I don’t even know where to start on this – I’ve had the web page open for days just trying to figure out how to handle it: Unemployed Working Hard To Find Jobs, Despite Depiction as Spoiled Brats.

It is a disgusting generalization that shows how out-of-touch lawmakers are with the current state of affairs that we’re dealing with.

I’m sure there are some people who are abusing unemployment “benefits.”  However, most people (anyone who reads my blog) are not sitting around feeling entitled and comfortable.

Listen here senators: People want to get back to work.  Unemployment Insurance is a FRACTION of what they used to make.  They don’t want to sit around and cheat the government.

$290 a week in UI doesn’t go very far!

I’m not saying that there should be unlimited UI… but the discussion needs to shift from these supposed entitled and lazy people.

Focus on the core issues.  If we don’t get some REAL jobs in the U.S we’re quite a ways away from getting out of the depression/recession/whateverYouWantToCallIt.

This is a series to help blue collar workers in a blue collar job search.  It starts here.

My buddy is quite versatile in his skills and can do a number of different things.  He also has worked in different types of environments, from corporate to entrepreneurial… I really don’t know what kind of job he’d want, or what kind of environment he’d excel in… this job needs to meet various personal needs… here’s a list of things I want him to answer, which will really help refine what kind of jobs or companies he should look at (or rule out):

What do you want in your next role?

• What hourly or salary considerations do you have?   Are you okay to work hourly, or do you want to have a salary (which could mean no overtime pay)?
• What benefits are important to you?  Pension is probably not an option but what kind of vacation and sick leave do you expect?  What are your health insurance needs (bigger companies will likely have better benefits).
• Do you want to be in an entrepreneurial (wear many hats) or well-structured (you do very specific things while other team members do complementary tasks) role?  This again helps you determine the type or size of the company you should look at or rule out.
• Are you okay with travelling?  Some jobs are at one location, others are travelling around to different locations just during the day and others require lots of out-of-town travel.  Do you have a preference or any needs that make one of these not an option?
• Do you want to supervise others?  This is not a power struggle issue, it really plays into your personality… do you strive to be the boss or do you just want to go to work and get the job done?
• Are you interested in being over any budgets or driving any strategy? I found a number of  job postings that crossed the line from “being an amazing technician and doing the job” to “in charge of the overall strategy and budgets and planning,” which are two different kinds of things (strategy and budgets and planning can be quite frustrating if you really just want to roll your sleeves up and fix or build something).
• What kind of commute are you comfortable with?  There are a lot more opportunities within a 1 hour and 15 minute drive than just a 30 minute drive… but that kind of commute each day is hard on you and your vehicle :/
• What kind of shift or hours do you want?  Do you want 9to5, or can you do swing or nights?  Do you want to be on-call (with high likelihood of getting called)?

What are other considerations that you should be able to list/answer, to help you figure out what kinds of companies and job titles you should look at?

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About once a week someone sends me a message saying they are not happy with the job search results in JibberJobber.  Here’s a message someone wrote when they deleted their JJ account:

“All the jobs I find here I’m seeing on other sites.”

They think JibberJobber is a job board.

In reality, we tap into a job board service (Indeed.com) and just pull stuff from their site.

Providing job board services is not a primary thing I want to offer.  There are already hundreds of job boards that you can go to, why in the heck would you come to JibberJobber for more job boards surfing?

Providing job board services is not even a secondary thing I want to offer.

Providing job board services might be a terciary offering of JibberJobber.  It is an afterthought.  It is not important to me, or our mission, at all.  I think it’s actually a smoke screen for the serious job seeker – the professional who is looking for their next opportunity.

Why?

** Because not all jobs posted are real.

** Because when I put my resume on Monster and CareerBuilder I got calls from scam artists, MLM representatives, insurance agents, and others who had nothing of substance to offer me.

** Because some unethical people post fake jobs just to harvest resumes and build their talent pool.

Or worse, they harvest resumes for identity theft purposes (think about how much juicy personal information you have on your resume).

