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Nearly half of unemployed not looking for work, poll finds
2014 May 21, 3:33am 3,472 views 19 comments
by zzyzzx follow (9)
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lostand confused
@
2014 May 21, 2:10pm
So everyone who can't find a job should be tarred with the brush of having a fake resume or a big ego head?
No, just saying the person on the other end is also human.
marcus
@
2014 May 21, 11:51pm
My friend lives in a nice area of AZ with acerage. She has been looking to get some of her neighbour's kids to do about 20hr a week of work for her. Was willing to pay 15/hr with flexible timings. Not one showed up after one or two tries-most in the 22-30 age bracket. She finally settled for illegals.
$15 is not that good for that kind of work. When I was college age in the late seventies, a friend and I did exterior house painting in the summer. Not charging by the hour, we quoted a price for the job. It worked out a little more than $15/hr, each, and that was what, 38 years ago ?
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http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-unemployment-poll-20140520-story.html
Some 47% of unemployed Americans say they've given up on looking for work, according to a poll commissioned by staffing firm Express Employment Professionals.
A plurality of poll respondents – 45% -- said they blame the economy most of all for their situation. Nearly 20% point to their last boss; 36% consider themselves personally responsible.
Nearly half said they hadn't been on a job interview in the prior month. The percentage soars to 71% among those unemployed for more than two years.
The last time Kenneth Phillips, 55, had a full-time job was in 2007, when he worked for a parking company that ultimately laid him off when the recession hit.
He tried to launch a maintenance business in 2011 but his credit score was too low. Last week, he received a letter from a credit union denying his application for a credit card.
Now, he's living in Section 8 housing downtown -- which he calls “a blessing” -- and subsisting on various forms of public assistance. There's $221 a month from the county for bus fare, rent and essentials such as soap; $189 comes via food stamps.
He's sent 20 job applications in the last six months -- and has received one reply.
“It's not happening for me,” he said. “Unless I have a masters or a PhD that allows me to make $50,000 a year with a good job, I'll be looking at $8 an hour.”
Nearly two-thirds said they don't plan to go back to school to make themselves more marketable; 44% said they wouldn't relocate to another city for a job. Some 36% said they spent no more than five hours looking for work in the prior week.
Jobless benefits may be tamping down any sense of urgency. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they consider unemployment compensation to be a cushion; nearly half said they didn't search as hard as they could have for openings because of the funds.
#housing