Previously Easy to Find Jobs Now Scarce

This is no real news, but I guess it really hit home for me today on a personal level that this really hits the folks that live around you, the people who are your family, your friends and your aquaintences, but until you hear a direct story it sort of seems like something that is happening elsewhere in the country, not in your part of town. So, I was talking to one of my coworkers today and she has a daughter who recently graduated from college, and she also has a son who is in his later teens and has just started college, who are both looking for jobs.

Her son is looking for just any old job to help pay for things that he needs, however, even jobs that were previously a dime a dozen, like jobs at grocery stores, and retail stores, are harder and harder to come by. She told me that one store had a line of about 200 people waiting to apply when a few jobs opened up. Also, she said that a grocery store where he was looking to get in had over 500 applicants on file before they could really look at his, and they couldn’t even hire any more people because there was no real turnover due to natural attrition, which often makes it easier for companies to hire new talent, since people just naturally leave jobs many times after a few years.

I keep hearing these stories, but now that I’ve heard one where even what used to be “run of the mill” jobs are hard to come by, it really hits home that this recession is for real, and for now anyways, it’s here to stay and make our lives harder for a while. If you think finding a lower paying no skill required job is hard, it’s even harder to find a job where you must have a degree, as in bachelor’s or masters, just to apply.

A family member of mine who is in the computer science field was laid off a few months ago and has been looking hard core for a while now, not really taking any days off without sending off resumes or scouring the web and other resources for job postings, and he said that it seems pretty hopeless right now that he’s going to find anything comparable to what he had before.

These are definitely tough times for everyone, and even those who are still enjoying a stable job and income are buckling down on spending still since they are afraid their financial situation could potentially change at the drop of a hat. And who can blame them with so many traumatic stories floating around out there?