Unemployment

[novatech]

I was going over the local weekend newspaper talking about the employment rate around the area. So was wondering how it is doing in other parts of the country and world.
A year ago we were at 1.5% unemployment. Today we are at 6.7%. Average for us and the surrounding counties is 7.2% This is up 1.2% from 6 months ago.
So how are you other guys faring?

 

[peg4x4]

Not sure-they keep bulding banks and Inns here,so sombody knows something.

 

[MO_cows]

Kansas City is usually a couple of points less than the national average. Last figure I heard was around 8%.

I always wondered if those figures took into account the people who are not employed but also are not drawing unemployment benefits, both the "chronically unemployed" who just flat ain't gonna work, and also the ones whose benefits ran out before they found another job. Then there are the "under employed", who lost a job that could support a family and resorted to flipping burgers or clerking at Wal Mart just to keep food on the table. There are so many situations and it makes me wonder how accurate the numbers they throw around in the news could be.

 

[TexasBred]

Read the rate the other day but don't remember exact number....seems it was around 7 1/2%.

 

[novatech]

It does not include is the self employed. Nor does it include those who have had their hours cut way back. I have cut my guys back to 20 or 30 hours and that is after terminating 25%. It may be a pretty tough Christmas for some but then we still are better off than a lot of others.
Marry Christmas everyone.

 

[chrisy]

The number of people at work in the economy fell by almost 9% in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2008.
The Central Statistics Office said the unemployment rate climbed to 12.4% from 11.6% in the second quarter of the year.
There were just over 1.92m people in employment in the third quarter, down 184,700 or 8.8% from a year
earlier. The annual fall accelerated from 8.2% in the second quarter
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The jobless rate edged up to 7.8% from 7.7%, but the youth unemployment rate rose to 19.8%, a record high.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose by 12,900 to 1.64 million in October
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

found these figures in two of the National Newspapers.

 

[TheBullLady]

Nova, I think we're probably not that bad off here in the Waco area, at least not yet. We're also a college town, which helps to keep people employed generally. I think the retailors here are going to be in bad shape after the holidays. We have a new mall out on I35 that hasn't had good occupancy since it was built. I look for more of the tenants to move out before much longer. The commercial market is fixin' to tank after the new year, so it will be interesting, to say the least, to see what impact that has on employment, and the economy.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Our area is bad- and I think the snowball is just starting
Everyone I know with a private business is hanging on by their nails
And most working couples have at least one person laid off- I know several with both laid off.
Kids that graduated from college last June are still searching
Several farms have already gone under and from the sound of things several more are close to loosing everything.

 

[Ryder]

Had supper with a friend of mine Sat. night. He has a lawn service business and has a good number of those expensive mowers and plenty of jobs. He was talking about how well someone can do that is really willing to work. The jobs are there. But his biggest problem is that he can't find enough people who are really willing to work.

Yet all I hear about the state is "budget cuts".

 

[backhoeboogie]

Had supper with a friend of mine Sat. night. He has a lawn service business and has a good number of those expensive mowers and plenty of jobs. He was talking about how well someone can do that is really willing to work. The jobs are there. But his biggest problem is that he can't find enough people who are really willing to work.

Yet all I hear about the state is "budget cuts".

Same here. A guy I know with a heck of a good job cuts lawns on the side. Says it is good exercise. You'd think he'd slow down for winter but people still call him.

Some "budget cuts" needed to take place - even when times were good. Other things were under funded. You can only hope the right things are happening when it comes to that.

There are a lot of maw and paw businesses hurting around here. Then I saw an estimate to rebuild a gazebo on a friend's lake house lot. The labor cost was outrageous. The person giving the estimate must not be very hungry.

 

[novatech]

Had supper with a friend of mine Sat. night. He has a lawn service business and has a good number of those expensive mowers and plenty of jobs. He was talking about how well someone can do that is really willing to work. The jobs are there. But his biggest problem is that he can't find enough people who are really willing to work.

Yet all I hear about the state is "budget cuts".

I made it through the oil crunch just fine by doing things nobody else wanted to do. It made me into a stronger person and prepared me for the economy of today. There are a lot of folks that are currently learning those same lessons. As harsh as this may seem it may in fact be a lesson that many people need to learn.
I believe in charity but their needs to be a lot more control of the money handed out. People learn quickly how not to work by taking the free money doled out. They learn how to work the system. Which inevitably costs the hard working innovative people more tax dollars. There are no lessons to be learned unless people are made to learn them. Instead we teach them not to take the jobs they consider beneath them by supporting their laziness, for lack of a better word.

 

[GMN]

Kansas City is usually a couple of points less than the national average. Last figure I heard was around 8%.

