I’ve been out of work since February 2010 due to a layoff. Went back to school and graduated and still can’t find employment. I feel like the over 50 workers aren’t needed anymore.

I went back to school. I have worked most of my life now I can’t get an interview anywhere. I live in a country who’s credit is worst than mines. If I could purchase a ticket it would be a one way to one of the countries that our corporations decided to move their business to so that they can continue to become rich while we in American continue to suffer. I need a job to take care of my family; eat and pay my bills. I need to believe in my country again that seem to be stuck on their own selfish agenda. I need to pray that God will intervene because He is the only way.

layoff do to illegal immigrates work 14 years for company but don’t care labor is cheap i have 1 child and house note i need help & nowhere to be found!!!

hi. im lisa. im 41 years old. my profession is data entry. i attended college majoring in medical insurance billing and coding. i went to everest institute. i do not recommend anyone attend that school. i am unable to find a position in the healthcare field. i cant even find a position in the clerical field period. i believe that its due to my age and the fact that ive been out of work for over a year. its hard when you are competing for a position with 6 other people or more!! anyway, i just want to work, i have to support my child and i have to support myself as well. of course i do have bills to pay. thats all. but i will continue to keep looking; because quitters never win and winners never quit.

Here I am. After 18 months of active job searching, I’ve sent, delivered and called on over 1,200 possible positions. I am now the proud owner of a small stack of rejection emails which I can print out for dartboard covers. A high percentage of employers don’t even bother informing applicants that they are rejected. Applications go out into some cyber-void now circling the earth, or a trashcan where they are assimilated and recycled into new wood products. (Ok,Toilet paper.)

Still no job. Obviously my current technique and revised resume is a bust. Once every possible opportunity in a highly skilled area was exhausted, I moved on to middle management, then entry level. Along with millions of others, I have deleted all exceptional accolades, positions and national awards. I hide my age by leaving out dates.

Alright, perhaps I was setting the bar too high, so I began hoping for a job in retail. Nope. Controlling work flow, communicating with clients, supervising employees , managing time and budgets has left me horribly under-qualified to sell key rings or pantyhose.

I decided to explore the tremendous opportunities for advancement in the fast food industry. Forty or so applications to burger joints in a 60 mile radius= Yield: nothing. (Well, except a lot of fries and some zits.)

Instead of wasting time on college and career trainings, I should have stayed in the New York System Restaurant in West Warwick R.I., lining hot dog buns and wieners up my arm. I haven’t paid my dues for this new career choice. (That’s a real place. The chef could line up wieners on her bare arm, dress ‘em up with condiments and never even get armpit hair on them. Now, that’s a marketable skill.)

My favorite rejection comment in the fast food category: “You don’t just walk in here and wait on customers at our counter. It takes EXPERIENCE.” My cocktail waitress and fry cook years are too long ago. Better not mention managing a lunch counter for ZAYRES. Just because I could handle drunken State Senators and Congressmen at 2 AM in a bar when I was barely 18, does not mean I can put your fries in a little envelope now. That didn’t prepare me for a ticked off customer at a drive through. I couldn’t possibly find my way around an ice cream shack today.

The Queen of Customer Service excellence, I would happily share my “Ten Commandments of World-Class Service” with anyone willing to hire me. A sample is Commandment number 6: “If a Customer (or client) asks for a ‘song and dance’, strap on your tap shoes and ask if they prefer Broadway tunes.”

Unsolicited advice to other job-seekers out there, all 30 some million of you: Don’t share your best trade secrets at the interview. You will see them implemented about a week after you don’t get hired. Sacred rule number one: If a company asks for a business plan or written synopsis of your best ideas, run, run fast and don’t do it. Many businesses are garnering great ideas at the cost of your rent payment.

I think I’ll run an ad in the papers. Can’t hurt, right? It might go something like this:

“Sassy ex-professional seeks employment in an idiot-free environment. Must allow good hygiene. (Don’t think you can afford me???) Try me! You will be surprised to find out exactly how cheap I am. ”

There are several options still available to me, although many border on illegal or immoral.

