging training programs, which its centralized HR department coordinates.
“Employees get trained on everything, even if they don't use it at all,” Mr. Dhawan said. “That way, if clients ask a question about it, you can answer without saying, "I'll have to get back to you.'” lkuykendall@investmentnews.com

 

[Gregzs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/b...?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120610

[h=1]Forced to Early Social Security, Unemployed Pay a Steep Price[/h][h=6]By MOTOKO RICH[/h]PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — This retirement oasis in the desert has long beckoned those who want to spin out their golden years playing golf and sitting by the pool in the arid sunshine.
But for Clare Keany, who turned 62 last fall and cannot find work, it feels more like a prison. Just a few miles from the gated estates of corporate chieftains and Hollywood stars, Ms. Keany lives in a tiny mobile home, barely getting by on little more than $1,082 a month from Social Security.

“I would rather be functioning and having a job somewhere,” said Ms. Keany, whose pixie haircut, trim build and crinkling smile suggest someone much younger than her years. “I really don’t enjoy living like this. I’ve got too much to do still.”
Even as most Americans are delaying retirement to bolster their savings accounts, the recession and its protracted aftermath have forced many older people who are out of work to draw Social Security much earlier than they had planned.
According to an analysis by Steve Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration, about 200,000 more people filed initial claims in 2009 and 2010 than the agency had predicted before the recession and he said the trend most likely continued in 2011 and 2012, though that is harder to quantify. The most likely reason is joblessness.

Ms. Keany had always expected to work into her 70s and add to her retirement cushion. But after losing her job as an executive assistant at an advertising agency in 2008, she searched fruitlessly for full-time work and exhausted her unemployment benefits. For a while, she strung together odd jobs and lived off her 401(k) retirement and profit-sharing accounts. Then, this year, with her savings depleted and no job offers in sight, she reluctantly applied for Social Security.
Gazing out the window where the Santa Rosa mountains rise behind the mobile home park, she said, “It just seems a waste of a life, to be honest.”

Drawing Social Security early has repercussions that will be hard to overcome even if the economy — and her work prospects — improve. By collecting four years shy of her full retirement age, Ms. Keany will receive a reduced monthly benefit for the rest of her life. Those who collect early get 20 to 30 percent less a month than they would get if they waited until full retirement age, which varies by year of birth. People in Ms. Keany’s age bracket are expected to live an average of close to 23 more years.

“The most potent lever that individuals can pull in trying to get themselves a secure retirement income is to postpone claiming” Social Security, said Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
As recently as a decade ago, half of those eligible claimed Social Security at 62. But that share has been falling because people are living longer and still want to work as well as shore up retirement funds. That makes it even more galling for those who are forced to claim early because of unemployment. Several people interviewed mentioned blows to their self-esteem along with abandoned dreams of a more comfortable old age.

According to an analysis by Richard W. Johnson, director of the retirement policy program at the Urban Institute, 37 percent of older workers who lost their jobs between 2008 and 2011 and did not return to work ended up claiming Social Security as soon as they turned 62.

Ms. Keany, who was born in Britain, was making $64,000 a year as an administrative manager for a boutique advertising agency in Santa Monica when the firm lost two of its biggest clients in one week. She has nearly three decades of experience in the United States. She has managed offices, arranged visits by foreign dignitaries, composed employee handbooks and finessed demanding bosses. She said she had also run errands for movie producers, organized home offices and coordinated the administrative details of a drug study.

Those years of experience now work against her, she thinks. “I’m overly qualified, overly skilled,” she said.
Her age is also most likely an impediment. After they lose a job, older workers tend to have a much harder time finding another than younger workers.
A Government Accountability Office report found that just under a third of those 55 to 64 who lost their jobs from 2007 through 2009 had found full-time work by January 2010, compared with 41 percent of people 25 to 54. The median duration of unemployment for those 55 and older was 34.1 weeks in May, according to the Labor Department, in contrast to 22 weeks for all jobless people over 16.

Ms. Keany, who is single and has no children, tried a change of geography. Because the economy in California was so weak, she moved in with friends in Charlotte, N.C., three years ago in hopes of having better luck there. She signed up with employment offices and volunteered, but did not find paying work.

Another friend invited her to stay on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where Ms. Keany eventually began work at a women’s recovery house in exchange for room and utilities. Then Hurricane Irene hit last August and damaged the house. Ms. Keany could not afford to stay.

In a panic, she used the last of her savings to move to Palm Springs last October and buy a $19,000 one-bedroom mobile home in the same park where friends lived two doors down.
“I was so frantic at that point and I was at my wit’s end,” said Ms. Keany, saying she still planned to find a job. “I thought at least with Palm Springs it’s a retirement resort community and I know there’s a lot of business here as well.”
She scoured Craigslist for affluent residents seeking personal assistants. She took a one-month job in Los Angeles, chauffeuring the principal actor on a movie. She applied for a job as a concierge at a Marriott Hotel, but withdrew after hearing it offered only eight hours a week.

Finally, in January, she gave in and filed for Social Security. Her monthly check covers the $336 mobile home park fee plus utilities, her cellphone bill, insurance and a satellite dish. She is also paying $100 a month in credit card debt. To save money, she has canceled the data plan on her BlackBerry and cut back on fresh fruits and vegetables.

After a wind storm blew out a window, she covered it with a tarp because she could not afford to replace the glass.

Ms. Keany is still hoping to find work. Social Security recipients younger than full retirement age can earn up to $14,640 a year without sacrificing any of their monthly benefit. At Ms. Keany’s age, for every $2 earned over that amount, Social Security deducts $1 in benefits.

This month, she flew back to the Outer Banks to stay with friends and work part time in two gift shops over the summer. If she cannot find permanent work in North Carolina, she plans to return to Palm Springs in the fall.
She is discouraged by what she sees as youth-obsessed employers. “We’re already has-beens, which is so sad,” Ms. Keany said. “Some of us are still pretty productive.”

 

[ChickDiesel]

Pfff! Don't remind me! I used to live in the Oxford Circle and paid like $900 for one bedroom!!!

PLEASE LIKE MY ATHLETE PAGE ON FACEBOOK!

 

[LAM]

it's monstrous what they have done to people with that intentionally created recession...unfortunately since there is no god, no punishment will ever come to those that deserve it.

 

[secdrl]

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.