** Because some of the real jobs posted there are already filled, but they have to post them just to satisfy company policy (that means, there is NO chance you will get the job, even if you get an interview, because the hiring manager already knows who he/she wants to fill the slot, but had to comply with HR policy and post it).

Think about it – when you worked at a company, how did the news of a new opening come out?

First, the manager realizes there is a need. Perhaps someone leaves the department, or there is too much work for the current staff.

Next, the manager talks to people in the department and asks “who do you know that would be good for this job?”

THE MANAGER WILL GET AT LEAST ONE REFERRAL.  THESE ARE THE INSIDERS, THIS IS THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET.  THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT TO GET IN!

Only a handful of people know about the job opening at this point.

At this point people are brought in for interviews, OR the manager has to go through HR (depending on the company).

If the manager goes through HR, and they have to post it, they might post it INTERNALLY.

More people know about it now, but it’s still not open to everyone.

Next, the job might get posted publicly.  This can be on the company job board, or any other job board (broad, specialized, geographic, etc.).

This is where hundreds, or thousands, of people learn about the job.

And this is where HR and the manager (or recruiter) get hundreds, or thousands, of resumes.

Where do you want to be in this process? On the inside, and one of the handful of applicants who was highly recommended by someone in the department?

Or one of hundreds of resumes, fighting for your eight seconds of attention from HR or the recruiter?

If you rely on job boards for more than 15% of your job search, and you are looking for a professional position, YOU GREATLY MISUNDERSTAND THE JOB SEARCH.

But who am I to opine on this?  I only spent 60 hours a week surfing job boards and playing that game.  I was too busy to network, and do what job search experts recommend.

Job boards have their place, but JibberJobber is not a job board.  JibberJobber is a website to organize and manage your job search – from your networking efforts to your target companies to the jobs you apply to – keep track of them all in JibberJobber.

Make sense?

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An article in Yahoo News is titled Nearly 20 percent of U.S. workers underemployed.

Combine that with about 10% unemployment in the U.S. and you have about 30% of our workforce that cannot generate any, or enough, income.

I’d guess (with NOTHING to back this up, just a guess) there is another 10% who have moved from the gov’ts misleading stat of “unemployed” to whatever they move to after they run out of unemployment insurance, and we have about 40% of the population that wants to pay their own way but can’t.

I don’t know if this includes long-term, multi-generation welfare families… but I won’t even add them in since 40% is a pretty bleak number.

That is 4 out of 10 people.

What’s worse, it doesn’t include those who are UNHAPPILY EMPLOYED.

That probably covers another 50%.

Don’t ask me why people aren’t happy at work.  Maybe they don’t make enough. Maybe they don’t get the recognition they want.  Maybe they think they are destined for greater things.  Maybe they feel trapped.  Maybe their boss sucks, or their company isn’t green enough.

Maybe they wouldn’t be happy, no matter what.

But put that 50% on top of the other 40% and you have 90% of our workforce that is misused (is that a good way to put it?).

What’s the answer to unemployment and underemployment?

• Play the “numbers game” – send more resumes… etc?
• Find work out of state (I hear Detroit isn’t the best place to look for a job)?
• Wait for the economy to correct itself so there are more openings?

What’s the answer to unhappily employed?

• Look for another job?
• Start your own business?
• Quit and go live on a mountain?
• suck it up, do your job, and find fullfillment outside of the office?

The answer will be different for different people, and their circumstances… I don’t know what your answer was, but I’m working my tail off on “my answer,” which you can read about in my Multiple Streams of Income posts.

Whatever the answer is, I guarantee it doesn’t include you asking to meet with your boss or HR to see how secure your job is.  I can tell you how secure it is.

I believe JibberJobber.com is a revolutionary way for a professional to manage his/her career, in large part, the relationships we develop and nurture over time.  It’s more than a job search tool, it’s your personal relationship manager. Get a lifetime free (with optional upgrades) account now.

