Jobs going, going almost gone

The jobs are going, going and almost gone... All of those who think training is the answer are on the right track for the long term. In the short term, where are the jobs people being trained for today going to come from? Everyone cannot be a pharmacist, nurse or class A truck driver. Bio tech and high tech jobs are good but number in the hundreds here in North Carolina. According to this article, we will lose 96,000 jobs by the end of this year! Unfortunately, our state lags behind most of the country in education. So who will want to come here? We offer cheap unskilled labor but NOT near as cheap as China and places beyond! When the unemployment extension run their course and the money for more "retraining" has run out, what will be the next step? The good news is things have to change. We will have redo health care, we will have to adjust our current plan of borrow against tomorrow for what we want today and take education more seriously from day one. With the 12Th worst dropout rate in the country, we have a lot of work to do. Now we have to retrain a largely uneducated workforce for jobs we hope will come. Given time to innovate our way out of the current mess, it may work. We can all think about what success will look like, low unemployment and all boats rising but what about failure? This Russian guy has an idea...         

It Will Not Work...

It will not work... Doing the same thing over and over in a bad economy to get a job will not work just as it does not in a good economy. Ask people you know how they got their last job. How many will say I saw an ad in the paper, sent a resume, got an interview and got hired? How many will say I got a job at a job fair (a good way for staffing companies to collect resumes but not a great way to find work)? How many will say I knocked on random doors at every business park in town until I found where I am now? Well, okay there may be a few. There is another way. Network. Most people find work based on personal connections. They know somebody who knows somebody. I'm a good employee at the local saw mill and my friend Tim Bob is out of work. I hear there is an opening. Tim Bob is a good guy and a hard worker and only lost his job after it went to El Salvador. If I recommend somebody who is a turd, I too will look bad and only hurt myself. The boss man knows me to be a good and dependable employee. So who will he trust? My recommendation or some shmo who answered a box ad in the local paper, you get the idea. So continue to answer ads in the paper, go to big impersonal job fairs but add a little to it. Network. Go to school, volunteer, go to church, join AA; do what ever it takes to meet with and interact with new people. It will also look better on a resume than a glaring gap!             

Back to Basics... Listening and Speaking.

Here are two barriers we may all be guilty of at one time or another, poor communications and not following directions. Being vague and mumbling are no way to impress people. If you are not even sure about the job you are applying for i.e. "anything" and know even less about the employer, expect to be looking a nice long time! Communication goes two ways listening and speaking. Listening can be interesting. How many of us only hear what we want and what we do not want to hear is somehow filtered out? It is as if we want to put what we want into the mouths of others and wait to hear it back. When that does not happen we become combative and say I do not understand you! We may hear something to only conveniently forget it later on! There are tons of examples in the unemployment office where I work. 

"Be sure and call in your claim each week to get your payment." I tell an applicant. 

Five weeks later I hear from that same person "Why have I not got anything from you? I've been waiting."     

Usually followed by "You did not tell me to call it in."

I can only guess they thought the tooth fairy would leave it under their pillow. 

This also happens a lot with people who want to apply for jobs they are not qualified for. The 65k a year looks pretty good so we can over look the degree they ask for along with the 10 years related experience required. Hey, we can learn and if given a chance to talk we will talk them into it! Unless you are a supermodel, this will likely lead to failure. To paraphrase Don Rumsfield, you go to work with the skills you have not the skills you want. Listen to what they want and go from there. When listening do not project what you want to hear, rather take in what is being said and paraphrase it back. Hopefully, that will keep everyone on the same page and reduce misunderstandings.  

Learn to speak with clearly and confidence. How you speak tells a lot about you quickly. In an interview, judgements are going to be made in just the first few minutes of the interview. It is very hard to reverse the first impression no matter how good you may be. Being positive clear and confident in the first few minutes will make for a much easier interview and increase the likelihood of success. People who can speak well for themselves do not come to the unemployment office often. Confidence goes along with success and that is what employers are looking for.        

Buzz words...

