The NSA can’t snoop on our credit card transactions if we don’t have jobs to pay those credit card bills, and the good news is that more of us do., though the May unemployment rate ticked up from 7.5% to 7.6%.
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Yatsuno
This of course just means austerity is working and jerb creators need a negative tax rate beyond what they already have.
c u n d gulag
I’m happy for the people who found jobs – no matter how low paying they may be.
Me?
This 55 year-old suffering soul has abandoned all hope of ever finding a job again.
It’s been over 3 years, and, after sending out thousands of resumes, I gave up.
I haven’t even looked in the last 6 months.
What’s the point?
They ain’t hirin’ those of us over 50.
piratedan
@c u n d gulag: I feel for thee, but do not abandon all hope. A lot of it depends on what your background is, mine was healthcare, after three years off the job, now in the last two, I’m a highly desired commodity, go figure. Maybe it’s time to cross train into something else (easy to say, hard to do)? Or perhaps try and turn a hobby into a financial concern? Also, too, perhaps time for another FP sponsored jobathon thread.
Elias
Counted 9 apaches flying over my house so far. A group of 6 and then a group of 3. I live in a heavily-treed area and can only see a bit of the sky. Lots of noise makes me think there’s more. Tell me the Soviet tanks haven’t plunged across the Sac.
Elias
And there go 3 more blackhawks over my head. Can hear rotors to the east too.
No base nearby so it’s a little weird.
SatanicPanic
People are saying the economy is looking better. First time I’ve heard that consistently in years.
rdldot
@c u n d gulag: Right there with ya, buddy. Except I’ve only been looking for 18 months. I still occasionally apply to something that looks promising, but not that often. Just trying to figure out if I have enough money to last till I die.
rdldot
@Elias: Where are you?
Hill Dweller
@SatanicPanic:
If the wingnuts would stop forcing austerity, it would be even better.
Mike in NC
@c u n d gulag:
I’m in the same boat. Had one interview in the past six months for a totally unrelated position. Spent a couple of hours getting mandatory counseling at the local ESC office this past week. I told them nobody over 55 was getting hired anywhere, and they couldn’t disagree. I might think differently if still living in NoVA, or near a big city, but the job market in rural NC is about as dismal as it gets. Benefits are about to run out and the Republicans opted out of federal extensions.
Violet
@Elias: They are very, very loud. Go over my house on occasion. Always in groups.
EconWatcher
@Mike in NC:
Very sorry to hear about this, guys. I hope you get a break soon. You deserve it.
JPL
In early December of 2001, my son was prescribed Cipro. While he was at the pharmacy, he called and said this stuff is expensive. Since he was still living at home, Wachovia called to inquire about the unusual purchase. I laughed and said my son is a tad upset at the cost also. After hanging up, I had the uneasy feeling that those being prescribed Cipro were being tracked. Being the good mom, I did mention that if the FBI showed up on our doorsteps on X-mas, he was finding another place to live.
BTW.. There are many antibiotics that aren’t effective on the son for normal infections.
Yatsuno
@Mike in NC:
Of course they did. How else are you going to pull yourselves up by the bootstraps and stop being takers on society?
Punchy
Heaven forfend! From a solid, reasonable 7.5% to an unacceptable, economy-crushing and morale-killing 7.6%! Why wont this Preznit focus on jobs (like Clinton did…../rimshot) instead of picking fights with Congress and ordering the IRS to drop a drone on Google’s HQ?
SatanicPanic
@Hill Dweller: This is true. The GOP is going to be an albatross around our necks for the next few years at least. Lame.
Steve in the ATL
c u n d gulag, what’s your skill set?
rdldot
@Mike in NC: When I went into the Employment office the rep suggested that I take the dates off of my resume. Guess she thought that might help get me in the door if they didn’t know upfront how old I am.
ThatPirateGuy
@c u n d gulag: so now what?
How the heck are we going to deal with a society where the market has taken people like you and shredded your oppurtunites?
Trollhattan
O/T TDS take on the Citibike kerfuffle is funny as hell.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/daily-show-citi-bike-video.html
EconWatcher
I’ve noticed here in the DC area that the time-honored blatant discrimination against older workers seems to be letting up a bit; my organization and others seem to be willing to hire. But of course, this is an extremely atypical job market.
Gex
As long as a large portion of our electorate only cares about executive overreach only when the party that believes that if the executive does it, it is by definition legal, we’ll continue to keep having this.
I’m sick of all the libertarian dudes bitching about this when they collectively yawned when the NSA was implanting themselves in datacenters during the Bush Administration. The “incentives matter” people only vote on tax rates when things are going good and care little about SCOTUS appointments that gut the 4th Amendment. That’s why they only complain during D admins.