Yup, I jumped the shark and got political.  Don’t worry, I’ll balance it out with another post about how to create jobs the stereotypical republican way.

I need to clarify something, though. I think the average American who is very passionate about their political party really doesn’t know what it means to “be democrat,” or “be republican.”  If they knew and understood all the issues of both parties they might find they thought they were democrat when they were actually republican, or they thought they were republican but they favor democrat ideals.

Americans are just “funny” that way.

Another clarification: I am not very political, and not smart enough to be an economist, and I’ve never been in a think tank.  I did manage to get an A in Calculus, but I know I don’t know A LOT.  So this post might not make sense.

Here we go…

Mr Obama,

Want to fix the economy and create jobs?  I think this is the easiest solution, considering you are Democrat and you favor a big government.

I know you’ve dumped a lot of money into stimulus programs, which I don’t think is a good idea.  Some of that has gone into bonuses of people who got them because they have the right title, not because they have performed (that’s the way I understand it, anyway).

How about, instead of dishing out money that the U.S. doesn’t really have, you impose more government programs and regulation?

Let me give an old example.  Tax season is drawing near.  Imagine how cool and easy it would be if we had a flat tax (or, some other very simple tax system).  People could do their own taxes with a sheet of paper and a pencil – it would be uber-simple to understand.

In the U.S., however, we have an extremely sophisticated tax system.  I have an accountant do my personal and small business taxes because I don’t want to overpay, I don’t want to underpay, and I don’t want to get into any trouble by the feds (that would be you).

The problem, if we switch to a simple flat tax, is that many hundreds of thousands of accounting professionals would be out of work. The system and simplified regulation would make their roles obsolete.

We can’t have the government make something simplified to the point where it essentially lays off that many people.  Imagine the millions of people impacted (kids, dependent parents, etc.).

Let’s reverse engineer that example and figure out how to “create jobs.”

I have an idea that will really have an impact: Get your fingers into healthcare. It’s already a mess. I think it’s a mess because of the health insurance industry (not necessarily because of the medical services provided).

Remember, the goal here is not to clean up the mess, it is to create jobs.  So what I propose is that you nationalize healthcare, and impose all of the regulatory oversight that you can think of in this space.  Imagine how many tens of thousands of new jobs you’ll create!

I’m not talking about changing any of the medical service providers, rather adding all the employees we’ll need to make this a national solution.

Adding more government control in this area will provide new industries, probably, and increase the viability of regulatory professionals.  Just like the accountants who make a lot of money because of the IRS codes, you can create massive need for these other types of professionals.

Don’t forget the oversight arm, like the IRS for accounting and OSHA for safety, that will be responsible for taking care of violators.  This oversight arm could be really powerful and grow large (like the Border Patrol) and provide a lot more jobs.

That, I think, is the best way for the government to create more jobs – create more government programs that will require more governement employees (more jobs!) and create cottage industries to support it!

I’m sure your staff can come up with other areas where you can add more government intervention to create a ton of jobs.

What do you think? I’ll write a republican perspective later today.

(didn’t mean to rant when I first started this… but this stuff really bugs me)

I’m in Utah, which is where this article comes from: Utah unemployment rate drops to 6.3 percent.  I clicked over because I find anything under 9% to be remarkable.

I recently read that “Detroit’s Unemployment Rate is Nearly 50%, According to the Detroit News” (and here is the Detroit News link).

Which seems more believable?  6.3% or 50%?

In Utah, a state economist is giving the number, and the article even says this “may mark a turning point in the state’s economic recovery.”

This bothers me (more on that later).

In Detroit, the mayor said (click the link to see it there) “the city’s official unemployment rate was as believable as Santa Claus.”  (sorry for the spoiler on next week’s main event)

Who is to believe, the state economist  with the good news, or the mayor of a city (an elected official) with the grim thought?

