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There are definitely jobs, we can't get the right people to fill our positions.
Very true. My wife is always telling me about someone that all of a sudden quit or put in their notice for unknown reasons. The last person that quit had just gotten promoted with a nice pay raise, yet they still put in a notice.
A major part of the problem is that people were allowed to float on 99 weeks of unemployment. During that time, many of the unemployed worked odd cash jobs while floating on unemployment. I hear these stories many times in the bars and casinos (blowing their unemployment no doubt) from people doing it. "I only have to work two days a week as long as I'm on unemployment".
There are plenty of jobs out there, the trouble is that people decided it was easier to float on unemployment and work an odd cash job here and there as opposed to working a job that was equal to their unemployment and working their way up, or learning a new skill.
I interviewed no fewer than 20 people to fill a job for my small business. Several people applied who wanted nothing more to get rejected so they could "prove" they were actively seeking employment. These were people that were borderline illiterate applying for writing jobs knowing they could never get it. The system is broken, and the unemployment numbers are full of people that will not work because they are allowed to float for nearly two years.
I am not saying things are great here, but they are better than they were a year ago. The problem is also exacerbated by people who have been made to become lazy on public assistance instead of learning a new skill or working a job they feel is beneath them.
The system is also broken in other ways. People on unemployment should be able to improve their skills through vocational training which would help a lot of the people that may not know where to look for help to improve their marketability. Those that refuse could be assigned public works projects to earn their unemployment, which may also in turn give people skills.
If someone cannot find a job in two years they are not looking, scamming the system, or refuse to learn a new skill employers are looking for today. If a job skill becomes obsolete, that is no excuse to just sponge off of public assistance forever. Learn a skill that is in demand and move on to something else.
I fully support unemployment for its intended purpose of helping bridge someone between jobs, but I think in the case of Las Vegas it fully backfired.
I think the OP googles every morning "negative news las vegas" so he can post it to C-D.
Except for most of what they post is dated. This article is months old based on even older information. They also posted a Youtube video of a Dan Rather news story from 2009 earlier trying to act like it was something recent.
A major part of the problem is that people were allowed to float on 99 weeks of unemployment. During that time, the unemployed worked odd cash jobs while floating on unemployment. I hear these stories many times in the bars and casinos (blowing their unemployment no doubt) from people doing it. "I only have to work two days a week as long as I'm on unemployment".
There are plenty of jobs out there, the trouble is that people decided it was easier to float on unemployment and work an odd cash job here and there as opposed to working a job that was equal to their unemployment and working their way up, or learning a new skill.
I interviewed no fewer than 20 people to fill a job for my small business. Several people applied who wanted nothing more to get rejected so they could "prove" they were actively seeking employment. These were people that were borderline illiterate applying for writing jobs knowing they could never get it. The system is broken, and the unemployment numbers are full of people that will not work because they are allowed to float for nearly two years.
I am not saying things are great here, but they are better than they were a year ago. The problem is also exacerbated by people who have been made to become lazy on public assistance instead of learning a new skill or working a job they feel is beneath them.
The system is also broken in other ways. People on unemployment should be able to improve their skills through vocational training which would help a lot of the people that may not know where to look for help to improve their marketability.
If someone cannot find a job in two years they are not looking, scamming the system, or refuse to learn a new skill employers are looking for today. If a job skill becomes obsolete that is no excuse to just sponge off of public assistance forever.
I disagree. I have never once worked any sort of job in the last 6 months. I will admit that it is possible some people might have, but I am sure very few people would risk the legal penalties. I certainly would not since it is now a felony. Not only that, I have now been on unemployment for 6 months, and I had to call in this week to re-certify to get on federal benefits. They have never once asked me to "prove" I am actively seeking work. I have been looking for work each week, but the part of your post I highlighted is not correct, nor does it make sense.
Last edited by las vegas drunk; 05-10-2012 at 05:20 PM..