I always wondered if those figures took into account the people who are not employed but also are not drawing unemployment benefits, both the "chronically unemployed" who just flat ain't gonna work, and also the ones whose benefits ran out before they found another job. Then there are the "under employed", who lost a job that could support a family and resorted to flipping burgers or clerking at Wal Mart just to keep food on the table. There are so many situations and it makes me wonder how accurate the numbers they throw around in the news could be.

I don't hnk those numbers they put out include the ones that are unemployed and the unemploymnet ran out or the ones who just never collected unemployment and just scraping by, I don't think they have anyway to track those figures.

Around here I think the numbers are fairly high, severalof the bigger businesses laid off a year ago, I have a friend who got canned a year ago, she worked there for 11 years, still hasn't found a steady job, and there are other places close by where rumors are a flying that they will be closing down and moving to mexico. I don't think anyone is safe anymore, senority pretty much means nothing, if anything these people are the first to go, because they make more. I say lucky to have a job, and if it has good benefits luckier still.

 

[Lammie]

we have empty retail space here and are building more. I went to a mall in Cedar Hill last week that was kinda meant to look like The Woodlands, a movie scene, something like that... and they were all full just about. Amazing foot traffic through there.

Texas is better off than lots of states. My husband is in manufacturing and he's been able to maintain his hours. He took two cuts in pay over the past two years but I am so thankful he's still on for forty and some overtime and that he still has a job, period. We'll get by. And in his business, it's all feast and famine. Nothing new there. It will get better.

There are jobs out there that pay well if you are young and really willing to bust your chops. For us old pharts, well, we have to be thankful for what chances we get!

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

There is always work and jobs for Skilled and Unskilled Trades. But...both mean "work" (which is a 4 letter word to many).

Many of the "unemployed" and "Underemployed" are those technical and professional and management types that put all their "school" effort into learning some college taught skills. And, they never were interested in learning a "backup" skill (work...) to CYA in hard times. These "soft skilled jobs" have been and always will be highly variable and subject to the times and economy.

If one has plumbing, carpentry, electrical, welding, landscaping, handyman, or other construction skills...you will always find someone (aka "college professional/technical trained) that needs your skills.

Around here there's a significant unemployment (due to welfare recipients, no skills, won't work, mentally or psychologically challenged, etc.). However, there is always a waiting list for people to do welding, fence work, water well service, carpentry, etc. work.

 

[novatech]

There is always work and jobs for Skilled and Unskilled Trades. But...both mean "work" (which is a 4 letter word to many).

Many of the "unemployed" and "Underemployed" are those technical and professional and management types that put all their "school" effort into learning some college taught skills. And, they never were interested in learning a "backup" skill (work...) to CYA in hard times. These "soft skilled jobs" have been and always will be highly variable and subject to the times and economy.

If one has plumbing, carpentry, electrical, welding, landscaping, handyman, or other construction skills...you will always find someone (aka "college professional/technical trained) that needs your skills.

Around here there's a significant unemployment (due to welfare recipients, no skills, won't work, mentally or psychologically challenged, etc.). However, there is always a waiting list for people to do welding, fence work, water well service, carpentry, etc. work.

Yet the illegals still seem to find work.

 

[Calman]

There are jobs still out there if you're willing to work.The sorriest thing about it is very few are willing to work.Most want to start at the top,instead of working their way up there.
What's happining mostly is those who are willing to work are paying for the ones to lazy to work. Like was said, it's been made to easy to get by with out working.
There's just no room in my life for lazy people.

Cal

 

[newrancher]

Well, a lot of whats been said is true and some not so. Around here the lawn care businesses along with construction/manual labor jobs tend to pay $8-10hr, great if your starving but better suited to people that reside 3 or 4 families to a household, which is why you see who you see on construction crews not because everyone else is lazy. My wife got laid off a year ago from a professional position after some health problems and her medical leave ran out, she is lucky to have medical care, albeit, basic because she is a native american. It would not make any sense for her to take a job at this pay scale and have to drive 45 mjles to work, all she would do is wear a vehicle out and incur all the expenses of gas, tires, and maintenance. She would bring home less than her unemployment compensation, period; bottom line. She is not too lazy nor does she think she is too good, in her field she started from the bottom, ever try to vaccinate 40,000 chickens? Its not clean and its not easy. I know some will say move closer to the work, but the reason we bought this place is because we could get the land, house, barns, and shop for less than we could have bought a lot in town. I'll shut up now that I've had my rant but I suspect there are many, not all of course, in similar stuations. I expect this thread will be locked sometime soon,I hate the people that sent the jobs away.

 

[1982vett]

I hate the people that sent the jobs away.

What do you think of the people that make a job to expensive to offer?