Surprisingly, I’m siding with the elected official.  To the state employee’s defense, though, he is only reporting on a certain kind of statistic that was predefined… so he’s just doing his job.

THIS STATISTIC (unemployment rate) IS FLAWED, MISLEADING, AND DECEPTIVE.

To the average Joe or Jane Worker, the unemployment rate seems to be the number of people who can’t get a job.

Unfortunately, the way unemployment is measured, it’s not that simple.  The official unemployment rate does not take into consideration “those who gave up the job search more than a year ago,” which, according to the Detroit News, could be more than 100,000 potential workers in Detroit.

100,000 workers.  And their families, and other dependents.  And their bill collectors.

Why are they left out of the unemployment numbers?

As far as I know, unemployment numbers are based on those who are reporting to the government — those who are collecting unemployment insurance.

Guess what… unemployment insurance RUNS OUT.  And then, you are so worthless, you aren’t even counted as a statistic!  You are essentially written off the books.

Yeah, this really gets under my skin. And we aren’t even talking about UNDEREMPLOYED people!!

I gotta stop blogging because this makes me so mad… but I’ll leave it with this one thought:

Aside from the sad fact that there are human beings on the other side of these numbers, the scary thing is that the government is making decisions based on these numbers.  Unemployment rising or lowering is virtually meaningless to me, as it paints an incomplete picture.

<angry!>

I remember when I was on unemployment and on state medical aid I had two very contradicting feelings:

1. I was very, very grateful that the systems were in place and that I could have something.  Unemployment wasn’t much but it was enough to help make ends meet (family was there also, as was my church). The medical was great – we didn’t really use it (birth of a daughter, but we had to pay $2,000 to the state for that) but it was such a relief to know that if something really bad happened we would be taken care of.

2. I was extremely frustrated at the amount of reporting that had to be done to actually get the benefits.  Weekly reporting to the unemployment office, and regular indepth reporting for medical benefits.  I understand that they deal with scammers and frauds all the time, and they need to address that, but we felt like we were the bad guys when going through the reporting process.  It’s already a humbling, embarrassing time, but the state employees didn’t do much to make it easier.

Eventually we got off of unemployment and we got off of the medical aid (early).  The reporting process was just too much… Even though it was nice to have those safety nets, it was too close to BIG GOVERNMENT getting into my personal affairs.

Again, I know they have to deal with frauds all the time.  But I didn’t like feeling like they thought I was an abuser, a fraud each time I had to go through their processes.  (maybe this was just my own insecurities… I didn’t do anything wrong during those times.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about I invite you to go through the process ).

Here’s a story a buddy from Mexico sent me about the dark side of unemployment checks.  An unemployed lawyer has a blog… she put google ads on her blog, and the unemployment office punishes her by “greatly reducing” her unemployment checks.

The unemployed lawyer was making about $1 each day, or $30ish a month… and unemployment felt she was doing too much.

One of the great ironies of unemployment – we are here to help you, but once you start to help yourself we’re outta here!  Not on your feet yet?  Well you shouldn’t have tried to stand on your own, sucka!

Pretty disgusting.

A few thoughts since I wrote about paying for surgery when you don’t have health insurance.

First, I need to say that while I don’t have health insurance, it isn’t because I don’t want it.  I can’t write about why I don’t have health insurance, but from my readers I know that securing health insurance is not as easy as you might think.

Get a job and get health insurance… it’s pretty easy.  But if you don’t have a job there are two significant factors that preclude you from *easily* getting health insurance:

1. Price. I know people who easily pay more than $1,000 each month for health insurance.  This is not an option for everyone.  I have readers of this blog who are just looking for $30 for groceries or their utility bill.
2. Qualifications. Getting health insurance on your own usually means some contract nurse comes to your house to have you fill out forms, do blood work, and some other tests.  A few weeks later you hear back.  If the health insurance company thinks you are too risky for them, guess what?  NO HEALTH INSURANCE FOR YOU! Worse than the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.  They own a racket and when you are on the other end, it SUCKS.