Reason: Did not want to be rude
I do not believe you were in my office of people that admitted they were on unemployment, people whose writing samples were not even on a 6th grade level. You have a lot of nerve calling me a liar. I dealt with several people outright that were openly scamming the system. These people had to know they had no chance of getting this job, so the only assumption is they had to be at least trying. I know quite a few other small business people here have too.
The unemployment situation in this city is a joke. I know of two places I frequent that have open positions for bartenders and cooks. They cannot even get people to apply, and those few that do are far from qualified. In those same bars patrons openly admit they are working day labor while riding unemployment. Craigslist and LVRJ are full of job postings and many of them are low skill jobs anyone would be qualified to do. I guess it is nice to just ride out the free ride instead of having to make an honest living doing something that is not your first choice. I cannot believe someone riding out 6 months+ of employment has the nerve to call someone out trying to create jobs for being a liar when they have no idea what they are talking about or what the situation of the job was.
If these people who were illiterate were not having to somehow prove they were at least trying to do something, why were they answering help wanted ads for jobs they knew they could not get?
This is going way OT and I will not bother with this thread anymore.
I do not believe you were in my office of people that admitted they were on unemployment, people whose writing samples were not even on a 6th grade level. You have a lot of nerve calling me a liar. I dealt with several people outright that were openly scamming the system. These people had to know they had no chance of getting this job, so the only assumption is they had to be at least trying. I know quite a few other small business people here have too.
The unemployment situation in this city is a joke. I know of two places I frequent that have open positions for bartenders and cooks. They cannot even get people to apply, and those few that do are far from qualified. I guess it is nice to just ride out the free ride instead of having to make an honest living. I cannot believe someone riding out 6 months+ of employment has the nerve to call someone out trying to create jobs for being a liar when they have no idea WTF they are talking about.
I do not doubt that you had a lot of idiots applying to work for you who cannot write. There are a lot of idiots in this town, so I cannot disagree on that point. I see it all the time on Craigslist. People cannot even write an ad to sell a car. What I disputed is the fact that you said they applied at your business to prove they are searching for work. Now you are saying that the unemployment situation in this city is a joke because there are open positions for cooks and bartenders. I have no experience in either so that doesn't help me. I will say this, if you were actually on unemployment, and know how it works, you would not have made your former post. That was what I was trying to get across. I apologize if I was rude in the way I did it.
I do not believe you were in my office of people that admitted they were on unemployment, people whose writing samples were not even on a 6th grade level. You have a lot of nerve calling me a liar. I dealt with several people outright that were openly scamming the system. These people had to know they had no chance of getting this job, so the only assumption is they had to be at least trying. I know quite a few other small business people here have too.
The unemployment situation in this city is a joke. I know of two places I frequent that have open positions for bartenders and cooks. They cannot even get people to apply, and those few that do are far from qualified. In those same bars patrons openly admit they are working day labor while riding unemployment. Craigslist and LVRJ are full of job postings and many of them are low skill jobs anyone would be qualified to do. I guess it is nice to just ride out the free ride instead of having to make an honest living doing something that is not your first choice. I cannot believe someone riding out 6 months+ of employment has the nerve to call someone out trying to create jobs for being a liar when they have no idea what they are talking about or what the situation of the job was.
If these people who were illiterate were not having to somehow prove they were at least trying to do something, why were they answering help wanted ads for jobs they knew they could not get?
This is going way OT and I will not bother with this thread anymore.
Maybe your starting wage is a joke, so people that would otherwise be qualified don't even bother with applying...?
Maybe your starting wage is a joke, so people that would otherwise be qualified don't even bother with applying...?
Just a thought.
The job started at 5 cents a word during a probation period. A competent person would have made about $30-$35 an hour, maybe even $40 at first with proof reading and research with room to grow. I had to hire someone out of state after throwing in the towel here.
When I advertised it out of state I had several qualified people turn in quality samples, and two exact matches for what I was looking for. I felt bad having to turn one away.
