Laid-off workers retrain but end up in same spot: Jobless

[Ed Barrow]

Source: USA Today

Enrollment in job-training initiatives across the USA has swelled since the recession began as dislocated workers in shrunken industries such as manufacturing, construction and real estate retool for growing fields such as health care, renewable energy and computers. But a diploma is not necessarily a ticket to a job or higher earnings, especially with the jobless rate still hovering near 10%.

"Training doesn't create jobs," particularly as a nation emerges from recession, says Anthony Carnevale, head of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. "It's jobs that create the demand for training."

Many enrollees do land positions weeks after graduating, and experts say retraining is often the best option for a laid-off worker in a battered industry. But others hunt for months, or even years, with some using federal dollars to retrain multiple times for different occupations. Part of the problem: Though economists say the recession ended last summer, high unemployment pits graduates against both experienced workers who were laid off in the slump and newly trained colleagues. Sometimes job centers funnel too many workers into the same field.

...

Participation in worker retraining funded by the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) jumped 70% to 672,000 in the year ended last June, Labor says. But the portion of those in jobs related to their training one year after graduating fell to 67.6% from 83.2% in 2006.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-06-04-retrain04_CV_N.htm?csp=15

[Historic NY]

1. Might be a glut of environmental cleanup jobs soon .

[Donnachaidh]

3. with no benefits, no pension, minimum wage only -- welcome to Serf America

Cleaning up after the Multi-Nationals raping the planet one ocean at a time.....

[704wipes]

16. right, 35 hours per week, minimum wage, no benies

It will get an exception to allow overtime but only at straight time.

But, not to worry, Charlie Melancon the LA congressman running for Senate, who voted against HCR, has managed to get the Feds to set up some health clinics for side effects of working with the spill, but I doubt the clinics will be operating 30 years from now when long term health effects kick in. And, keep in mind if you are going over to one of the free clinics because you are feeling bad, you need to clock out.

[OhioChick]

2. That's a "no shit" headline n/t

[DimplesinMI]

4. There is a GREAT story on Daily Kos

I want to share. It SUCKS being unemployed. Technically, I have been that way for two years +, which my last so-called permanent full-time job, ending April 2008. Yes, April....2008.

If it was not for temporary opportunities, the Census and now my writing I do on Examiner.com (does not pay much...yet, hopefully soon) my babygirl would have had to leave College this Spring to come home and go to Community College, my car would have been repo before I can pay it off (done November 2009...YEAH!), we would have lost our home that is so far underwater...we cannot breath and on and on.......

Worse part...I have a Bachelors degree and YEARS of retail management experience (like the guy in the article...ironically). Still cannot find a permanent job. At least my articles on Examiner is about Job Search. That allows me to at least try to help myself and others in this situation.

Anyway...here is a link to the article on Daily Kos. It's a good and "real-life story" read....

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/3/872575/-On-Being-Unemployed

[area51]

18. Welcome to DU, DimplesinMI (n/t)

[Frank Booth]

5. More proof that America is fucked.

At least by scavenging the beaches we'll have enough oil for lamps. Beyond that, we'll have to make do with the scraps we can beg from the .1% that stole our livelihoods.

[Iowa]

6. Computers?

"...for growing fields such as... computers"

Computer technology is not a growing field - unless you happen to live in India.

Awhile back there was a vocational-technical school in my area that had a "counselor" on staff who was basically a recruiter. Although she advertised herself as a "counselor", what she REALLY did was try to fill all the empty seats in the most useless training programs the school offered. I always felt sorry for any laid-off blue-collar worker who wandered into her office and followed her advice to pursue training in "computers" (or any other crappy program). Any "counselor" pushing that nonsense should be horse-whipped.

[JoeyT]

9. Ugh. No kidding.

There's such a glut of people hunting jobs in computer related fields (Especially IT) that down here you need a bachelor's degree to make twelve bucks an hour at a lot of places. I feel awful for all the kids coming out of college that went into IT fields because their advisers were behind the times and thought computers were the way of the future.