So let me reiterate… my post about how to pay for a surgery when you don’t have insurance was NOT about how to get around health insurance, or to say that health insurance is bad or unnecessary.  We’re working on getting insurance, but we haven’t been able to yet.  The post was more about:

1. Letting you know that you can actually negotiate with the service providers (doctors and hospitals) to get SIGNIFICANT (50%+) discounts, and
2. just sharing how SCREWED UP (the cost of) health care is if we can get 50%+ discounts by paying THAT DAY.

Here are two comments that came on my Facebook post that triggered this followup:

>> You are fortunate to be able to pay 3400 dollars out of your pocket in one payment. What of those that can’t?

I am very fortunate to be able to pay that out of pocket.  We did have this planned and had time to figure out where the money was coming from… that was definitely a benefit.  But I realize that many people don’t have $3,400 sitting around.  My point in the post was just to share that you COULD save that much money if you could figure out how to get the payment together.  Most people (me included, before this experience) don’t know that you could even question this big hairy institution.

and…

>> It is great that you’re able and willing to self-pay, but what is something happens and your bill is in the hundreds of thousands or even millions? I sincerely hope that never happens to you, but it happens to a lot of people. If you self-pay and don’t have your own insurance, then doesn’t that really mean that you’re shifting the risk to those who… Read More are paying federal taxes? And how different is that than being an advocate for single payer?

Again, this is why I’m writing this clarification.  I’m not saying “don’t get health insurance because you can save 50% by paying upfront.”  I’m saying “Did you know that you could even negotatiate?”  I’m writing more to the people who can’t get or don’t have health insurance – which is A LOT of people.

… so that’s it.

Here’s one more LAME update.  The doctor’s office coded the procedure wrong, so the quote from the hospital was $5,000 low.  That meant we got hit with an additional out-of-pocket $2,500 charge (if we wanted to get the 50% discount) that we weren’t expecting.  Fun?  Absolutely not.  Wish I had health insurance right now, but for us the discount is the only option we have (other than sitting on double the amount and making payments until my kids move out).

Last week I wrote about a guy who is on Unemployment Insurance (UI) and shared 10 things to do while on UI.  Some of the comments in my post critiqued my logic/post, so I want to make my feelings clear on UI.

I still think the original post with 10 ideas (which are (1) build a business, (2) travel, (3) have more sex, (4) exercise, (5) spend more time with family or friends, (6) eat healthy, (7) cook at home, (8) read more, (9) try a new hobby, and (10) relax) had a bad message.  See my original post for what I think the message was.  Funny, the suggestions aren’t bad… if I were to edit that post I’d suggest rewriting the intro and making it less of “I’m on UI now, so I can have more sex” to “finding a job is frustrating, and isn’t going to happen overnight… I am collecting  UI and working hard to get back on my feet financially.  I’m going to share 10 things that I’ve filled my spare time with…”

Regardless, my post may have came across as brash and critical of anyone on UI.  That is not the case, and I apologize for any misunderstanding.  I do not think UI is “the dole,” but the message from quoted post seemed to associate the two.

When I lost my job I was advised to get on UI as soon as possible.  I didn’t think I’d need it because I had gotten a 6 week severance which meant I wouldn’t get any UI for 6 weeks after termination.  My plan was to be employed by the end of that six weeks!

But I applied anyway.

By the time I was qualified to draw from UI I was down on my luck and probably depressed.  It would be a long road before I pulled out of it.  UI was… awesome.  It was necessary.  It was a significant reason why we didn’t lose our house, car, etc.

UI didn’t make me rich… it was about 20-25% of my normal income.  UI is taxable.  I only qualified for UI if I met certain conditions (and reported on them) each week.  Each state is different in the requirements but it seems that reporting is a weekly requirement.

