unemployment oddity

[JS]

The latest unemployment figure is 8.9%. I've been unemployed for five months now (4 months longer than ever before in my life), so I wanted to see if the government publishes unemployment figures for subsets of the population. I wanted to see how much worse than 8.9% I'm really facing.

According to BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics), people (like myself) with a bachelor's degree have an unemployment rate of about 4%. People (like myself) who work in professional/business services have an unemployment rate of about 4%.

What am I doing wrong here? If the unemployment rate for someone like myself is 4% in two categories, why have I not gotten even one interview, let alone any job offers, in five months? At this rate I will be unemployed for the rest of my life.

I would love to work in the airline industry but they aren't hiring (no surprise there). I looked up jobs with AA and found nothing relevant (e.g., I could work in revenue management, but I'm not picky), and I looked up jobs at Southwest and found nothing at all.

The response rate I've gotten is that of a convicted felon (which I'm not), so my question is ... is BLS full of it, or am I doing something wrong?

 

[jimntx]

Remember the following:

1. The unemployment figures are nationwide. The 8.9% total and the 4% average in your demographic are an average. In some areas of the country the overall unemployment is well north of 10%. The unemployment figure for your area is what is really important to you.
2. The actual unemployment figures are probably much worse that 8.9%. The number is derived from how many people are a. actively seeking work and b. how many people are drawing unemployment insurance benefits. If someone has given up actively looking, then to the BLS they are not unemployed. During the depths of the Great Depression the unemployment rate was something like 35% nationwide. However, those figures did not include a single unemployed female. Women who lost their jobs in those days whether they were single and self-supporting or not were not counted as unemployed.
3. How did you become unemployed? This is a rhetorical question. Please do not answer this to anyone, but yourself--especially not on here. With so many people not working, employers can afford to be picky. If you were fired for cause--drinking on the job for instance--it will be much harder right now to find another job.
4. Be honest with yourself about your skill set, your age and your education. If you are not computer-conversant in this day and age, then even with an MBA you would need to start looking at Wal-Mart, Denny's and/or Waffle House.

These are just some of the reasons you might still be unemployed. It might also be that there just aren't any jobs in your area of expertise in your geographic area. Employers are hesitant to hire you for a job too far outside your training/education set or too far below your previous salary. The "conventional wisdom" is that you will quit the instant you find a "proper" job.

 

[delldude]

You are marketing yourself and your skills.
Maybe revamping the rez is a start.
Look into your interviewing technique.
To get comfortable in the interview,take in as many as you can even if you aren't interested to get yourself at ease and used to being asked detailed questions.

An interview is a sales promotion for yourself....time to analyze on your end.

Maybe go into a different job area...even temporarily.

Good luck.

 

[JS]

Remember the following:

1. The unemployment figures are nationwide. The 8.9% total and the 4% average in your demographic are an average. In some areas of the country the overall unemployment is well north of 10%. The unemployment figure for your area is what is really important to you.
2. The actual unemployment figures are probably much worse that 8.9%. The number is derived from how many people are a. actively seeking work and b. how many people are drawing unemployment insurance benefits. If someone has given up actively looking, then to the BLS they are not unemployed. During the depths of the Great Depression the unemployment rate was something like 35% nationwide. However, those figures did not include a single unemployed female. Women who lost their jobs in those days whether they were single and self-supporting or not were not counted as unemployed.
3. How did you become unemployed? This is a rhetorical question. Please do not answer this to anyone, but yourself--especially not on here. With so many people not working, employers can afford to be picky. If you were fired for cause--drinking on the job for instance--it will be much harder right now to find another job.
4. Be honest with yourself about your skill set, your age and your education. If you are not computer-conversant in this day and age, then even with an MBA you would need to start looking at Wal-Mart, Denny's and/or Waffle House.

Thanks for the reply. I was laid off, so #3 isn't the reason.

These are just some of the reasons you might still be unemployed. It might also be that there just aren't any jobs in your area of expertise in your geographic area. Employers are hesitant to hire you for a job too far outside your training/education set or too far below your previous salary. The "conventional wisdom" is that you will quit the instant you find a "proper" job.

