How Unemployment Compensation Affects the Job Market

When the economy is good and most people are employed full or part time and even some temporary; the job market is not such a scary and competitive place. But in recent years, looking for a job with the majority of the population out there has totally changed and the rules of conduct have changed also. While some people still receive some unemployment compensation while they are looking; the amounts of income is usually not even 1/3 of what they needed to live on. Usually you can take this income hit for a few weeks and maybe a couple of months; but after that the house and car payments will not get made if you don't get your full income back.

It is very misleading when I hear someone go on and on about what they did to find a job 10 years ago or even how they handled being on unemployment compensation then. We are living in undefined times and what was true back then is not even close to what reality has come to be now because except for the great depression the number of people not just out of work for a while; but struggling to even keep food on their plates is staggering. The advice on job sites and magazines, etc. is still 5 years past it's prime or more outdated mainly because no one really wants to admit the truth; that even the lowest of all of the jobs that most people would have turned downed a few years ago are all being fought over and are unavailable due to the upside down equation of more people out of work than jobs to be had. Also, no matter how trim and fit the over 50 crowd is that are out there looking, the manager at the drive in burger joint is going to hire the college student who can roll around in roller skates first before taking a major insurance risk on the "can do attitude" of someone near retirement age.

Most of the people who have been on unemployment compensation will tell the same story: they never in their wildest dreams thought they would see the day they couldn't get "any" job and they never thought it was going to last this long. The people I hear who are totally out of touch with the times are the ones who are either by the grace of God or the Universe still working and their favorite rhetoric (ad nauseum) is that they would just go flip hamburgers or go wait tables, etc. These people don't understand that most unemployed people would jump at the chance to do that but there are usually 50 people in line before them interviewing before the job is even announced. The numbers are stagnating, when an office needs even the most basic of worker they receive 500 or more resumes' from anyone with CEO backgrounds to skilled professionals they really need and that is usually in the first day or hour that they put the word out.

If you haven't been "out there" in the last 2 years or so; the market is a totally new ball game and a lot of jobs have just been eliminated, terminated or companies are gone. This is what no one wants to say out loud because it is scary; but we must go forward. None of us can predict the future, no matter how good or bad it seems; but it will be interesting to say the least.