All levity aside, unless you have had to beg off on invitations for months because the car is broken down, uninsured, unregistered, or out of gas, don’t think you can fathom how lonely this is . If you are rural, good luck with the car thing. No matter how cheap it is, it is more than you can afford. When inspection time comes around, be prepared. Mine will be in hock for some needed repairs in minutes. Every application asks what kind of transportation you have to get there. I understand why, but it doesn’t help.

Unless the power has been shut off at least once, and you had to pretend to be an explorer in Darkest Africa to find your comb, don’t giggle when you see someone who used to look sharp with dark roots, bad hair and shabby shoes. Until the first of each and every month means panic because the landlord will be on the phone at 8 am, don’t make comments about downsizing. Have you tried to find cheaper rent without a job? Not happening. Try staying behind exactly the same amount all the time with no option for catching up. Try selling the junk you have because you have nothing left of any value, except a laptop that breaks down every five minutes, but you can’t apply for work without that.

When you know the pittance that unemployment insurance pays is ending any minute and have to look at giving away the cats that have kept you getting out of bed, who have often been the only ones who seem to give a damn, then you can talk to me. At least you can talk to your cats without getting ‘that’ look.

We are not lazy or slow. We are not ‘giving up’. But that doesn’t matter a damn to the landlord or the electric company.

If you live alone, and depend on just you, it is even worse. No kids? No help anywhere. We don’t want to live in your spare room, attic or basement. The shelters are overcrowded but that becomes the best option at some point. At least you can shower, I think, even if you only can stay indoors from 6 Pm to 8 Am and then have to walk the streets. That is supposed to encourage you to find work, by the way. If you didn’t suffer from mental illness when you arrived, it won’t be long. Keeping your possessions with you at all times, having to find some way to guard them so you can sleep, being vigilant because you are vulnerable whether or not you want to admit it ,are all facts of life in the shelter world.

“Friends” think there must be ‘something’ you can do. ( If they are still around after a few months.) You can only say ‘no’ so many times before they think it’s them. It’s not them. It’s the Economy and the Jobs Market. They don’t understand anyone with less than $5,000 in total debt , who never charges anything, who never goes ‘out’ who knows what nothing really feels like, and can keep up a good public face.

We won’t ask. For anything. Ever. Relax.

A job you loved goes away and soon your self-esteem hits the deck. I’ve learned the times at the local food bank by heart. I may show up in disguise, but so does everyone else, so I go anyway. (OH, before anyone starts with ‘benefits’ like food stamps and medical care? A single person with no children under 18, is not eligible. It’s one way to end overeating. )

If all unemployed Americans were put in a State of our own, our population would be greater than 48 existing states in the USA. Ooops. Don’t get any ideas. I really don’t want to live in an abandoned Navy base or factory with an electric fence around it. That could create jobs, though, now that I think of it. It would take a lot of guards to keep these millions of people enclosed. We could farm our own food, have a roof over our heads, and make room for homeless Veterans*, too. That is starting to sound pretty good.

Ellie

* Approximately 1/3 of homeless adults (one out of every three) in this country
are veterans, yet veterans represent only 11% of the civilian population. On
any given night 107,000 – 300,000 veterans are homeless. Based on various
estimates, 500,000 – 840,000 veterans are homeless at some time during the
year. ~

Hello:

I am a 53 year old Male, US Navy Veteran, college educated, and no I do not use drugs or abuse alcohol in any form.

