Job Security
68
The New Economic Market.
Business is booming. Here we grow again. Jobs on the market. Wages increasing! Great Job security.
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Business is Booming
Well, this is true for the company that I work for. Business is great. We have three stores. Commercial real estate prices are low and economic forecasts look good (for our line of business). So, we are growing again.
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Here we grow again
We are opening our biggest brightest newest store in Saint Louis. We have found prime real estate and for a rock bottom price. Perfect location. Does this mean good things for me? Yes, this means I get to work 72 hours a week. We don’t just show up for work either, we work our butts off. Especially after this last week of receiving applications for the positions that we are offering.
Why is that?
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Jobs on the Market
We are now hiring to fill our store. I have a thick stack of applications and resumes (yes resumes, something unheard of for our job market) of people desperate for a part time minimum wage job. I have had people used to making $50,000 to $85,000 begging for a part time job. Even at minimum wage. Quite a few of them were before the Chrysler Plant in Fenton Missouri closed.
Chrysler closed its last plant in Fenton, a suburb in far southwest Saint Louis County. The plant made Dodge Ram Pickup trucks. Chrysler decided that they will leave the plant in Mexico that builds the same truck. So we as taxpayers, just bailed out the Mexican Plant, not the American one.
The 11,000 auto workers that used to work in St. Louis, used to spend a lot of money here. They bolstered businesses all around town. They bought houses, went to baseball games, bought goods from stores both big and small. They went out to eat, bought electronics, paid plumbers and landscapers. They had money in the bank, and used credit cards.
Now many of them want to work at my store. Many are going to go shopping at my store. I run a thrift store. Mind you it is a nice one. Very nice. And big. But if they cannot continue to shop at the malls, then high class donations will be down. So you see, the economy is a closed circle.
Not everyone will be able to get a job. More people on unemployment, less people paying taxes, less tax money to go around. This will lead to cuts on unemployment benefits. People will have to go on welfare. Wellfare will not be able to go on indefinitely. Now you have thousands with nothing. Not a penny to their name.
I ask you this question: If I have no money to feed my kids, how far do you think I would go?
Answer: WHAT EVER IT TAKES!
Now we have a serious crime problem.
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Wages Increasing!
Minimum Wage is going up
So minimum wage is going up. It is going up 20c. This is good news right? Wrong. In January Minimum Wage went up 40c. All of the minimum wage employees were happy.
It cost the company that I work for almost $1500 a week. We could not increase prices, or we would lose business. We could not afford $1500 a week in extra payroll. We had to make cuts. Now there are two less jobs available, and the remaining employees got an hour cut from the schedule. All this and they must keep productivity at the previous level, working less hours and must also cover the two lost positions.
The economy suffers, the employers that can, raise their prices to cover expenses. In essence, they pass the cost on to the consumers. This includes the other companies that must use them to do business, and they in turn raise their prices.
Now the cost of living goes up dis-proportionate to the wage increase. Now they can not buy as much as they could before the wage went up.
To make matters worse, the employees that worked hard to get a raise before the wage went up do not get extra compensation. So they also get less. It all sounds so dandy giving everybody more money, but in the long run, they are still making Minimum Wage. Minimum Wage is not a living wage. It never will be. So the circle of economics gets smaller.
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Great Job Security!
I have people with college degrees and 10 to 15 years work experience vying for my part time minimum wage jobs. Where does that leave the people who used to apply for these jobs? Out in the cold! Some of the people I just hired to clean bathrooms and unload trucks have degrees from very respectable universities and have years of management experience.
Soon, people will be willing to do my job, for half my pay. Guess where that will put me? Begging the guy who took my job……for a minimum wage part time job. But that is OK. He will get his. Soon some guy making minimum wage will take his job for a 50 cent raise. That guy will be me. And I will be king of the hill once again.
Where will it stop?
No one is immune to economic downfall. Even doctors might soon pray that their patients are rich enough to be able to pay for services with a chicken or a goat.
I am terrified about the future of this country.
I think I need to find a Chinese tutor for my kids, while I can still afford one.
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IS YOUR JOB SAFE?
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Comments
I just hope my wife reads this before she goes out to buy some new shoes. LOL.
Thank you for this hub
Haha sell shoes in your store then, and give her discounts! it might not serve its purpose but it'll make you feel better - that she gets them on sale! :D
You've said exactly what Tom and I have been saying for weeks..months...now. It's really, really bad out there for so many, and getting worse.
Our son went to apply for a part-time job at a pet store--he was one of over 1800 applicants! He went to a factory--over 600 applicants there...