What I bolded is a very real concern I have. It doesn't explain why no one has contacted me for an interview, because no one knows how much I made last year by just looking at my resume, and HR at my previous place said they will only confirm that I did work there from this date to that date, and nothing else.

However, when I reach the point where someone does ask me what my previous salary was, I'm planning to downgrade my own previous salary. After all, if the purpose is simply to weed out people who used to make more, I'll do the same thing anyone with a flaw would do -- cover it up!

 

[freedom]

i feel for you ....i've read the same statisic about the unemployment rate for college educated people ... and while it may be 4% it's only going to go higher .... right now everyone who possibly can ,is just holding the line ... there's no job creation anywhere except at state unemployment call centers ....

I'm from PHX and i'll share a story with you ... today i went down with a friend to scottsdale , possibly one of the wealthest cities in the united states ? (or at least up there ) we drove around and ended up in this one plaza , it was quite large ,so large it was divided by a small side bussiness street ... on one side was a target and home depo and numerous other bussiness and on the side we first entered into there was a toys r us .... as we drove in a man was putting up a banner saying "now under renovavation " that was a bald face lie ... the complex looked almost new , there were SEVERAL stores about target size on the one side of the plaza that were vacant , they had some pretty pictures of people shopping on the windows to conceal the pure devestation .... so still on this one half of complex we stopped into a taco bell ... it was about 93 degrees in there , so i said screw it and we went 70 feet to arbys ... it was about 88 in there .... their bussiness was SO bad that they keep the AC high so as to keep their enegergy bill low .. and these were not the first places in AZ that i've seen doing this ... after eating we drove across to the OTHER side of the plaza , about the only things left over there were the target store and home depo ... now i've seen targets before , and their ususally pretty bussy , this one seemed empty ... heck the plaza was so empty that there were banners in the other empty stores telling people to go to target ! fiddle sticks had closed , harkins had closed , some coffie shop had closed ... heck the ENTIRE store area around the empty harkins was GONE ... while driving we even witnessed a shop closing up! it was an upscale furnatre shop and they were hauling the stuff out into the back of what looked to be a friends pick up truck ... As i left the plaza i got a glace at the name of it ... it was the scottsdale pavailon!!!!!!!!!!! i couldn't beleive it , to see it today i wouldn't want to be there after night fall ... but you go back just two years and it was another world! i remeber when the grass used to be lush and green instead of dead and brown , you'd drive into the place and there would be traffic on the dividing road!!!!!! every store front was full then ! on saturdays people who drove porcse's , corvetts and other high priced cars would come out and set them up next to each other in rows with the hoods up to show them off while they barbequed and chatted with their neighbors ..... no more ...

driving around i really opened my eyes after that , lately i stopped paying attention , but today i started again , maloneys in tempe , is closed! this bar had been around for possibly decades ! i know it was open at least two months ago , i figure they closed just as school closed ... seeing old town scottsdale today i also realised that alot of the little stores , the jerwelry stores , the art stores .. their just hanging on , in three months i beleieve that 1/3 of them will be gone ... you see here in arizona it doesn't help with this excessive heat , it keeps the foot traffic inside , and it used to be one felt SAFE shopping after night fall , but with all of the robberies and crime , i rarely go out after nightfall now , and i suspect that trend is spreading amoung the population .

i did find one thing interesting ,it seems like scottsdale is taking it on the nose harder than other parts of the state ...i think because they had alot of overpriced stores that sold stuff no one wants or can afford anymore that their taking it harder than other cities .. (case in point a 390 dollar T shirt with artisy desgins on it on sale at the STASH in the scottsdale fashion mall , i about laughed myself to death when i saw the price tag )

i feel bad for you JS , if scottdale , one of the richest citites in at least the state of arizona is being taken to it's knees , you know that job creation is being taken down with it across all demographics ...

sorry i don't have a more positve story to share , i wish you luck in the search for a new job .