Moan, Moan, Moan - 2011

[TheOnionMan]

After 16 months unemployment, I was hoping to post on the I'm So happy thread that I finally got a job.  A few weeks ago, I had my first in-person job interview in over a year, with a small start-up tech company just 11 miles from my house.  The day after my interview, which went very well, I received a job offer via email, albeit for only 40% of what I used to make, but I was aware of the low pay to begin with.  I accepted, I need health insurance benefits, so I signed the job offer and sent it in.  The day before I was to start, they sent an email telling me the job was filled, they reneged on the offer, finding someone willing to take even less $ than what they offered me.

The US unemployment rate stands at just a hair below 10%, but what that statistic fails to report, is that there is another 5% who have run out the unemployment benefits so they disappear from the statistic; the real number is closer to 15%.  Desperation and depression sets in once again.

[fermi de Sousa]

So sorry to hear that, Mark.
But if they are "happy" to treat prospective employees like that it probably wouldn't have been a nice place to work.
cheers
fermi

[Martin Baxendale]

Sorry to hear that Mark. Don't let the bastards grind you down!

[David Nicholson]

So sorry Mark, try to stay positive mate.

[Lesley Cox]

I'm sorry too Mark but I'm sure Fermi is right and you wouldn't have been happy there. Our system doesn't involve health insurance as yours does. I mean that one is not better insured whether employed or not.

Our lot keep talking about cutting benefits after a certain time but it hasn't happened yet except that those who have reached the possible end have to do retraining or community work or whatever. No-one is left to starve in fact but some come jolly close to it.

As well as the "disappeared" 5% you mention, there's the large percentage, especially of women, who are classed as "employed" because they may have a few hours a week of paid work. It may only be 5 or 6 hours. How can anyone live on that? No advantage to anyone except it makes the govt feel and look good that the unemployed statistic looks better than it actually is.

[ranunculus]

They just don't know what they are missing, Mark!

Chin up, chest out, heart resolved, brain in gear ... try, try, try again ... and good luck!

[Maggi Young]

A really bad experience, Mark and I know how awful you must be feeling right now but the Forumists are (as they are so often) right on the button... you would never have been happy in a set-up with those morals and, I venture to suggest, you wouldn't have been long in that employment anyway... sounds to me like a dodgy company like that is not going to survive for long. 

[Stephenb]

sounds to me like a dodgy company like that is not going to survive for long. 

Sorry from me too. It astonishes me that someone with your obvious intellect and skills can't get a job!

It sounds to me rather that you live in a dodgy country that is not going to survive for long...

[mark smyth]

Not very fair, Mark

[mark smyth]

I left instructions with my mother to keep the bird feeders filled with sunflower seeds. Last night she told me they have stopped coming  She topped up the feeders OK but with wheat. Not a bird in the garden today except the rooks and jackdaws on the grass eating the wheat I dumped

[Luc Gilgemyn]

They're plain stupid Mark !! 
Next time better !! 

[maggiepie]

Mark, I am so sorry to hear they reneged on the job, I know how frustrated and feeling down you must be.
Here's hoping the next offer comes soon and is a much better fit for you.

[TheOnionMan]

A heartfelt THANKS everyone; you forumists are the best.

Filing my weekly unemployment claim yesterday reminded me I'm soon to become one of the so-called 99'rs (ninety-niners), the long-term unemployed who fall off the radar and don't even count as unemployed anymore.  My sister-in-law works for the US government (US Dept. of Agriculture), she sent me a link to Federal Government jobs, searching on the State of Massachusetts with keywords matching my experience showed a small listing of jobs, all were for $27,000 per year!!!   Couldn't believe my eyes, that's just a shade past the official "poverty level" for a family of four.  Seems the clocks have been turned back 40 years, but not for healthcare coverage, which for my family is currently $18,600 year.

That's the other aspect of the US downturn economy, it's had the widespread effect of significantly rolling back salaries to such a degree, it'll take a decade or more just to regain the losses. Heard a statistic recently stating the average pay for steel workers dropped from $24/hr to $14/hr in the last two years, but people are willing to take the cuts just to keep their job, primarily because healthcare insurance benefits is inextricably dependent on having a job and hugely expensive.

[Martin Baxendale]

It's an insidious situation you have there, Mark - Work for whatever peanuts you get offered, and be grateful for it, or you're on your own if your kids get sick.

[David Nicholson]

...................Seems the clocks have been turned back 40 years, but not for healthcare coverage, which for my family is currently $18,600 year.

My God! inspite of all it's short comings we are lucky to have a National Health Service-long may it continue (although I doubt if it will!)

Just a couple of quotes from Nye Bevan who gave it birth.

"I would rather be kept alive in the efficient if cold altruism of a large hospital than expire in a gush of warm sympathy in a small one"

"Stand not too near the rich man lest he destroy thee-and not too far away lest he forget thee"