Times are still tough I guess

[Craig D Peltier]

This guy will pay someone 2k for a job.First time I have seen this.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/mat/1957944104.html

[Jim Koepke]

When I was young there were employment agencies. Most of them wanted a fee equal to the first month's pay.

Many of them were just calling everyone in the phone book and would then send you to anyone that had an opening.

The better ones, in my opinion, were paid by the employer.

I used to work through Kelly Services. They would often have work for short term. Some employers would hire temps through them and then offer a permanent position to the workers they liked.

At the time, there were three major temp agencies in the area. If one wanted to work part time they would just register with one. If one wanted more opportunity than they could handle, then register with two or three.

I actually had 3 or 4 temp assignments turn into long term employment.

Things have really changed over the years. When I was young, if a person wanted to work, there was plenty of work to be done.

I remember in San Francisco the panhandlers had a hard time because everywhere they could sit and beg had a "help wanted" sign in the window. Kind of hard getting people to give a hand out when there were so many offers of a hand up.

I'm not sure if I could find a job today. Though there was a car parts store in town that was hiring and the guy behind the counter thought I should apply. Being retired and tired of working on my own cars, I didn't think it was a good fit and I am getting by OK while living frugally.

jtk

[Mike Circo]

Probably needs the health insurance.

Buddy of mine had to stay at a job for two years recently because of a sick child. They cut his pay and gave him junk hours, but since paying all his own medical bills would be more than the losses, he stayed.

Either way, a sad commentary on our "recession".

BTW. What is the difference between a recession and a depression? Other than the fact that one sounds worse.

[Mitchell Andrus]

BTW. What is the difference between a recession and a depression? Other than the fact that one sounds worse.


There is an old joke among economists that states: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.
A depression is when you lose your job.


Seriously....


http://ask.yahoo.com/20011226.html
.

[Chris Padilla]

Interesting...could a legitimate company even do that? I suppose not directly. He wants 1 year of employment...could that be guaranteed?

I understand the premise of his post...the assertion of it leads to interesting things.

[Van Huskey]

Interesting...could a legitimate company even do that? I suppose not directly. He wants 1 year of employment...could that be guaranteed?

I understand the premise of his post...the assertion of it leads to interesting things.


I think it may be a creative way of proving he is serious and needs work enough to be a good employee.

I imagine if push came to shove on the $2K it would probably be a situation where he worked for free for some time to prove his worth. Since his occupation is construction I think probably what he means by a year is that he will "pay" for a job on a site where the job is planned to last a year or more. Often construction and other trade jobs might last a week to a few months.

[David Weaver]

Interesting...could a legitimate company even do that? I suppose not directly. He wants 1 year of employment...could that be guaranteed?

I understand the premise of his post...the assertion of it leads to interesting things.

I'll bet the time they'd spend talking to an attorney or a tax consultant to even see if it was possible would cost them that, especially if they had to go back and draw up an employment agreement based on the terms.

Even if it can't be done, whatever you can do as a rank and file employee to get people to notice you can't hurt, and you certainly can't be offended as an employer to see an employee who wants to work so bad they volunteer to sacrifice some pay.

[Damon Stathatos]

Early in my career I found myself as a store manager (family business) and in charge of staffing. Very low-tech stuff, high turnover (a lot of high school kids, etc), so my inexperience didn't really matter all that much.

Anyway, I had a guy just out of the Navy who wanted a job. He was way over-qualified but apparently was having a tough time finding anything suitable or anything at all for that matter. I declined his application at which point he offered to 'work for free.' Based solely on his confidence, I hired him (not for free) and he was, to this day, the absolute best employee I ever had, and I've had hundreds, perhaps into the thousands over the years (25 years).

It got my attention back then and would again today if I were still in the business.

[Karl Card]

the difference between recession and depression....
One can be cured with a paxil or xanax or the such.....both could be cured with a little money I guess..lol

just being goofy I have often wondered the same thing.
The only thing keeping me afloat right now is going to school. It is weird though at 47 i am not the oldest student in my classes but have had comments that I am probably the most serious student they have had in awhile. It feels good to want to be there and actually learning feels good too..

[Rick Fisher]

Most Governments wont admit they where in a depression until its over. There is no hard and fast difference, but typically 2 straight quarters of negative GDP growth or unemployment of 18% (I think) ..

So the Federal Governments find ways of fudging the reporting.. to make things look better than they are..

Not reporting those who are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits keeps the number at about 10% .. while the real number is close to 20%..

This " recession " is a bad one.. There is nothing on the horizon to " fix it " ..

[Joe Chritz]

An economic drop where GDP drops by over 10% but there isn't really any fast rule.

By that definition that last "depression" was in the late thirties.

Joe

[Phil Thien]

I thought this was a pretty interesting comparison of our current recession vs. the GD:

http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/recession_depression/

Our predicament (as a country) is that many of our engines of job growth are gone. The #1 export of the U.S. over the last 20+ years has been jobs.

Most economists don't get it. They're trying to apply lessons learned from previous recessions to this one. But things are not what they once were.