I spent 4 years in the US Navy Honorably discharged as a Sonar Technician. After I went to college and became very interested in Computer Science and thus began a 20 work history as a System Engineer / Administrators for such firms as Microsoft, Federal Aviation Administration, Group Health COOP, Swedish Medical, NCR, and many other large and small business as a independent and private consultant. In 2009 working as a contractor for Microsoft I was laid off no faulty of my own. With over 1500 resume deployed, 50 interviews, and 100′s of telephone screening I thought I would have been back in the workforce. As the 99 weeks begin to run my health turned as the stress mounted, it was -25 below when I was asked to leave the residentce I was in. Scared, alone, and trying to keep a grip, I nearly froze that first evening while trying to sleep in my little commuter car in a public parking lot, finding a restroom, and a place to shower, just a piece of dignity was difficult. God, save me as my brother allowed me a room. My saving, 401, and all my possession are almost gone. I frustrated hungry, and trying to ward off depression. What did I do wrong, I have a great resume, a good work history, I raise my family, paid my taxes, I am a Veteran, I voted, but at mid life I am fighting for my life now. I watch the madness in Congress and the joust over people lives or Healthcare and political fighting over seats, while people are starving to death by the MILLIONS. This is AMERICA……. I am sadden by the huge despair and the lack of HONEST, TRUTHFUL media attention obviously being paid for by the very wealthy. I have to take a hard line approach and now working on trying to set my own business up, because simply the stats are real 78% of the unemployed is over 50, equating to hiring forces don’t want experience at cost, but hire the non-experienced and put cost to retraining them for the position. I was appalled when I ask for job retrain help and promised to repay, and was told I was too old and no, but then learned a 65 year old on L&I got $60,000/year plus all school expenses and supplies, and got reimbursed for gas to go to school. WHAT? This person retires in two years. I needed $7000 and probably would be working and paying taxes, I know I would have taken in 1 unemployed person as a return to my community, but nearly broke and starved I am looking to find a way. God, help you all, and I hope he still thinks of me. I really sometimes understand jumping off a building or sending the exhaust back into the car. Peace to all.

As with many of us today my story is about the same as others. But I feel that the way I was let go or as they say it was laid off was kind of cruel. I was told that the higher manager needed to speak to me and then was escorted to a room where the HR person and also her co-worker were seated. The Big manager nonchalantly said well we do not need you anymore and that you have been let go. I was stunned for that moment but not totally since I knew people were to be laid off even though we were told that there were to be no more lay offs. They let go of 6 of us in one department, can you imagine that. they said that finance was being restructured oh what a nice word for we don’t need you any longer or your services are no longer needed. I couldn’t believe how cold and well inhumane that they were in this process.
The one person said ok we have to go back to your desk and he escorted me there to make sure I got my personal belongings and nothing more. They asked if I needed boxes and I said no because i had been prepared for this day and kept a extra bag or two in my desk. I proceeded to pack my things but also tried to get my work together for the person who would have to take this over.

But the person told me that I couldn’t touch the computer so i did what i could to let them know of the work still on my desk. He was standing right by me as if i am going to go off and do something crazy there. So i was ready to go but I was confused why I had to leave then that I couldn’t even finish out the day but accepted it as it was and then asked if i could say goodbye to my co workers and he said no that I couldn’t. I looked at him like what is wrong with you I have worked with these people for 13 years and not able to say goodbye.
I said ok fine and gathered my things and gave him my keycard and we left.
On the way down was complete silence and once we were at the ground floor the mand told me sorry i couldn’t let you talk to anyone because its protocol.
I looked at him and said thank you and proceeded to leave.
I can’t understand how I could have been treated just like a piece of paper or garbage that once I was not needed thrown to the way side.
How cruel and inhumane our work force has become as of late.
We are not numbers, we are people with feelings and hope and dreams but at that moment was made to feel like nothing more than a thing.
I wish that the corporate world would wake up and realize that they need to start treating people with respect and dignity and in that sense the workers of today would do the same back.

In the summer 2008, after more than 2 years of being unemployed, my son was just starting college at Portland State University, majoring in Physics, my family was without health insurance, and our life savings were gone. I was forced to look outside Portland for work. I wasn’t happy to leave my home or my family, but it was that or lose my house or fail to send my son to college.

Luckily I found a good paying job working for International Game Technologies (IGT) in Corvallis Oregon. IGT is the world’s largest slot machine manufacturer based in Nevada. The Corvallis division I was working at used to be known as Acres Gaming a small local company that invented and patented the networking of slot machines to create mega-jackpots. IGT tried to duplicate this lucrative technology, but when they found out they couldn’t, they came to Acres Gaming and threatened to put them out of business if they didn’t sell.

In December of 2008, after 4 months on the job, it was announced IGT was starting a new division in Bejing China. The 50 employees at Corvallis were told to train 100 Chinese replacements. Long story short, by the summer of 2010, IGT closed the Corvallis office and terminated nearly everyone, including me.

