Reply #3: Mostly the Same [View All]

[RoyGBiv]

I'm in Oklahoma, and the help wanted ads in the local paper are about the same as they always are, which is to say very thin. There are a lot of get-rich-quick schemes, of course, and there are the typical ads for kitchen help and seasonal yard and construction labor. Interestingly, I noticed in last Sunday's paper that there were more ads for strippers than their usually are; unfortunately, I'm not an attractive young female seeking to have my body exploited.

I'm currently conducting a job hunt and about three weeks from losing my apartment. I've used every "help wanted" service and paper I can find, and it is extremely slim pickings. Most of the jobs for which I am qualified have attracted a lot of applicants, and the competition is tough. One person working in the human resources department of a company to which I applied was honest enough with me to say that the final decision on filling the position would be based at least partly on a "first come first served" basis. I applied the same day the job was listed, and I was the 22nd applicant.

Anyway, based on my current experience, there is no great expansion of available jobs, and the number of people looking for work is high enough that even if there were, it wouldn't have much of an impact.