How do we get people back to work in an economy that no longer makes things? The buzz words retrain, adjust and stimulate somehow come up short in our current situation. We have gone from an industrial power house to the new FIRE (finance insurance & real estate) economy. The link gives a so so explanation of it but you will get the idea. In my state, North Carolina, what do we do with thousands of poorly educated textile and furniture workers? Back 30 or 40 years ago a job at the local plant was today's government job. You had it made! The company took care of everything. Sure. you were never going to be rich but you always had a roof and a place to be 40 plus hours a week. Down turns came and went. Draw a little unemployment until things turn back around and repeat. Now how will it work? So many of these jobs are gone for good this time. Will the stimulus plan work? Sure, with that kind of money being thrown around a lot of people will go back to work doing something but for how long?  Where is the long term answer? The business people get on TV and warn us all of not going back to "protectionism" and "isolation" but these are not the same people trying to get by on a small weekly unemployment check. Sure, we cannot go back to the world of 200 years ago where we did our own thing  but do we have to compete with places with terrible human rights records, wages measured in pennies and no environmental regulations? Somehow this is supposed to benefit our economy and help create jobs here. Immigration is a great way to keep America healthy and dynamic. The way the powerful are using it today merely to drive down the cost of labor for their own short term financial benefit is making it much harder for people here to find work paying a living wage. In typical American fashion, many here blame the poor slobs fleeing terrible living conditions in their own country. It is divide and conquer at it's finest. They would be better served to follow the money where ever it leads... We hear a lot about change, another buzz word, lately. The current system here is broken and WILL change. Will we be able to manage the real change on the way?        

A TANKING economy...

A big barrier to employment is the economy going into the head first into toilet. There are somethings that are always needed, like healthcare, plumbers police and fire fighters. So what are the rest of us to do? Unfortunately, the jobs that have gone over seas are not coming back because it would be too expensive. Some genius thought we could all get by being greeters at Wal Mart! This all has to be making OBL pretty smug right about now. War can help get the economy going for the short term but long tern it is a pretty bad investment. The Pentagon, military contractors of all shapes and sizes and a hand full of share holders do well but what has the rest of the country gained? Some less informed may say "we have not been attacked again." Simply google "The Power of Nightmares" for an alternative view. It is not a bunch of conspiracy garbage but rather an argument that Al Queada exists in the minds of politicians more than in reality. While you are waiting weeks on in for unemployment and your state is going broke the federal government is borrowing from the Chinese to fund our wars over seas. The numbers are staggering about $1.3 trillion or about $1.7 trillion for FY2001-FY2018. It is like George Carlin said to paraphrase him we may not be able to educate our children or take care of our old people but we can bomb your ass! Do we really need 700 plus bases around the world? We own more land than the Vatican! Sorry to go on a seemingly anti-military binge here. What ever happened to the idea of National DEFENSE? We could spend or money on a lot of other things and be a lot smarter about reducing acts of terrorism. A "war on terror" is an oxymoron if there ever was one! Our current path must change. If you don't think so drop by your nearest unemployment office sometime.

The mirror...

The Mirror...

We can sometimes be our own worst enemies... Victimhood, insecurity and denial can get to the best of us from time to time. If a job search goes on for long enough one or all of these things begin to creep in.  A job search is 100% self marketing and when we start to think less of ourselves it gets worse and worse... We deny our own part in why we are not getting a job looking for a cause everywhere but the most obvious... the mirror. This is the hardest part of going between jobs. It is good to question yourself but not blame yourself. Ask what can I do better and do not say or think I cannot do better. 

Try to think creatively, make different resumes and try to think of hidden skills you may have. A man came into see me one day looking for "anything." After talking with the guy a few minutes I learned he was from Afghanistan and knew Farsi and Pahstun in addition to being fluent in English! I told him he could tutor (there is a lot of military in this state), go work for an NGO or perhaps even the federal government with those skills. When they leave me I do not know what happens most of the time. Hopefully, I showed him a new door to open. 

Look in the mirror, keep it positive and creative and overcome...           

   

THE WALL Education...

So for whatever reason you are thinking about dropping out of high school. This is still a bad idea even if you are about to become independently wealthy. If you are a regular shmo, this terrible idea. No high school diploma equals, cleaning lady, laborer and fast food guy. Not that anything is wrong with these professions but ask any of them if that is how the plan to spend the rest of their lives. Room for advancement- forget about it. A person with a high school diploma may be pretty sharp but that is not the point. The point is completing something. High school can be pretty dismal but you can survive it. Now if you want to make better money some post high school training or college is going to be necessary. College for the most part, is a weed out tool employers use. For whatever reason they want somebody with a degree and they are willing to pay extra for it for the most part. A young guy is the IT field making nice bucks now with out a degree may think he does not need it and in the short run he does not. But when he is 45 with no degree competing against younger people with his same knowledge and a degree it does not take a Las Vegas odds maker to figure who will win out. Yeah yeah I know your brother's cousin's sister in law made it big with no formal education at all. There are exceptions to every rule! But if you want the odds maker on your side, finish high school and then some...