Yes it’s a problem that Dems are just as bad. But when we’ve spent the last 40 years attacking anyone who isn’t into our war machinery as being soft on crime, drugs, or terror, then don’t be surprised when you don’t have a choice anymore. Remember Dukakis trying desperately to be the badass America wants for a leader? And how we laughed and laughed at him for not looking the part? Well, that’s how we want to be governed. We shouldn’t be surprised when we get it.
Hal
Can you imagine how much better the economy would be if Obama would stop distracting Republicans in Congress with the scandal that is Ben-gaaa-zeee and his unwillingness to repeal the ACA.
quannlace
Meanwhile…..Mitt Romney is still an entitled dick:
Speaking at a Utah conference.
““I wish the hurricane hadn’t have happened when it did because it gave the president a chance to be presidential,” Romney said in reference to Hurricane Sandy. “But, you know, you don’t look back and worry about each little thing.”
Yup, don’t sweat the small stuff, like killer hurricanes.
One can only imagine what his behavior would have been after last month’s tornadoes.
c u n d gulag
Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts.
I was a Trainer, and Training Manager, for a large telecommunications company. The areas I trained in, were customer service, and sales.
Sadly, I’ve been out of that world for almost 5 years, and with the changes in training technology and delivery, I’m now a dinosaur.
I’ve applied for (as far as I can tell) EVERY customer service position in my part of NY state. But no go – they probably take one look at my resume, and if they don’t think I’m too old, probably think I’m overqualified, and so, I don’t even get an interview.
I can’t look elsewhere, since my father passed away last year, and my almost blind, handicapped 81 year-old Mother needs me to look after her, and the house.
And at this point, I’m not sure I could take a job and leave her alone for 8-10 hours a day. She can’t see what she’s heating up on the stove or microwave.
And I saw a statistic that out of 100 of those “work from home” ads, 98 or 99 of them, are scams.
So, I’m SOL. And, I’m not handicapped enough for SSDI, though I can barely walk, with ankle, hip, and back problems.
On Orthopedic Surgeon who I went to, hoping he’d vouch for me at a hearing, told me, “Yeah, if you’d worked construction, I’d qualify you. But you didn’t. You can still talk.
I had to bite my tongue, to stop me from saying, “So, why don’t’ you hire me to answer your phones, asshole?”
Probably because I’m a large, overweight, bald man, and not some cute and chipper mid-20’s hottie.
John S.
@c u n d gulag:
I hired a web/graphic designer last year who is 56. He’s by far the best creative person on my marketing team.
Don’t give up hope. Age is just a number.
Yatsuno
OT: This amuses me. Galt’s Gulch may yet come into being.
Elie
@c u n d gulag:
What is your career/work?
Yes, there is ageism, but at 50 you are pretty young still for that (depending on the industry)
You have to work your network — how most jobs come about. Going to industry meetings and staying up to date is critical (again, depending on what you do). Also, take a good hard look at yourself physically. If you need a good haircut, tightenning up the wardrobe, etc — that all can convey un-intended negatives. If you can, volunteer around something you did. Do not give up — ever. You might take a break, as you have, but get back after it.
catclub
@Trollhattan: Did you see the “Why conservatives hate CitiBike
in one venn diagram”?
It is the intersection of: Frenchified things, sharing, eco-concern, Bloomberg, and one other I cannot remember. Funny.
Steve in the ATL
@c u n d gulag: How about Convergys? They hire lots of people for home-based customer service positions.
Regnad Kcin
training, and especially sales/service training, is definitely a job that cannot successfully be outsourced
consider looking at this list of salesforce.com partners for non-profits, and seeing whether there might be a networking opportunity
Regnad Kcin
training, and especially sales/service training, is definitely a job that cannot successfully be outsourced
consider looking at this list of salesforce.com partners for non-profits, and seeing whether there might be a networking opportunity
Eric U.
has anyone looked at Seagate’s stock price recently? They are in a world of hurt if this nonsense gets stopped. I was wondering how they were keeping up the sales volume, but over the last couple of months it has become clear to me. It’s not all porn, that’s for sure. Or maybe it is, if the gmnt is capturing everything.
@catclub: I ride my bike because it keeps me from wanting to kick the dog when I get home from work. That sort of calmness must be uncomfortable for the wingnuts.
fuckwit
@Yatsuno: What amuses me most about this is that the word “wingnut” ended up in a major metro newspaper story, for the first time I can remember.
Yatsuno
@fuckwit: Uh-oh. Someone is gonna get sternly worded letters. These folks are masters of teh butthurt.
lamh36
POTUS on NSA: “These programs have had bipartisan support since 2006. Your duly elected representatives have been briefed on this.”
Paula
@lamh36:
Hmmm. Inconvenient.
