I know 4 people who have lost jobs in the past week.

:(

It is really nice that the economy is supposedly starting to improve. Meaning that it is losing jobs more slowly now. But the economy is still losing jobs.

When will the economy finally start gaining jobs again? That's when we can honestly say the economy is improving.

When will my friends be who are lucky enough to be employed again have jobs at their skill levels again, Instead of having to take menial jobs to survive?

:grr:

I wish there really was a Hell just so republicans could be Damned to it for what they have done to all of us by fucking with the economy.
x(

It is still a terrible situation...

And I am so sorry for your friends...Nobody knows when the economy will start gaining jobs again; some say late this year, some say next year...

Who knows?

I'm with you on Hell for Republicans... :mad:

:hug:

:(

Not soon enough for me. I've got one but it sucks.

:(

Until then, the problem is still getting worse. It's just getting worse more slowly.

And once the recovery starts, how long to people have to wait until the recovery reaches them? Guaranteed that the recovery will be much slower than the collapse. So, 2011 or 2012 before people have good jobs again?
x(

Can we prioritize this so that republicans get put out of work first and hired last? They caused this, so it's only fair.

And because of a clause in Obama's COBRA plan I can't get it at reduced cost.

To me this is a sham. To get the discount, you cannot have a spouses insurance available. Both my wife and I had insurance through our employers seperately. It is cheaper that way. Now I will be forced to get on her insurance, which is costing me nearly as much as COBRA does without the Obama discount. His plan has helped me zero, but helped her insurance company a lot.... Their explanation, the discount is not to help insurance to be cheaper, it's to get more people on insurance.... Yeah, and force folks into the expensive variety to help the insurance folks. That is what it does, help insurance companies out....

On edit I agree to hell for those, starting with Nixon, who got us into this mess!

Scuba

and banks. x(

I hope the economy improves as quickly and contagiously as it fell. And when it starts to improve I hope you get to post some very good news, soon. :hug:

I am going to have to use COBRA for a while when my medical leave of absence officially ends and I'm not looking forward to it. It's one more expense I really don't know how I'll handle on a fixed income. :(

If so you will qualify for the reduction. That won't be so bad, while it lasts.

In my opinion single payer is the only real way to cut out the middlemen who we are being robbed by.

Scuba

...my hours have been reduced to practically nothing. I've been applying for jobs for the past 4 months, along with thousands of others, who are applying for the same jobs. I'm just lucky that Mrs. Robeson is floating our boat right now.

and that you can survive on what you have coming in. I hope your situation doesn't get any more tight. :hug:

What worries me is how many people have been out of work so long that they no longer count as unemployed. How much help are they going to get searching for jobs? I know some families in desperate situations. I think we're going to see a lot of desperate situations, with extended families sharing small homes to get by, and food banks getting run dry. :(

With all the billions we're finding to help AIG, nothing is being found to help desperate communities.

...is that you are exactly right. I don't think I could add much to what you've said.

Were they from this area or another?

The company my husband works for went under a massive re-structuring within the last week and he was able to keep his employment, but not the same position, which unfortunately also came with a substantial pay cut.

When I feel like grabbing a beer before taking the train home, the bar in Penn Station I frequent had a group of about 8 regulars that sat at the end of the bar. Just last week I was there and one of the bartenders shared with another patron that all 8 had lost their job around the same time.

and I'm seeing the least of the impact of this, then our politicians should be nailed to walls and stripped of their government paychecks and healthcare until they understand what people are going through. x(

I can't imagine that this would be the tail end and they aren't jumping to help people yet. Instead they're still jumping to help corporations. How evil is that... :cry:

Let's hope your friends find jobs sooner than I have.

:hug:

I'm very sorry you're going through this.

I hope someday soon this is all history, and I hope it is history that becomes ingrained in people's memories that republicans can't be trusted to govern or run the economy. x(

will slowly improve in fits & stops at best, but not really pick up for another year or so.

Wish I could be more optimistic, but I think that group of 41 Republicans in the Senate is going to do their best to gum up the works as much as possible. If the economy is still bad a year from now, more & more people will start blaming Obama. Maybe not many, but it will increase slowly from its current levels with the steady drumbeat from Fox News, the radio crowd and newspapers like the NY Post and Washington Times.

insurance companies and banks then it won't be just Fox news and the NY Post.

