Unemployment and the Job Interview

Unemployment and the Job Interview

Measuring "unemployment" is complicated because like a diamond it has many facets. In the U.S. currently, only about 60% of all people over 18 yrs. old hold jobs. By this measure, the "real" unemployment rate is 40%.

That perspective is too broad. Most people who don't work are in school, staying home to raise children, or retired.

Government statistical geeks have the difficult task of trying to measure people who want to work but can't find anything. They have a series of measurements numbered U1—U6, with each total representing a number which includes a larger detachment of the country without jobs. The parameters change as it moves upward on the scale. Are you asleep?

The U6 unemployment rate counts not only people without work seeking full-time employment (the more familiar U-3 rate), but also counts "marginally attached workers and those working part-time for economic reasons."

For the last couple of years, U6 numbers have been hanging around the 15% range of people without work who are out in the market seeking full-time employment. That’s a lot of job interviews going on!

image: dorothea lange

After a really good interview, one can spend the rest of the day playing the “what-if” game, daydreaming about the next appointment, replaying the conversation in the mind, even mentally negotiating the right salary. 

In my experience, job interviews are like the early stages of dating, especially when the meeting is held in a social setting. One can go through an innocent evening at a restaurant, having a reasonably good time, thinking that there could be some potential in the relationship; only to never hear from their partner again. The other participant made a snap judgment right after the appetizer that you weren’t their type and that is the end of it. 

Because they are polite and adept at hiding their true feelings, the repartee is cheerful perhaps even deceptive; nevertheless at the end of the evening there are no real signs of affection and the hiring party (in dating this is obviously cloaked) laments privately whether it was a complete waste of time. “We are not going to offer this person the job,” thinks the decision-maker; at least the etouffee was excellent! 

Employment is a huge commitment today, so there are many reasons to avoid resolution as to the offer of a job (or love). If there is no real connection it is always best to keep looking. Sometimes the only collaborator the pursuer has is time; in love and commerce the “ticking clock” can be one’s best ally. 

For me it comes down to the discipline of letting God be sovereign over all things big and small. Will I be able to surrender the future into God’s hands and open my heart to let Him work, even open to “rejection” at the hands of an erstwhile suitor? This type of surrender gives all choice to God, all I have to do is be diligent in the process (run the race) but bow my knees in prayer: “Thy will be done.”  2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

©Mark H. Pillsbury

Checking in with the Millennial Generation

What is up with the Millennial Generation?

50 million Millennials span the ages of 18-30 (they were born after 1982). They are more tech-savvy than any other group and they voted for Barak Obama at a 2-to-1 ratio of other generations. 


They are self-confident but unlike baby-boomers, not morally superior. They may be better educated because of the stiff headwinds they faced during the Great Recession. Many Millennial youngsters are still in school.

Millennials diminished sense of economic opportunity remains focused almost entirely on the job market. About two-thirds of Millennials are employed but only slightly half of those are working full-time. Almost two-thirds of Millennials without a job are looking for work.

For those in the workplace these responses* were given about:

When recruiting Millennial generation:

·  93% of Millennials want a job that works with their lifestyle.

·  93% of Millennials want a job where they can be themselves.

·  88% of Millennials want their coworkers to be their friends.

·  89% of Millennials want their workplace to be social and fun.

·  79% of Millennials think they should be allowed to wear jeans to work at least sometimes.

·  81% of Millennials think they should be allowed to make their own hours at work.

·  92% of Millennials think their company is lucky to have them as an employee.

·  Half of Millennials would rather have no job than have a job they hate

When managing Millennial generation:

·  The three most critical aspects of their work are work/life balance, loving what they do, and having good benefits. Having a good salary and vacation time are important, but not their key drivers.

·  76% of Millennials think their boss could learn a lot from them.

·  8 out of 10 Millennials want regular feedback from their boss.

·  8 out of 10 Millennials think they deserve to be recognized more for their work.

·  Over half of Millennials want feedback at least once a week or more.

·  Three-fourths of Millennials want to work for themselves one day.

·  Three-fourths of Millennials would like to have a mentor.

·  61% of Millennials say they need specific directions from their boss to do their best work.
(research released by Nick Shore, Sr. Vice president, strategic insights and research at MTV network)

How to appreciate a Millennial:

Leaders, listen up. Instead of giving your team members the usual kudos for their good work, try something more personal and meaningful:  walk them into their office, close the door, and tell them how important their contribution is to the organization. Hand-written notes are back. Get out your pen and start writing!

How this new trend in the workforce is a back to basics, humane approach:

The results seem to show a smoothing out of the workforce into a comfortable environment and a perpetual feedback loop. Dress can be casual, and management hierarchy is flatter. Despite the grim economic environment Millennials are still confident about their future and actually want to be treated as individuals, not cogs in a machine. They have the self-respect to be bold enough to ask for humane treatment; Millennials are realistic about their situation and their future.

These are often 30-something emerging managers who will be the talent and bedrock of many corporate teams. Will they care about ethics and reasonableness enough to not lie, cheat, and steal from shareholders and the stock markets? Are they cocky and petulant, or principled and wise? Only time will tell.

Millennial employees want to be treated as we always should have treated co-workers, with respect, with the desire to have their input and foster their creativity. They will inevitably bring to our workplaces a more progressive and civil authority now, and as they grow into the next generation of leaders. They have seen the turn of a millennium (thus the generation's name), 9/11 attacks, the worst economic downturn in decades, and a long overseas war for which many volunteered.

This is a force to be reckoned with. The other generations should pay attention. ##


(*information based on a survey of Millennials by MTV, otherwise, opinions are solely my own)

Stimulus Package a/k/a TARP and "shovel-ready" jobs

I heard President Obama joke: "Shovel-ready was not as . . . uh . . . shovel-ready as we expected..." The problem with that is . . . uh . . . he wasn't very funny!

Why does the POTUS just get a pass on this type of behavior? When the previous president would have been eviscerated for such an insensitive joke/comment.

No sir, the whole "shovel-ready" scam did not even occur; not even sure that GAO could measure what it turned out to be, but jobs did not spontaneously arise out of the vaunted stimulus package.

Was it a way to appeal to the old FDR notion of the WPA work creation on public works and infrastructure projects that admittedly need some work? Even construction jobs are much too sophisticated to just hand some out-of-work-dude a shovel and solve the economy's problems. It was immature and naive to think "shovel-ready" was a viable alternative to the economic woes of the country at that time.

What we need now is not the absence of uncertainty, which is so often written about in the newspapars. The economy needs a rolling-back of much of the Obama legislation and the freeing up of small business to start hiring again. Small business is not "afraid" of uncertainty, in fact, on the contrary, they are afraid of what the anti-business administration has accomplished since 2009.

http://tiny.cc/78ae5 (article link)
By CLIFFORD S. ASNESS (Wall Street Journal)
Suggests that drag on the economy in such legislation as Dodd-Frank and ObamaCare, is what actually slowed down hiring, which is still our most pressing problem, and something that POTUS still is not acknowledging. The economic engine will not run smoothly without full employment. Could the POTUS acknowledge that Keynesian solutions have not worked in the market and work with Congress to throw off the fetters on small business? Either he will, or the voters will force the point.