After that experience it gave me a very negative opinion about the unemployment situation here, and why I don't think that number is a legitimate number. It is never too late to learn a new skill in life. I am a high school dropout that now owns a writing business, a business I started after getting laid off from a job. I know it can be done from first hand experience.
The job started at 5 cents a word during a probation period. A competent person would have made about $30-$35 an hour, maybe even $40 at first with proof reading and research with room to grow. I had to hire someone out of state after throwing in the towel here.
When I advertised it out of state I had several qualified people turn in quality samples, and two exact matches for what I was looking for. I felt bad having to turn one away.
After that experience it gave me a very negative opinion about the unemployment situation here. It is never too late to learn a new skill in life. I am a high school dropout that now owns a writing business, a business I started after getting laid off from a job.
That is something I will agree with 100%.
(In my opinion anyway) I have a lot of, what I thought would be, marketable skills....and I'll be damned if there is no one in this city hiring anyone with my skills. I am now going to back to school to try and change careers. However, this doesn't happen overnight.
What really turns me off about your posts is that you pigeon hole everyone who is unemployed, as being lazy, and "happy to collect a check".
I can tell you that this has been the most miserable time in my life. Sure, there are people who abuse the system....but that's every system. But to place "everyone" into that group, isn't right.. Being scared about paying rent, having AC or heat, or even food. If you think "collecting a check" is a great way to live a comfortable life, you are sadly mistaken. I went from making over 100K a year, to ~25k on unemployment. And now with housing prices in a dump, its not very easy to "just leave".
You might consider that the position you offered is unique to this city. Maybe there just aren't that many writers here? Don't blame Society, unemployment, or people you met at the bar, for not being able to fill a position at your business.
I made clear I support the concept of unemployment benefits, just not the long term set up that is so ripe for abuse. The writing job I offered was gambling related, much of it about poker, the rest about casinos. There should be no better place to find people that are knowledgeable about the topic. The person I hired is not even in a city that has gambling, but yet people that live here were not qualified.
I don't shame people that are doing the right thing, but 99 weeks of unemployment is absurd. There are countless jobs out there that require zero skill, and others willing to train. For example, the summer poker tournaments hire 4000-5000 people including dealers, servers, janitorial, food service, set up, break down, loading, unloading, warehousing, cashier services and hosts. They get so few people that apply here that half of those people are shipped in from outside the city.
Why is it that two of these summer poker series are outside begging to people outside the city to come here and help? All of these casinos put ads in the LVRJ, as well as many internet help wanted sites, and many forums aimed at Las Vegas residents. They were going to pay for training, and pay people while they trained.
These are $35-$45 an hour jobs that last about 2 months with no cap on overtime. In other words, a motivated person can make $15k+ in 6-8 weeks on the good tournaments, and at least 10k in the lower end ones. There are 125,000 +/- unemployed here, but as many as 2000 people will have to come from outside the city to cover these jobs. Not having a job skill is not an excuse, because they are paying people to train them. Why do you guess people on unemployment are not taking these jobs? I assume it is because the jobs are seasonal, and I would assume people risk losing their unemployment benefits if they take them, even though 6-8 weeks would equal what many of these people are making in a year of unemployment.
Maybe I am wrong, if I am wrong, why are those jobs going unfilled? If I am right, that shows how broken the system is. You should not get penalized for taking a job and doing better for yourself, even if the job is only a 6-8 week job.
The above is just one example. When I was advertising for my job I noticed many jobs that seemed to be low or no skill jobs going unfilled. Why is that when 125,000 people are unemployed?
I am not trying to insult anyone who has hit hard times. From the outside looking in, and from my awful experience with dealing with the labor pool here, and seeing all of the unfilled want ads, something just seems broken with the whole system.
Hopefully the construction projects prove successful that are planned or currently ongoing. Maybe that will solve everything.
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get real