Should you be ashamed to be on UI? No.  I was, but I got over it. I was eternally grateful there was a system in place that could serve as a financial safety net.

John made an interesting comment:

Perhaps one could say the same thing about that older busisness associate of yours who retired on Social Security; they are living on the “dole” also. Maybe we should get rid of Social Security and give the money to those well-qualified executives on Wall Street who have really worked hard out on the golf course, do you suppose??

I don’t associate UI and SS as the same thing, with the same purpose.  UI, in my mind, is to help you get by while you get back on your feet.  It is a temporary solution not designed to make your life comfortable, but to help with necessities (not wantaties).

You pay into both UI and SS in order to get it (Barry notes that he doesn’t qualify because his employer didn’t pay into it).  The idea behind SS is not to serve as a temporary solution, and the amount you get out depends on the amount you put in – quite different than UI.

Lawgirl says “I would choose to go to work everyday, but in the meantime, yes I am enjoying the mental, physical, and emotional break.” I don’t disagree with you at all, and being on UI does not make you a bad person.

I really like what RecruiterGirl wrote:

I don’t love being on unemployment either. Lots of misconceptions about UI (unemployment insurance). So Joshua is “living quite comfortably” on UI. Unlikely. But he is doing a good job of making a mockery of the system and in the meantime anonymously making himself and possibly his generation look bad.

My original post was not to bash UI, or those who are on UI.  If it came across wrong, sorry.  I am glad UI is there, and that it helps save people from financial ruin.

Three months ago we had a baby and paid for it without health insurance or government aid.

Last week my wife had a surgery and we’ll have it paid for as soon as we get the final invoice, again without any health insurance or government aid.

You should note that I have NOTHING against private health insurance (well, I think it’s grossly overpriced and doesn’t offer what it should) nor am I against getting government aid when appropriate (more on that tomorrow).  This isn’t a political post, or a bashing post… I just wanted to share a couple of ideas that might help you save money (or, be able to afford the health care you need).

When asked what our insurance is we simply respond that we are “self-pay.”  This means it doesn’t go through insurance, rather that we pay for it ourselves.  As self-pay you can finance the service(s) through the service provider (hospital, doctor., etc.).  Or you can pay in full.  Why would you pay in full? Read on.

When we had our baby we told them we were self-pay and asked them if they offered a discount.  Guess what the discount was?

OVER 50%!  Instead of paying more than $8,000, our total hospital bill was around $3,400.  That is a huge, significant savings.  I like getting things on sale, and I like saving almost $4,000.

Note: We had to pay this in full before my wife got out of the hospital.

Fast forward three month (yeah, surgery three months later sucks).  My wife goes in for a surgery, fairly standard, and the doctor said he would do surgery wherever we wanted, so we could shop around.  We didn’t know you could or should shop around, asking hospitals what the cost would be.  We found there were pretty significant differences and chose to stay with this same hospital, which offered 50% off of this procedure. (we also learned that if you are insured and pay the copay up front you save 25%)

The doctor also offered 50% off – we took advantage of this for both the birth and the surgery.

Did you know you could save so much?  We had no idea.  But for us it’s a necessity.

We also learned we could get a prescription for any oral medicine the doctor would prescribe that was to be administered in the hospital and get that filled at our local pharmacy and then just bring that in for another significant savings.  I have no idea how much we saved but it was cool to know we could do that.

My point with this post is that health insurance isn’t the only way to get stuff paid for… if you don’t have it simply ask your doctor or the staff (the medicine thing was a suggestion from his front desk staff), and the hospital finance people… there are plenty of people who are self-pay and it isn’t as bad, scary or undoable as we thought it would be.

The scary part of this is that it exposes how expensive health insurance is.  If a doctor and a hospital are willing to discount 50% of their invoice just to (a) get paid in full upfront, and (b) not go through the insurance system, can you imagine what healthcare would be without health insurance in our system?

Do you have any other suggestions on finding affordable healthcare.