I found a terrific smart-ass piece on what the dismal science refers to as "The Employment Situation" at PrudentBear.com. It's a contrarian site, if you're interested in that sort of thing, as I am.
If you dig deeply into the government’s own data put together by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”), it strongly suggests that many Americans must be far too rich to work. For example, there are 4.8 million slackers who claim they would like a job but haven’t bothered to look for one in the past four weeks (if you don’t look for work, you are not in the labor force). If these same Americans had only looked, the unemployment rate would have been 8.8%. Obviously, they aren’t looking for work because they are rich Americans who don’t really need the money to pay the bills.
People aren't looking because there is NO point. There are positions advertised, but in the Washington area, this is mostly statutory. What I mean by that is the company (or the contract) has some stipulation that they must advertise outside to fill a position...even if they have every intention of moving an insider into the position. Added to that fun is the fact that most of the (technical) jobs being offered here require security clearances, and this narrows the field a good deal. In the boom years, most of the clever people were earning big money in the private sector, not working for the government, earning 2/3s of what they could earn at some internet start-up or mature telecommunications company.
Anyway, it gets even more satirical, but his math is solid. This deviation in the labor statistics has been noted all over the place, and there is also a thread about it on Plastic.
Posted by nicole at April 29, 2003 01:15 PMYou make a good point about "no point." (No pun intended.) My question is, how do they know if people are looking for work? Info from the local unemployment offices? There are a large number of specific trades that don't even post decent jobs there. I'm in electronic design, for example; the first time I was ever laid off, after 15 years with the same company, it took me 6 months to find a job - during the tech boom of the 90's - because I was looking at the local unemployment office. There were no jobs there. Once I got hooked up with a headhunter (by chance), the job offers flooded in.
You can't expect that today, of course, but the same situation exists. Some jobs won't be found except through different channels, and I wonder if those channels report to the government how many people are seeking jobs through them.
P.S. glad I found your page. I bookmarked it.
Posted by jdeking at May 1, 2003 09:28 PMHi Nicole,
I would have sent this via e-mail if you posted an e-mail address or guestbook or something on your site.
You probably don't remember me, but I used to frequent the asg-x lists (Meddling Kids, Twonkserv, Anarchyserv, etc.) "back in the day" (1996-1998) and in a sober moment was looking for voices from the past - V-X, ZZYZX, Fantome, Captain Napalm, Uncle Joe, twilight, violet/Karen, etc. And I came across Emily's old "page of net.people" links and yours was one of the few links that wasn't 404.
So, in the spirit of nostalgia (mine) I thought I'd say hello. I have no idea if anyone IRCs anymore, or tingles, or whatever. I pretty much only speak with Amber anymore (from the asg-x group, I mean. I do speak to other people besides Amber).
So, um... how've you been in the past five years?
-- Jough (I forget the screen names I used to use - outside, bloom? I think I used "jough" more often than not).