[Iowa]

13. You're exactly right. When my kids were in college...

...I told them they should NEVER take career advice from a college instructor/professor. When it comes to vocational counseling, they are almost always clueless. Plus they have a conflict of interest; an IT instructor isn't likely to advertise that job prospects suck in the field he's teaching - or that his buddy is teaching in another department.

It's amazing that so many people (including media) buy into this idea that "computers" are the way of the future... like one can still get in on the ground floor. They're at least 20 years behind the times. Their "future" became the past years ago.

[conspirator]

7. The flawed statistics that say things are getting better, only focus on micro cases n/t

[Lagomorph]

8. The brain trust has been saying for years that...

...they're not getting the people they need from the education system.

Census jobs will inflate the numbers for a few months, but they'll be gone and won't do a damn thing for your resume'.

The Dems want to make sure it's the Republicans who cut off the super extended jobless benefits. If the Republicans get a majority in either house, the benefits will start going away and people will have to find some j.o.b. Congress knows it will have to happen, but when you're 13 trillion in the hole, what's a few hundred billion here and there?

If we all end up working in the fields, be prepared to physically fight for your job. The people who currently have them are certainly willing to.

edit: typos

[CatholicEdHead]

12. Yes and no for Census jobs on your resume

It shows you got out and worked instead of sitting around, you can also climb the ladder at the Census (from Enumerator to Crew Leader Assistant, Crew Leader, or Field Operations Supervisor). That shows you are keeping skills fresh. Even a unrelated job to your overall resume is better than no job as some work history is better than no work history.

[No Elephants]

10. Wake up, America. When will we end failed Reagan/DLC policies and return to classic Democratic

ones?

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. I think a lot of retraining programs really are scams.

And I would say the same thing about a lot of college programs. They promis people that if they spend the money to get this training or this wonderful degree that they will be qualified to get some high paying job somewhere.

Mostly it doesn't happen. Students just end up with student loan debt on top of not being able to find a decent job.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

14. The schools that advertise are scams.

I'm talking ITT Technical Institute, Universal Technical Institute, the Art Institutes, and such. It's a cash cow for student loan money basically.

DH got a video degree at one of the art institutes and A) Didn't learn a damn thing; B)Couldn't get a job paying more than $20K a year and destroying his health from stress -- nobody did anything he told them to -- and he already has a BS and MS in math/physics/Electrical Engineering.

He wasted 18 months and racked up student loan debt he didn't need for a useless credential.

There was a lawsuit against the Houston Art Institute because of their misleading statements that inferred that they could guarantee jobs to their graduates. There were over 200 plaintiffs, but the settlements of course that were offered were nowhere near the costs of the student loans.

:grr: :banghead:

This is what happens to the overeducated and skilled in America. We are thrown away and forgotten.

I have a doctorate in law and a BA in pre-med I've never used either.

:wtf: America throws away its best and brightest -- it started with us baby boomers who were told to study hard so we could get America into space after Sputnik scared the United States with the first orbital satellite.

I was told that they needed science teachers in the schools, that were science majors. I got a BA in biology from the best pre-med school in the state of Texas, and couldn't get a job teaching high school or junior high biology. This was thirty years ago. That's when I decided that the propaganda about getting a good education so you could get a good job was total bullshit.

And if you think a BA is inferior to a BS, the school I went to is a major nationally known liberal arts college, very highly rated by U.S. News and World Report for many years. At the time I graduated they did not offer a B.S., because they are such a prominent liberal arts college.

[customerserviceguy]

15. I'm sure the same can be said

for all these "online" degrees. They're some damned expensive TV, essentially.

[raccoon]

17. Hey, don't say this too loud, the folks doing the training, including faculty/staff

of community colleges, need their customers, otherwise, THEY will be laid off too.