That’s bad, but not everyone lost their jobs. Corvallis had 3 managers and they all kept their jobs and moved to Las Vegas. We had a handful of Software Engineering contractors from India that also kept their job. Corvallis is a small town and while I was living in my apartment, I ran into 4 of them living in my apartment complex all sharing a single 1 bedroom apartment. Given that we were neighbors, working for the same company, doing the same job, we got to know each other during my time in Corvallis. I learned they were being paid a mere $7/hr. You might wonder as I did, how it is legal to pay $7/hr when at that time Oregon’s minimum wage was $8.40/hr. It turns out the Indian contracting company could do this because they had visas that allowed them to pay their employees according to India’s wage laws.

When the Corvallis office closed, these contractors continued to work for IGT, but rather than moving to Las Vegas like the managers, they were moved to China and had their pay reduced from $7/hr to $3/hr.

I’d like to say this story is unique, but unfortunately there are many just like it, from many professions.

My story is about a great guy. A guy that volunteers hundreds of hours of his time every year, who spends $1500 out of his pocket to pay for kids who cannot. A guy who is always involved in community projects that benefit organizations like Special Olympics. That guy efficiently ran a successful trucking company but felt the pull to become a teacher, so he went back to school, got certified, and now for six years there are no jobs teaching social studies. To get certified in another subject requires a whole 45 credit program at the hefty cost of about 20K, which I do not have. Why can\’t I take a test to prove my knowledge of a certain subject, instead of 2 years and 20K? With 15 years of experience handling mail and after scoring one of the highest scores on their assessment test, would you think I might get hired by the Postal Service, no! I am on application around 2000 give or take 20, but who\’s counting? I will dutifully send out more today and keep my fingers crossed.

I can tell you the job market is rough! I’ve been looking for work for 2 years now as a manufacture Inspector or an Assembler. But more and more companies want people who have a steady work history. Just recently I sent my resume to 2 different staffing agencies that were hiring for a company that manufactures motorcycles here in North Kansas City. One staffing agency sent me an email requesting me to come in and fill out the paperwork for the position of an assembler for the motorcycle manufacture. I drove the 25 minutes it took to get to this staffing firm and filled out the paper work thinking I had finally found a job. Only to learn after speaking with the staffing rep that my work history, was not good enough for the company. Due to I had not worked at one location in the last 5 years for longer than 2 years. Even though in the past I had held a job for 15 years with 1 company until they closed their doors! The other staffing agency contacted me by phone a few days later and told me to come in at 9am and fill out the paper work to go to work for the motorcycle manufacture. I drove the 35 minutes to their facility, filled out the paper work and watched 2 films. Then was sent quickly out the door and was told they would call me in a couple of days. The next day this staffing agency sent me an email = Your qualifications did not meet the requirements to move forward in the motorcycle manufacture pool of applicant’s process. I just do not understand. This company is suppose to be an all American company! Presently, I am very upset with the staffing agencies, as well! I feel like I have went through the bate and switch process. If anyone has any suggestions out there to help me with my job hunt process, I would greatly appreciate them! The really bad thing about this was this is not the first time this has happened to me. More and more companies seem to be discriminating against unemployed people whom have been out of work for a long period of time. Can’t companies see that some of these people want a full time permit job, a place to call home. Not just a job where you may work for a day, week or just a few months and then start job hunting all over again. But, as I think about this if I would have taken a temporary job I would still be in the same boat for the job at the motorcycle manufacture.
I just don’t understand the companies thinking on this. There are many talented and skilled people out here looking for work.
Have had a few interviews I am an unemployed Manufacturing Inspector living in the Kansas City Metro Area. I have 15 years of manufacturing experience with 8 years of this being a Quality Control Inspector for an ISO Medical Manufacture that closed down in “1993″ due to the flood! I’ve had a few different jobs since then. I’ve even worked 3 part time jobs at once! 2 of the other full time jobs that I have had since 1993 had cut backs and of course my job disappeared. And I got lucky with one place and was advised that the company would be closing their doors. After the notice my sister advised me that where she was working at was hiring. I put in m application and was hired a few days later.
My spouse was transferred to another state so I had to quit a job, then 3 years later he was transferred Kansas City, which is closer to family & friends. (WHERE WE ARE STAYING)! After the transfer I got a job at a plastic manufacture as a Quality Auditor. 7 months later the company decided to do away with the floor quality auditors. This was in May 2009 and I have had 2 part time jobs since then, which lasted for a very short time.
I am still pushing onward. I know there has to be a company out there that can see I have the skills they need for their company! (My references are my past supervisors!)