Seriously, tho, aren’t these threads convenient for knowing who to pie?
JoyfulA
I’ve been working at home since the 1980s, when my first husband became too disabled to be left alone all day. I was an overnight hotline answerer and a telephone pollster, both briefly. Then I was a writer (pre-Internet, so getting work wasn’t easy), then a proofreader (self-taught), and now a copyeditor.
Making a living at home can be done. These days, you can even sell stuff online. But don’t get into a scheme, the first sign of which is buying information about how to work at home.
liberal
@c u n d gulag:
Does anyone think 50 is a magic number, a la 90 for Rogoff/Reinhardt?
My guess is that discrimination as a function of age is of course monotone increasing, but there’s no magic number.
I’m curious about this because in addition to the bullshit injustice involved, I’m looking for a slight career change. (I’m 48.) As I constantly remind my wife (who complains about our jobs being boring), things could be worse—I could be actually unemployed.
liberal
@JoyfulA:
The Onion headline writes itself.
liberal
@Elie:
There was some article about age discrimination in the tech sector. Some higher-level guy (usually heads startups or something like that) encountered lots of it as he got on in years, and had to do shit like dye his hair, etc. Maybe even Botox.
cathyx
@c u n d gulag: Sounds like with your background, you could get a job with the NSA doing data mining. Have you tried them?
liberal
@John S.:
Problem is that you know that and we know that, but do employers know that?
Mnemosyne
@c u n d gulag:
If you have training experience, would you be able to get a teaching certification in your state and do some substitute teaching, or do you think your physical limitations would preclude that? That might also help with the need to take care of your mother since substitute teaching is not necessarily a full-time job.
c u n d gulag
Thanks for the tips, everyone! You’re all wonderful. I’m all verklempt. :’-)
c u n d gulag
@Mnemosyne:
That was my first call.
When I called them in early 2009, they told me that with all of the recent teacher layoffs, their first priority for substitute teachers, were those who had lost their jobs.
They said I could mail in an application, but not to expect hearing back from them.
I did. And I didn’t hear back from them.
And when I called back, they told me what they’d told me before.
Mnemosyne
@c u n d gulag:
May as well try again. Also, check with your local community college (assuming you have one). If you have a hobby that you think other people might be interested in learning, you can pitch an adult education class to your community college or parks district.
If you know how to knit, crochet, bake, or sew, I’d tell you to pitch a class to Craftsy.com, but I’m guessing there are similar online learning sites for other hobbies as well. Garden design?
c u n d gulag
@Mnemosyne:
Oy vey…
I don’t knit, crochet, bake, or sew.
But I’m the man to call if you want your garden to look like a desert, completely devoid of any living thing that might be green.
I didn’t inherit my Mom’s green thumb.
I’m assuming that somewhere back in my families Ukrainian/Russian Slav heritage, there was a tall, overweight, bald peasant, who was told to move to the city – the landlord and other peasants were tired of him destroying the crops.
Mnemosyne
@c u n d gulag:
One of my co-workers is severely allergic to grasses (even including grains like oatmeal) and of Scandinavian descent. I tease her that now she knows why her far-distant ancestors left Africa to find a place to live that didn’t have so much frickin’ grassland.
satby
@Elie: You have to work your network — how most jobs come about
@31.Regnad Kcin: training, and especially sales/service training, is definitely a job that cannot successfully be outsourced
Au contraire, his network probably got outsourced to Singapore and the training is done by WebEx now.
I do training for a large IT firm for classes that are remote and all over the world; it’s not really efficient because the “audience” is probably trying to multitask through their jobs. But it is way cheaper than flying me all over Asia from Chicago because the call centers are all in Asia now.
Just Some Fuckhead
Wait, I thought it was NASA snooping on us?
satby
Argh, no edit?? Anyway, some companies are re-onshoring call center work, and some can be done from home; I thought Dell was one.
And if you get a notary public commission, you can make a fair living doing the closing signings for big mortgage companies like Quicken Loans. I just refinanced, and they have a notary come to your house to witness you signing the loan docs; mine said that working part time she was pulling in a couple of grand a month. State rules may vary however.
Liquid
Google “Fuck the NSA.” It’s kinda funny
Anoniminous
U-6 number gives a more accurate picture and it’s more-better-compatible with non-USA figures.
U-6 unemployment decreased 0.1% to 13.8%, down from a staggering 17.1% in October through April of 2010.
liberal
@Anoniminous:
IMHO the best thing to look at is employment-to-pop ratio, constrained to the relevant age band.
Nerdlinger
@Gex: Despite claims to the contrary, libertarians don’t give a shit about empowering your average Joe.
John S.
@liberal:
I’m a fucking employer. I hired someone over 50. Did you miss that part of my comment?
Jesus, I must not exist.