Tom has applied to probably 75 jobs or more in the past year, even low-paying ones...it's hard to tell how many others applied at the same time.
Our son-in-law was laid off last year--it took him months and months to find two part-time jobs to support his family..this is a 26 year old with a solid work history, and willing to do anything, just like Tom and our son...
I hope that you are able to keep your position, but I can certainly understand your doubts about it--good luck....and thanks for a very good hub about what it's like out there in the "real world"...
Well, you're too late. My maid of honor shoes were 35 dollars, I made sure I could wear them with anything for going out on dates or to parties. I think you'll find them sexy and fitting. I got my sister to split the price with me since those were the ones she wanted me to get as opposed to the ones that were marked down to 40. And I wouldn't be getting them if she weren't wanting to go all out for her "special day".
This is a very scary, but true hub. I thank God every day that I am a nurse. And a very specialized one at that...I can do other nursing, but most other nurses cannot do my job. I agree with the thought that I would do what ever it took if I could not feed my kids, and this seems to be where we are headed. Very scary indeed!
Kushal Poddar- you are welcome.
Cris- I do, and she does, but sometimes a girl has got to go to the mall.
TamCor- Frieda just told me that Tom just wrote a hub on the subject a few days ago. I was too busy working to make my usual hub rounds. I already have a link to one of your hubs at the bottom, I will add Toms as well. I am very secure in my job. Good economy, we have business. Bad economy, we have business. I totally rock at what I do, so I am the last to be fired. But….. I am so ready for a new job, with a boss who would not be a tyrant. I would like a job where you can call in sick if you are really sick. I would like a job where you do not get your vacation yanked the day before you are supposed to go on vacation. But nothing doing. I am staying right where I am.
Frieda- Well I hope that the company that your sister and her fiancé work for does not “un-employ them” before their “Big Day” as we will not be able to feed them your shoes. ROFL.
Uh-Oh, I probably should not post that reply……. But I’m gonna. Hahahhahaha (cackled the half crazed over worked husband)
K@ri- You are lucky, nursing is a very safe field. Especially if you have a niche. If it gets really bad, the Doctor could pay you with the chicken drumsticks. LOL
Where do I apply? LOL - I'm one of those displaced workers from the manufacturing industry. Laid off and no where to go - the jobs are just not out there - I make more off the taxpayers in terms of unemployment and public aid than I would working two or three part time jobs.
Haunting hub....back during the depression...my dad had a job with the 3 Cs...bankers, lawyers and ex company owners would beg him for a dime to buy food. The rich are about to be poor again and they don't see it coming. They won't believe it until they are huddled around a fire barrel in January....waiting for the food trucks.
Nanny JOAT- one day when there are not enough workers, there may be no more "aid". Scary thought. I have had part timers ask me to take away a raise I had gotten them as it cut off their assistance program. They did not make enough to feedthemselves, but it was too much for food stamps.
Tom- You are so right. I wonder how the average American will handle themselves. Probably not as nice as in the old days.
It does seem like a vicious cycle. One that seems almost impossible to reverse since we hardly manufacture anything in this country? I did read one article recently that predicts when oil prices get sooo high people will be flocking back to the city and imports will cost more because of the high oil $$ This will possibly make USA products competitive again?
It scares me to hear people are getting lower wages or are being laid off due to the economy. And I thought being self-employ was tough enough.
LOL, Paper Moon, at least I could feed the kids! :D
Bill- they will only be competitive when our government gets rid of the free world market mentality. It is nice to bring up the Africans, Chinese and the Mexicans, but not when it brings us to their level.
may- seing people with better papers than me asking me for a job that wont put food on the table is scary. Especially if you see where the whole thing is headed.
K@ri- perhaps I should get a few chickens while I stil have a job. I will just think of it as medical insurance. LOL
God Bless us All...I am so sad for you younger folks it is one tough time right now...stick together though and fight with all your might...:O) Hugs
well I have no job...... our landlord is selling the house, I have to keep cleaning it for folk to look round..... poor but happy that is me
Tell it how it is G-Ma! Damn you are an inspiration.
Brenda- Happy helps, doesn't it.
Scary is the word. I find I'm missing out an answer in your survey: "I haven't the slightest!!"
I just read a hub that you may find interesting, a very positive take and spin to this dreary scenario, hope you like:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Reinventing-Ourselves-Afte
My friends who have jobs tell me it'll be easy for me to find something wonderful to do. I'm fifty: of all the jobs I've applied for so far, including school bus driver and filing clerk, I haven't yet had even an interview. I have three college degrees.
