2010 Unemployment Extensions: Jobs Going Forward

2010 Unemployment Extensions - Unemployment extensions have now been stalled in the Senate for over six weeks, leading to 2.5 million jobless Americans losing their benefits with hundreds of thousands not far behind them each week.

The disagreement holding up passage of a UI extension bill has never been about whether or not unemployment benefits should be extended (Although the Democrats would like you to think it is). Rather, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans have locked horns over whether those UI extensions should be paid for or not. But both sides have repeatedly stated that unemployment benefits should be extended.

It would seem a little suspicious to me to hear that every member of our esteemed upper house was in agreement on anything these days, were it not for the fact that the current job market in this country is so abysmal. Unemployment is terribly high - The government continues to report manipulated and sanitized numbers near 10% but some believe it could actually be as high as 27%. And job creation - Well, someone let President Obama loose again and he's running around touting some 3.6 million jobs created. Oh yeah ... or saved. I don't think I'll bother to address this. Just look around you.

So that leaves us with a very discouraging job picture. For those of us that are unemployed, many of us are just flat out not going to find a job in this current economic environment, plain and simple. Do you know the experts are saying there are five of us for every one job out there? FIVE OF US! FOR EVERY ONE JOB!

Except, I don't believe it.

Look, I'm unemployed and I've been sending out resume after resume after resume for 16 or 18 months now. (I've lost count. They cut off my benefits weeks ago, so what does it really matter?) And I can tell you, in my experience, I'm not competing with any five people for each job. I WISH! I'm competing with 300-500 applicants for every position I've applied for.

I've read it all over the web, too - The desperately unemployed, posting comments where ever they can get their voice heard. Just like me, many report that if they ever even hear back from an employer they sent a resume to, they say "Thank you very much but we've received 400 resumes so don't call us, we'll call you ... " or "Thank you for your eloquently written and very compelling cover letter, your expertly crafted and very impressive resume and your stunning list of celebrity references, but we've been deluged with so many, we've decided to use yours to light the bar-b-que at the company picnic next weekend." (Or something along those lines.)

No, I don't believe I'm competing with just five other people. Heck, if I was, I'd at least have a chance. No, I'm competing with hundreds for every single job I try for. THAT is the problem in this market.

Now, sure, I know the statistics. I've reported on them, cited them, used them in other articles. There are X number of unemployed for X number of jobs. Divide the latter by the former in any given month of late and you get five job seekers for every job.

But what the statistics don't tell you is that, first of all, there are now a lot of employers who are specifically looking for new employees - that are already working. Yeap! Some have been so bold (and cruel) as to have specifically established that one of their criteria for a new hire will be that they will only consider applicants that are currently working. Helpful. Really.

Then there is the fact that many jobs that may be available are not something I could possibly do. Take for instance, pretty much any job Obama claims to have "created". Other than temporary census work, the bulk of "stimulus jobs"were mostly construction type jobs (and were also temporary, albeit union, by design). And, desperate and willing as I am, this 49 year old ex-soccer mom will likely never wield a jack hammer. (Although I'm sure my chiropractor would be happy to see me back.)

You may have the opposite problem. If you're a man that has been in construction all your life but you happen to live in an area of the country not blessed by those millions of stimulus jobs (so pretty much anywhere in these 57 states), working in women's retail or, say, as a dental hygenist ... Well ... I'm sorry. You'll have to excuse me. I'm trying to picture you there right now, all tan and buff with your tool belt on, handing me a little cup of minty stuff and asking me to swish and spit ...

The point being, there may be X number of jobs out there, but most of us may not have the skills or the ability to soon enough garner the skills and ability to do them. Interestingly, over the past couple of months since this "summer of recovery" started (and my unemployment benefits went away), I didn't suddenly find all sorts of jobs I could go take. On the contrary, I've begun to have trouble even finding jobs I can apply for. (Well, that is, jobs where the employer won't bust out laughing when he gets my resume. Not that they probably ever read most of our resumes, anyway.)

And yes, all ye who tell us condescendingly that we should break down and apply for jobs that pay less than we used to get. OMG! Somebody better hold me back! What the $#%! do you THINK every last one of us is doing? First of all, there is nothing out there paying anywhere NEAR what I was making when I was laid off. I've applied for jobs that I did years ago on my way up the ladder that paid $25 an hour way back then but are now paying $9 - $12 an hour - part time! Ya see, we got ourselves wutcha call an employer's market. And why would an employer pay a decent wage for a job he can now pay any one of 400-500 desperate, hungry people to do for half or less? They're not being greedy, it's just good common business sense. They're not, after all, running a charity, you know.

And yes, we apply to fast food places and Walmart and Target and 7-11. We'll work at the gas station. We'll mow lawns. (I can even do that. I'm not so good with the weed-wacker, though. And you don't want to let Orrin Hatch and his handy drug testing kit anywhere near me if you put one in my hand.)

But these places tell me I'm over qualified. The other places I try to manipulate my resume to appear like I could actually do the job for tell me I'm under-qualified. And long, long ago, it seems, the last time I actually got to look into the eyes of a potential employer on an interview, she told me I would be great for the position, but I'd probably leave as soon as something better came along, and so she was going to have to turn me down. I argued with her and tried to convince her otherwise - in a very professional and respectful manner, of course - because I needed that job so bad. If I remember correctly, I said something like, "Oh no, really. Just because I used to make 10 times what you're offering and this job will barely pay for the bus fare to get here and I'll be bored out of my skull and I could so do your job 100 times better standing on my head ... No, THIS is where I feel my true passion and creativity can best be expressed and my destiny fulfilled." (To be honest, that may not be an exact quote. It was just so long ago.)

No, I don't believe it. If there were truly, in a practical and meaningful sense, just five of us unemployed vying for every job, we, the unemployed, would surely know it. We'd be asked into interviews and would run into each other in the waiting rooms and HR departments across the fruited plain, looking all crisp in our Sunday best, grinning and chatting cordially, resumes in hand, as we covertly sized one another up. Doesn't happen. The statistic is misleading. Things are far, far worse out here than any of you still fortunate enough to have jobs could possibly imagine.

And THAT is why we MUST have unemployment benefits and extensions restored - NOW. Until this government quits dinkin' around with this nonsense social engineering experiment and unchains the free market to go back to doing what it does best - creating wealth FOR EVERYONE - we, the unemployed, will be left here, trapped in our homes (or cardboard boxes), emailing resumes from our computers (or the public library) into the black hole of the internet or rapid dialing every hurting business in the phone book, begging to sweep their floors.

Pass unemployment extensions NOW. And put Americans back to work.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take notes on "Fun With Dick and Jane". I'm running out of ideas regarding how to survive this debacle of an economy.