How confident are you of being able to keep your job or find a new one?
Posted at 6:00 AM on October 16, 2009
by Eric Ringham
(15 Comments)
Filed under: Economy
Minnesota's unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent last month, or two and a half points below the national rate. At the same time, though, the state lost nearly 8,000 jobs. How confident are you of being able to keep your job or find a new one?
Comments texted to MPR:
Nov 1 my job is cut in half to 15 hrs pr week. I have no job interviews lined up because no responses. I have no health insurance now. -anonymous St Paul. Nov 1 my job is cut in half to 15 hrs pr week. I have no job interviews lined up because no responses. I have no health insura... Halle O'Falvey But why all this happen? Because we are wasting wealth and time for war,we wont have hope until our leaders focus on job creation and use the treasure to that! -anonymousI'm going to quit my job soon to focus on my own business. Know any good salespeople looking for work? Scott Moses Murray, Minneapolis
Comments (15)
I was terminated from my last position for being honest and turning in a dishonest boss. I have received unemployment since 2/2009 for this but we are barely surviving. My fiance took out $40000 in student loans to go back to college when I was working and could keep us afloat as he had tried for over a year and couldn't find work. But now we a re in danger of becoming homeless and $40000 in debt ( as he won't be able to continue to go if we are starving and homeless.) And we receive $69 a month in food stamps for 2 people to eat off of. ( He doesn't qualify for food stamps as he is a college student, He was told by the "welfare office" that he could get some help if he dropped out if you can believe that) So basically if he sat around in the halls like the welfare people in our apartment complex getting high and drunk all the time he will be rewarded with some food help, but since he is trying to better himself and has put himself in huge debt to do so he can't get any help. We do not qualify for any rent or other assistance as we were responsible and did not have any kids that we couldn't support so we will soon be out on the street while these irresponsible people in our complex do not have to worry about paying rent, or food costs and seem to have plenty of cash left over from their assistance checks to sit in the halls on their cell phones getting high or drunk while their kids run up and down the hallways doing as they please. I have never been out of work for more then 2 weeks, but can't even get hired cleaning grills at McDonalds now even though I have been a retail and food service Manager for over 6 years. ( Trust me, I tried to get hired for minimum wage type jobs as well as management jobs but can't seem to get hired anyplace. )
There is something very wrong with this country when illegal immigrants can get a place to live and food to eat just handed to them, but hard working American citizens have to worry about starving on the street. When irresponsible people having 2,3 and 4 kids they can't support can sit on welfare, get their rent and food payed for, yet have the money to buy cell phones, weed, and booze, but a man in a committed relationship who has been responsible and had no kids because he couldn't support them and has put himself in debt to go to college so he can support his family in the future can't get any help and has to be put out on the street hungry and homeless.
I have absolutely NO confidence that I will find a job soon the way this state is being ran right now as all the help is going to people that don't want to better their situation instead of going to people that are proving that they will be ( or are) marketable. Help is based on how many kids you can have instead of being based on your ability to train for and hold a job to be self sufficient in the future.
For the past 3 years my fulltime job as a designer required a commute of about 40- 50 minutes in each direction...with a one hour lunch break during the day. With this schedule I was gone almost 11 hours per day - and my children ages 4 and 6 were at daycare during these hours. My chef husband- had been working equal hours and wasn't home very much during the summer because of his schedule.
Just before school began this year I decided that I had enough of this schedule. Even though I was the carrier of our family's health insurance I decided that I better just quit my job, so I resigned. I also let my employer know that I would be available to work for them on a consultancy basis. - Turns out that this was the best decision that I could make. I am there for the kids before and after school. I work when my bosses need me and in the neighborhood of 20 - 30 hours a week and I am making the same amount of money -if not more and paying for my own health insurance plan- which will be tax deductible.
I have been unemployed for the past seven months, and only a few years away from retirement age. Although I have a great many skills, Interesting, challenging, "decent" paying job prospects are few and far between, especially in this economy, at my age and living in a rural area.
Having been let go from an office job last year without warning, and then spending 7 months on unemployment, I don;t think anyone should feel confident about keeping their job. Sure, you can find another job, but there's no guarantee it will be like the job(s) you had before.
I think that considering this question while having a job is actually a bad thing. Most folks when pondering a potential life problem become pessimistic or frightened at the possibilities. While I am really concerned about this “jobless recovery” that is restoring the economy, I’m thankful that I’m employed and don’t want to entertain negative ideas that might impact my own performance. Or change my behavior towards my employer or manager to be more ingratiating. Success in most things hinges on confidence. I feel for people out of work or who need more hours to make ends meet and try to broadcast opportunities to the folks I know in this situation when I can, but ultimately we need businesses and government employers to step up and get us working again.
I'm not confident at all. The parent company of the place I work might be doing some restructuring, and part of it might get spun off. If it does, I don't know if there will be a place for me in either of the two new organizations. Meanwhile, the country I live in has no social safety net. I could go bankrupt trying to pay for COBRA health insurance (lots of pre-existing conditions in our family) until I find other employment.
As a self-employed consultant, I am not actually looking for a job--I'm looking for clients! I'm reasonably confident, as my business is helping other businesses improve their operations, increase efficiency, and enhance customer loyalty. Usually a recession is good for me. This time has been different, though...clients have been few and far between. One reason for nervousness is that there is no safety net for the self-employed. If I go without work, there's no unemployment. Finding other employment is another worry. Corporations seem reluctant to hire 50-something ex-consultants.
As a teacher I am confident that I will have a job for as long as I want to remain in the education field. I may not be in the same district, but as long as I keep my professional skills developed and I'm willing to work anywhere in the Metro, I will be secure.
I'm confident that I will loose my job, at least once, in the next several years. I'm a highly skilled worker and do critical work for my company, but sooner or later, some arbitrary management initiative will eliminate my position. That's just how business works in America.
Very confident: I'm a stay at home mom, and while the pay is lousy my two-year-old can't fire me!
I am confident as I have skills sets in high demand whether the economy is good or bad. I questions whether it will be worth the effort to continue working once Obamaism confiscates more and more of my income to pay for his socialist agenda. When the far left democrats confiscate too much of my income, I will simply sell my business, terminate the 10 employees and watch the US implode into a third world country.
I am very confident that my job is secure, if for no other reason than my boss is overworked. However, if something happened and I found myself looking for work again, I believe I've built a good network and I have a substantial background that I believe would be attractive to most employers.
I am not confident of keeping my job. My husband is not confident of keeping his job.
We are both in our fifties and would find very few job oportunities (if any) if we do lose our jobs.
I work for an educational software company. Although we have struggled like many companies and have experienced some layoffs, I am relatively confident that my position is safe. However, because of the other layoffs I've had to absorb additional work, which has added stress and reduced job satisfaction greatly. I have looked for other positions to move to, but they just aren't out there. That leads me to believe that if I were to lose my job I would have a difficult time finding another - so it keeps me locked in place. So I put my big girl pants on each morning, thank the good Lord for my job, and go off to work with the intention of making a difference. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I don't.
I'm confident that I can find a job in the twin cities (Mpls/St. Paul) because I'm lowering my salary expectations. I'm a hard worker with many different skill sets and a diverse educational background. I'm finishing up a degree in computer technology, but also have a graduate degree in choral music. I think I'm fortunate to be able to consider a broad range of job opportunities.
I'm interested in working at a non-profit in Web development technologies, and my background in the arts seems to compliment that desire. The twin cities is has a number of leading non-profits looking for creative, hard working individuals. So I'm confident I'll find something.
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