Lost my job late last year and I'm not even looking. I'm 56, I live in MICHIGAN, and it took me two years to find the job I lost and that job was horrible. It literally made me ill. I'm one of those two-degree, 25 years of job experience people you were talking about and I LOST a job in the phone center from hell. When I started they wanted us to sell $100,000 in bank products every month. By the time I became unemployed I was working half-time and that threshold was up to $1 million in bank products, minimum. Even though I should be scared, I'm not. I hated that job so much.
I think that we have to make some stuff here, but probably the economy will collapse before anyone in government grows a clue about that. We will all have to learn to help each other and make do with less, and that won't be easy either. Good hub. Hang in there.
I think there are few with whom this article does not resonate, Paper Moon. Very nice job.
I enjoyed reading your article. I feel your desperation. We are all going through the same things: Jobs are being outsourced and the global economy is adding downward pressure on our wages. We are working more for less.
hubby7
I feel like I have a secure job, but honestly I never know. Great read, really made me think. (which is impressive on a Sunday after whiskey night)
Thanks.
Thanks for the hub. I was monstrously relieved to shed the feeling that I am (A) all alone with my economic fears, and, (B) too stupid to recognize the economic indicators that are allegedly wiggling in a more favorable direction... to me it looks more like death throes, but I digress. I was a six-figure IT geek, now working as a civil servant doing (oh please!) customer service for a fifth (which I now feel like drinking daily, but don't) of my normal salary... and am grateful to have it. Again, thanks for the hub.
You're right moon- assistance should be temporary - a way to get out of a spot- but you find yourself weighing the pros and cons and then realize that it makes more sense to play the system - you've got to eat and so do your kids. Once the system gets you - it keeps you. I've never been on unemployment before and until last year never on Public Aid - it's extremely tiresome in the amount of work you do just to get it and keep it - not counting actually trying to look for a job on top of their requirements.
It's not fun - I'm not proud of it - but I also figure - for all the years I've paid taxes and unemployment insurance, I should be able to use it without others judging me by it. (not that you were - but others do)
I will get out of the cycle - it just takes a little time - so I'll use it as I need to get through the other side.
Thanks for such a thought provoking hub. :)
Elena- I have read Violet Sun’s hub. It is great. I was more than a little freaked out by many of the applicants these last two weeks. Some of them were so qualified for high up jobs, but were desperate for anything they could get.
Teresa- Loose two of the degrees, they probably think you are out for their jobs and will undermine their stupidity.
Pgrundy- My job (actually my boss) is making my body break down in scary ways. I don’t know if I will live to 56 if I don’t find something else. Several of the people I worked with got so Ill from the stress of this tyrant they could no longer work.
Not telling- Thanks. Good luck to you.
Hubby- I am so pissed that our government solicited and bullied major American companies into sending our jobs overseas, using our tax dollars to research sites and pay for outside firms to come up with the studies that would give the companies the numbers showing them how profitable it would be and then gave them tax breaks to do so. Outsourcing indeed.
TC- Your job is probably safe for the short term, but greedy business owners would love to replace workers by using cheaper labor.
Linda- Glad you have something. I myself am too tired after working non stop for 12-13 hours to drink daily. But I damned sure had a nice Bloody Mary on my off day.
Nanny JOAT- They are sticking it to us in a big way so it is good someone besides the CEO’s and the filthy rich. My fear is if enough people un-employed there wont be enough tax revenue and they will pull the rug out from under the poor.
Like you I have been lucky where I am and hope to stay that way. Also, like you, whatever happens I will bounce back. Excellent article, and great discussion as a result.
Paper Moon--Don't minimize that. I know it isn't easy to figure out what else to do, but honestly, don't put it off and off until something bad happens. I didn't get laid off, I had a cardiac attack at my desk and was taken away in an ambulance. Spent two days in the hospital and decided the $10 an hour wasn't worth my life.
Ooooh! I have another ad on facebook: "looking to date a millionair?" I think maybe I should respond! Is that your picture on the link?
PM,
Great hub. I cannot imagine what some of you all been through since the shift in the economy. The house of cards has finally crumbled. It would seem that keeping up with the Joneses means also following them also in foreclosure, and unemployment. Being a minimalist is definitely for the win!
Tom- I have always been lucky and at least been offered positions at the top every where I have worked. Just with all these little mouths to feed, it is a bit unnerving to switch at the moment.
