January 2013 Jobs Report Statistics

In the six and a half months that I've been actively searching, I've gotten only two requests to come in for interviews (I don't really count the real estate interview). I've had a number of jobs in a number of career fields, but I had specific reasons for taking those jobs-and very good explanations for the changes. But now my health requires that I take a seated job, but they want the really young, CHEAP labor and that leaves me out in the cold. We're trying to make due on one income, but it's tough sometimes.

I've been doing home health (minimum wage, part time) for the last 6 years, but the reason is partly because I am retired from the state and get retirement there. I don't HAVE to work, but money would be really tight if I didn't. If something were to happen to my client, I wouldn't continue doing home health.

Hi WildHorses! =) How are you doing? I think it is true that companies have also tried to be more intelligent in terms of them searching for applicants. Most already do set higher qualifications that would already intimidate would be applicants, the real thing is that it can be a lot lower when in actuality of the job being offered. Also a lot has tried to find jobs, and most of them have work experiences already but rarely would they get a call from the companies that have openings. My take is that there can be about two secnarios of a company's hiring process depending on what their objective is (1) companies would sometimes want to get fresh grads, or those with only a year or two experiences for jobs to do some senior tasks because they would most probably are still eager to work, to prove themselves and at a lower cost (lower salaries). (2) Employees who already have knowledge gained by years and years of experience. This way they do not have to provide for training and development of their employees and that they should be able to produce valuable outputs on their own already.

I had a job. It was very hard work lifting tires, and the pay was low, but I had a source of income. I found another job that paid more and was supposed to start but at the last minute, I found out that there was no money in the budget for this project. At the moment, I am unemployed. This is the second time that I have been burned like this, but I don't blame the people who hired me. The project was put on by another group and they are having serious financial problems, along with political turmoil. I don't believe that these politicians are telling the truth when it comes to the economic and employment situation. Things are still pretty bad if people still can't find work, not even menial jobs are available. The politicians love using the unemployment rate for their statistical reports, even though this is a false number; a number which is the crucible for people receiving unemployment benefits. They tout that the unemployment rate is down but there are quite a few reasons for this, other than someone actually gaining employment. Their benefits ran out, they could have given up looking, or may have found a venture on their own. At least in Michigan, I don't know about other places, the extensions are tied to the federal unemployment rate, if it drops under a certain percentage, then someone would lose their benefits. They are touting how well things are in Michigan. I am still skeptical about this state making this miraculous turnaround after decades of ruin and being the 'one-state recession', while at the same time, we are still bleeding jobs and people. I see this place having a great divide soon because it is trying to attract highly educated people for the types of jobs offered, and is not offering much in terms of training the people here for better career prospects.