At least 90% of the jobs in my field require a bachelors degree in accounting and 5 years experience

And they offer $11 - $14 per hour with no benefits for the first 90 days.


What the fuck?

In my field, my background is much harder to find and therefore salaries and benefits are very competitive.

Here in western PA, where the economy has been catastrophically distressed for three decades or more, $11/hour still barely covers the cost of living for one person, let alone for someone with a family.

You could work at a minimum wage job($3.30/hr) for 25 hrs a week and pay your rent and bills, eat and go out once or twice a week and not have to share a living space. Now a 40 hour minimum wage job means you're sleeping under an overpass because that won't even pay your rent if you're alone.

When I mentioned it to a somewhat older guy I know, he pointed out that he worked for that same company in 1974, doing the same exact job, for $9.75 per hour.

People are so desperate to work, that they will accept lower wages. And the 90 day grace period on benefits is VERY typical actually-My temp agency that placed me here in my current job, had the same policy. And even after the 90 days the benefits were shitty...And thats a white collar professional scientific company.

When I worked at Solectron as a tech, I was making $15+/hr. The Certified Level 3 solderers were making more than me. After the 2001 crunch, I saw ads in the paper where they wanted a level3 with minimum 2 years experience for $8.50/hr starting.
They weren't offering techs like me more than $8-8.50. That's when I started working for myself.
Sometimes the money sucks but I don't have to kiss ass for shit wages. Our supervisor at Solectron got the position because she had "management experience". She wouldn't have known what an electron was if it bit her on the ass but she had management experience. Her experience consisted of being an assistant produce manager at a local grocery store.

Required min of AA degree, preferred bachelor's. Position was in university welcome center. Help students enroll blah, blah. blah. Pay topped at 11.83 an hour

Sounds about what a Temp for Robert Half would be making. Although when you have to pay them the figure is considerably higher than what the employee makes. However it is a good way to help select people for full time employment.

But the listings don't suggest anything other than a full-time, permanent position with the company.

It's entirely possible that you're correct, but that's a grossly dishonest tactic for employers to use.

Typically at least one level of degree and twice the experience required before the industry tanked, for whatever they think someone really desperate will take the job for.
As a former HR mamager remarked here the other day, it helps the keyword data miners whittle down the pile of resumes.

laid off in January and spent 6 months looking for something else. He finally was offered and accepted a job with more responsibility and a loftier title than at his previous job - but at a 40% pay cut. Employers are taking mean advantage of the poor job market by slashing wages. It's criminal.

The other thing that's been killing me during this whole dead-end interview process is that I'm apparently overqualified for a great many of the available positions.

The solution, according to most of corporate media and Congress, is to engage in some "retraining."

So...

I have X number of skills at present, and so I'm over-qualified.

But somehow after I've "retrained," and I've acquired even more skills, I will be... what? Less over-qualified? How the hell is that supposed to work?

What my husband discovered is that managers generally already have someone in mind before they post a job, so the posting is only a formality. He was out of the running even before he submitted his resume to many, many jobs. Also didn't help that he's 59. One recruiter for a major corporation told him the company was only hiring new college grads this year. Good luck getting all the work done with an inexperienced workforce.

I have a friend who's an accountant. He was laid off and out of work for a year. Finally, he drastically "dumbed down" his resume and took a job that paid half of what he was making before. It was the only way he could find anything. I wouldn't worry about "retraining." I'd remove some of the experience/qualifications from the resume if that's what it takes to make you more marketable.

I'm sorry this is happening to you. It's a nightmare.

When they can get a fresh faced college grad and pay them pennies. I fucking HATE hearing that BS.