Job Market- When will it recover? How is it?

The problem is that A) There are literally hundreds of applicants applying for even the most peon of positions and B) Most of the employers laugh me off as if it's some kind of joke that I'd look for a peon position. So I'd have to somehow overcome the odds of hundreds of other people AND convince two employers I wasn't joking. I'm doing a few side jobs here and there to stay active and hopefully get some cash, but really I need the economy to pick up just a little.

Can't you guys just short everything when it goes bad and make money?

 

OK, I did a check and it's about equal, but I will concede ours is slightly higher than Europe by about .5%.

 

I know it's brutal out there, especially in Oregon. Colorado, compared to much of the country, is actually doing pretty well. I have nine friends I can think of off the top of my head in Portland who have lost their jobs. They're barely scraping by and doing odd jobs. It sucks, but it seems to me there are two strategies: the shotgun approach and the sniper approach. I would probably take the high volume/low probability approach to temp work and a sniper approach for what you really want to do.

On the other side of the spectrum, I have so many friends and former colleagues who have lost their jobs on Wall Street. The smart ones saved their money and are living on their savings. Some have even said "I'm done", downshifted their lives, moved to small towns and just retired. I know of several, however, who couldn't conceive that they'd ever make less than seven figures annually and have spent like it. I have zero sympathy for them.

Mook made a great point. I got tired of having someone else control my destiny, as did my current partners. We were willing to take a career risk and take a significant pay cut (which thankfully was short-term) and now our more accomplished friends are calling us to see if we have work. Sometimes stepping out on your own really is the best thing.

If you were smart, that's exactly what you did. We weren't smart. We're making long play by picking up bargains. Our current fund is investing in nothing but pad sites (freestanding buildings in the front of strip malls). We'll see how it plays out.

 

It's about the natural rate of unemployment. Socialized countries have a three to five percentage point higher natural rate than do capitalist countries. Of course, the beta is higher for capitalist countries.

 

I hired an editor/proofreader a few months ago, even at a relatively low hourly salary (for LA at least) and with 1099 (no benefits, independant contractor), I got some really really good applications...about 250-300 in a few days until I pulled the ad down.

Its fucking scary out there how this economy is going to survive the longer and longer this shit goes. I thought I was unlucky not to be a few years older and miss out on the Dot-Com boom...but college grads with no experience right now.....are fucking useless in the job market right now for the job market. Completely and utterly fucked beyond belief. If you're in college, get as many internships and network like a motherfucker....if you don't you're going to be playing X-box at home for about a year or two before you can even get a job in retail.

I don't know what's going to happen in the next year for me personally but I'm trying to lay the foundations for an immediate back-up plan if I lose my job for one reason or the other, however any plans to do this are contingent to how many connections and useful skills you pick up in your current job.

Unemployment, I can probably technically live on but I can't "live" on it, if ya know what I mean. Hopefully I don't get there. I've been unemployed, it sucks.

 

Problem is that I see most small businesses will attempt to reduce the expenses and need for employees of larger companies, leading to more unemployment.