Pgrundy- cant afford the hospital. Had to give up my insurance at $380 a week! Now I can buy a lot of food, but hope the hospital does not come knocking!
Candie- LOL. Go get’em tiger.
AID- When I was young, I learned to live with nothing. Quite the experiment. (next to nothing). I did great. I went on a self imposed homeless venture. I had a fully stocked work van converted to living space to fall back on. Spent 3 months homeless (only sleeping in the van when it rained) and another 3 months living in the van. What a life and adventure that was. First thing I would recommend is not to be homeless in the winter where it gets freezing. (I went to the west coast for this). It can be done if you are smart about it.
'fraid to say that this is what always happens in such economic times. No job is 100% secure
It did occur to me a long time ago that no job is secure. After that I started working for myself and now I seem to do just fine making my way through anything.
I can't afford it either. Even with insurance I was left with about $4,000 out of $15,000 (for two days and one night) and instructions to follow up with a cardiologist, which, of course, we can't afford. Now I also have no insurance. But at least I'm not killing myself for a bank. Hang in there. :)
An eye-opening hub … probably gives a better picture of what is going on in the country than any news coverage could. When we consider the big picture, we tend to forget the havoc that unemployment can wreak on people's psyche, their sense of self-worth (what does that say about our society?), and, by extension, families and communities. In some local schools, each elementary classroom will have 40 children because they laid off many teachers in a desperate attempt to balance the budget. I am seriously considering homeschooling … or you and I could split the cost of the imported tutor? ;-) Hang in there, keep writing, keep sharing ….
Ethel- I am sure the governors brother has a sure bet on a job.
Camping Dan- I hope business keeps flowing your way, at least you wont fire yourself.
Pgrundy- I am hanging. (actually I was already hung { see my murder hub, I was killed off in the comments LOL})
Zollstock- Thankfully my wife has done a lot of home schooling (with great success) so if it comes back to that, we are set. Joint home school ventures seem to be taking off as well. You teach a few kids this day, we teach them something else another day, and they can do educational field trips together for socialization. I loved your hub on bringing back the barter system. Fabulous stuff! :D
Great Hub, PM. Very soon, when I run out of Ramen I will be wishing I could make the short stroll to Mexico and get a job making Dodges. Fact of the matter is, that they wouldn't let me work there, even though I hablo the lingo just fine-o. The Mexican government won't permit anyone to take a job unless it can't be filled by a Mexican National. Some concept, eh?!
By the way, awhile back, I was here in the Estados Unidos waiting to make a left at an intersection in my pretty little Dodge Ram 4x4 when an F350 ran the red and T-boned my "Blue Dog" to death. The car behind me held four witnesses. All were kind enough to run to my aid. But being illegal, they were long gone before the law showed up. So, no witnesses, no citations, no settlement. Asi es la vida aqui.
Yes, I am learning that parents are collaborating more to enrich their children's homeschooling and/or distance ed experiences. And that way, all those non-working parents feel included and needed; I'd call that a benefit for everyone. Thanks for the nice remark about my hub about bartering! Our neighbor dropped by last night with a five-pound ham, begging me to let him trade that for a bowl of snap peas. Happy harvest ;-)
14 otra-
Espero que su Ramón no funcione hacia fuera.
Zollstock- If I lived closer, I would be dropping by with some kids clothes to trade for a few tomatoes. :D
Well I have been expecting another dust bowl soon myself, or worse. Good but frightening hub.
I live in El Paso,TX, a border city between Mexico & the US. While there are still some jobs available here, the catch is that you must speak Spanish! Not be bilingual, you must speak Spanish because the buying market is 86%Hispanic, many residents don't even speak English.
Everyone starts at minimum wage here and no one cares - because the govt subsidizes in many ways. Families live 3 generations in a home. It's not uncommon to see 4 cars parked in the yard either - representing the working adults in the home, while the nonworking adults receive welfare, unemployment, or disability income.
Cash is king here (preferred choice of payment)
Paper Moon watches as tumbleweeds roll by.
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![[Please click to enlarge.]](http://s1.hubimg.com/u/1301156_50.jpg "[Please click to enlarge.]")
Cris A says:
6 months ago
PM
It does seem like it's a vicious cycle that is unfortunately even getting smaller. As long as the economy remains as fickle as the weather, nobody's safe. Including me who's not a 9 to 5er. And its scary to know that even though your business is growing, it could easily be considered an illusion. What are we to do?
Btw, i like the laid back atmosphere with which you wrote this. The bitterness is not in the swallowing. Thanks for sharing :D