close to getting the axe. work is at a stand still.
i'm close to standing out by the home depot with all the mexicans...

I'll let you know on Tuesday...

BC Government, specifically. Lots of projects are on hold around here... it's tough being an IT contractor these days.

Hired 2 engineers (NM) in the last six months and hiring 3 more in Jan (1 in CA and 2 in NM). Pay is about $85K.

Jeff,
Your first paragraph could just as well describe my experience with my former firm. I've never met a such a pair of smug/arrogant pricks in my life. They literally pissed that company away. If anyone looks good over there, it's their founder; in his mid 70s and more of a figurehead nowadays but still a troublemaker to the two head douchbags. The brilliant thing is that said douchebags just completed a 10 year/multi-million dollar buyout of the firm from the old man last year. Now their doors are close to closing any day.

Civilian positions? I've looked at job postings on USA Jobs, and half of them require military service.

Yeah, you say that now...

Yea I know... But the truth remains - there's literally no incentive to go out and work a P/T job under the current UI rules. It's maddening.

Yes, civil service. GG-13. The jobs don't require military experience but that does make one more competitive. One needs engineering experience and the ability to get a security clearance. When we close an announcement, we get the names and resumes of the 15 or so folks that HR thinks are qualified...and select from there.

USA Jobs lists external advertisements (people not already in civ service). Lots of jobs listed are not available yet (collecting resumes). I advertise most of my jobs internal (on an AF site) and external (USA Jobs). I know the civil service hiring system quite well...so if you have any questions...

40 is the new 30.

I see very few Mexicans standing by our Home Depot. The few that I do see are loading up their truck because they have a JOB and are buying material to complete their JOB.

I do have questions. PM'd you. SmileWavy

insurance

while my wife was out of work as well as myself it would have been worth it for me to get a p/t job that had insurance while collecting unemployment.

other than that you are 100% correct.




McCain mentioned while he was running that our unemployment system was still set up for the 1930's or 40's but i never heard what he planned to do about it.

the pay is actually pretty good.

am getting sick of the freelance lifestyle. will be making a push for a real job this year.

Illustration usually pays better than text. Or maybe you have better clients than I. :cool:

I heard that! SmileWavy

I was layed off last April after 8 years at a large Pharm company. Was out of work exactly one month. Got picked up with an O&M in the power industry working at the largest refinery on the eastern seaboard. Same pay and with better benefits then the last job. Hopefully power is a more secure industry than pharm in the long term. When I started at the drug company in 2000 I seriously thought I had a job for life.

I was one of 5 folks in the machine shop where I work. In Oct 1 was transferred to millwrightshop. Monday, the week before Thanksgiving, 1 was laid off. That Wed another boy from a plant on our site being shut down was transferred to our shop upon completion of an overhaul. Monday morning Thanksgiving week, another was laid off. Monday afternoon, us remaining 2 were told that we were going Wed afternoon.

Of us 5, 2 have gotten new jobs. 1 of them with less pay. & has picked up some part time work, too. Another 1 of us, has an interview today, likely he'll get hired, but less pay. My old boss called me yesterday & said to come back Tuesday. Haven't heard from the other boy, he was looking forward to drawing halftime & catching up on work around his place.

An odd thing is that in this workforce reduction, some folks were terminated with severance pay & all of us laid off with no severance but company paying their part of insurance for 8 weeks.

I have been feeling the same thing...there are open positions and the HR is interviewing...BUT as soon as it comes to hire someone they freeze.

I got layed off August 7th.

I got rehired oct 12th, started work Nov 3. I got a 14 grand per year pay raise, but the commute went from 200 yards to 35 miles. Also my benifits are extermely weak with the new job.

The new job is hiring people like mad. The boss did 55 interviews last week. Needs another 20 people. Routinely will tall the background people to check 15 people, only to lose 10 to poor backgrounds.

I'm a freelance television producer and have not been able to find anything since December. My wife has 3 months left in her doctorate program, so now it's a race to see if we run out of money before she can take the boards and start working. Right now I'm trying to line something up delivering pizzas.