At some point our government has to break from the Right Wing philosophy of only helping big business and leaving workers to fend for themselves. We need relief programs, work programs, real help aimed at people instead of corporations.

:(

Our government is far to locked into the right wing mentality that it inherited. Small incremental changes aren't enough. It would be nice to see this administration lay some foundations towards becoming a real populist administration.

Why was it so important that millionaires & billionaires be paid their bonuses (not just AIG, but the $8 billion to Merril Lynch last year...) for fear of breaching their contracts and lawsuits... but, it's ok to demand that middle class union workers be open to renegotiating their contracts.

What Obama should have done was put forth a $2 trillion stimulus package with no tax cuts in it - save the middle class one he promised. Then, when Republicans get outraged, throw in a few more tax cuts and cut out some of the spending. But, what do I know?

And he doesn't have another job. We all work in the call center at a telecom/ISP. Its nobody's dream job, but its long term contract work with the possibility of going permanent. The company has so far invested 3 weeks of training in me on things I knew nothing about before I started. Getting new skills does make up at least a little for the low pay.

So this young man gets picked for training, which basically means you're doing a good job and they want to put you in more queues. He asks his supervisor if there is any way he can get out of the training and the supervisor says no. So he gives two weeks notice.

A couple of people tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen. He has skills but nothing that lots of other people don't have. He is going to be out of a job with no unemployment compensation. Its not impossible to get another job, its just fiercely competitive. And when the interviewer says "why did you leave your last job?" he can say "I was bored with the training they tried to give me".

This is not the time to be giving up a stable job, no matter how much he might be bored with it. :(

I wish him the best of luck trying to find another job. I would not quit a job unless I had another one lined up already.

to realize that sometimes you have to put up with things you don't like. Jeez some people put up with horrible situations just to stay employed. I hope he finds something but I have a feeling he is going to regret this in the long run.

that is open book. We all missed the same 5 questions out of 36, which the teachers figured out they didn't communicate very well. Even if someone does poorly, they get you through. Being in more queues means you hardly ever get to take a breath between calls, but you're more valuable to the company.

It can be considered a recovery if Wall Street starts making money again. As usual, working people are the VERY LAST to benefit from any recovery, since companies continue to shed jobs (in order to remain profitable or increase profits).

to the investor class. x(

and spent a month on unemployment. Job hunting is horrifying. There were lots of jobs available, but virtually none I was qualified for (or passed the Brinks-Myers whatsis psycho test for). All the jobs that I really wanted and applied for, I now see the companies are laying off employees and reducing hours and I know had I been hired by them I would be looking for work again now.

I finally landed a job cashiering which is a grinding and soul crushing job, but there's just no way I can quit; there's nothing else out there and until I pay off my debts, I can't risk unemployment again. I don't hate it, but yea gawds, it's so monotonous.

I feel like my life has been reduced to eat-sleep-work with no time for anything meaningful. My soul is suffocating.

I want my bookstore job back...

I know one person in particular who is unwilling to consider any job that is below what he had before, and he's still unemployed with no end in sight. But he is stubbornly insisting that he will not take any job where he answers to "kids half my age." He insists on getting his old management level job back or nothing.

:(

Working as a cashier is soul crushing, but it will get you through until something better comes along.

:cry:
You are such an awesome person.

Working at a call center, not making what I was 7 months ago but more than unemployment and the part time janitor work during those months.

but I hope something better follows. At some point there have to be better jobs out there.

I really don't know what's stable anymore. The place I'm at now and almost any other call center could be shut down in one day. Most of the senior employees have been there five to ten years but even they know they could walk in the door Monday and it be their last day. Currently they can't find or retain enough people.

Her company was about to go belly-up, and instead "re-structured," and let 80% of its people go,
although they hired career-advisers, etc. and made a real effort to place their people elsewhere,
I'll give them that.

She could come home and live with us, but she likes NYC and wants to stay in America for now. In
the meantime, I'm back in the child-support business, but as long as she's out there trying to
land something/anything, I'm happy to support her effort.

She jokingly wrote me saying she wants a job that will let her take as much vacation as she wants,
when she wants. I said, sorry, she can't have my job.

I'm sorry they weren't able to help her find a job elsewhere. :(

I wish more companies considered it part of their business to care for their employees that way, even at the point where they are letting them go.