Job hunters...are you shocked at what employers are offering these days?

[Digit]

It appears to me that employers are taking advantage of the job market and offering severly discounted wages with no benefits. I am shocked to see administrative assistant jobs paying 8.00/hr and jobs requiring 4 yr degrees offering 10/hr. I am in the Triangle of NC.

Is it just me, or are they taking advantage of the job market?
When I consider paying for the gas to GET to the job, I might as well hang it up.

Don't even get me started on the job scammers that have cropped up.

Grrrrr. :mad:

[elocs]

1. Employers are offering something? I haven't noticed. n/t

[XemaSab]

33. +1

n/t

[AnneD]

2. No suprise....

they have been raping Nurses for years.....The wages have bucked the market. I mean if you are in a shortage why are they so low.

BUT...BUT I saw in the paper how high the salary is. It is all window dressing so they can submit the paperwork and get a half price HB-1 visa Nurse. They offer you peanuts.

Call me cynical but I've seen it too often.

[pnwmom]

20. If they offer you less than what is reported in the newspaper ad, then

you should report them to the state.

[sharp_stick]

3. This always happens when times are tight

and then when things get better they bitch and moan that their employees have no loyalty. I work as a professional for a large company that used to treat us with a lot more respect than they do now. Never mind the benefits and perks that disappear almost secretly, they'll wonder why there will be an exodus of talent as soon as the job market improves. It happens every time the economy tanks.

[Andy823]

4. Not just you.

They "are" taking advantage, and that has been the plan of republican corporate america for some time now and Bush just put it over the top for them!

They don't give a damn about anyone but themselves, they don't care if you can pay your bills, put food on the table, send your kids to college, etc. Even if you could afford to send your kids to college, what kind of a job will the be able to get if this is the norm? The rich want to stay rich, put their kids in school and then let them take over the company at some time, while the rest of us do their bidding! They want a "two class" system like the third world countries all over the world. The only thing these idiots don't understand is that their greed is creating a society that can not afford the products they are pushing! What happens when nobody can afford the things being produced?

[TBF]

11. The crisis of over production -

the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here's an interesting article re this: http://socialistworker.org/2008/12/05/the-great-crash-of-2008

[madrchsod]

5. been it was that way last year...

i was offered jobs and the first thing they asked is if i could afford the gas..nope.

[Lagomorph]

6. You're competing with

Indians who work for $5 a day.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. You can't "take advantage" of a market

A market is what it is.

It's a buyers market for houses and labor.

[Skittles]

47. so you're saying

if many companies have to, say, cut pay in order to avoid layoffs, other companies that are doing just fine would never just, say, cut pay BECAUSE THE MARKET SAYS THEY CAN (even if they made a profit)? THAT is taking advantage.

[TBF]

8. Maybe depends on the area? My brother is a recruiter here

in Houston and does a lot of medical & administrative positions. He just placed someone in an administrative asst. position in some sort of doctor's office for 50K. He says it's definitely slower, but he still has jobs & of course there are tons of candidates for each job.

[blue_onyx]

9. "Job scammers that have cropped up."

I know. I've gotten quite a few scam job calls. One lady called me at 6:30-7:00 at night on a Friday wanting me to interview with her. I asked 3 times what the company was called and she wouldn't answer. She would just start talking about the job itself. The job was to drive around with her and sell jewelry to customers. Selling jewelry out of some strange lady's car...sounds like a great use of my college degree.

[Vinnie From Indy]

15. LOL!

"Selling jewelry out of some strange lady's car...sounds like a great use of my college degree. "

Cheers!

[MADem]

10. Well, of course they are 'taking advantage' of the job market, It's how it works.

Watch, as things progress, "wage holidays" increase....where employers agree to work one, two, three or more days for free in order to forestall layoffs.

That's happening in New England already amongst, of all unionized groups, TEACHERS. In Lynn, even the mayor worked a day for free: http://www.itemlive.com/articles/2009/02/20/news/news03.txt

Others have done it as well. That, in essence, is a wage cut.

[Mika]

25. This is going on in Miami-Dade county. But the teachers weren't asked.

The school board made the decision. They've done this right after refusing to comply with the pay raise contract with the union, and that contract only was possible after the teachers made extreme health care benefit concessions.

Almost every teacher I know from here is in the process of (or hoping to) getting the hell out of here, but things are tough all over as you say.

:nuke:

[LanternWaste]

12. Bear in mind that many business have little to offer...

Bear in mind that many business have little to offer. At my office, we had a choice of either wage freezes plus new hires, or wage increases w/o any hope of new hires resulting in increased workloads for those of us already there for the next four quarters.

And I see the books, and was part and parcel of the decision making process, I know that it's not simply smoke being blown into southern orifices, but an actual decline in company revenue.

Although I'm sure many companies are indeed taking advantage of the economy, many others are not. I suppose it depends on the company as well as the person.

Good luck in your job hunt-- I can't even imagine what it's like out there right now. :(

[bbinacan]

13. Wow

I was at a Sheetz convenience store in Waynesburg, PA. Plastered on the doors were help wanted signs offering $8.25/hr plus benefits. This is a poor town and I'm surprised at the wages compared to the Raleigh area.

[Mika]

14. I've had dental labs call me offering crowns for $45 (outsourced to China).

There is no f-ing way dentistry will survive in the USA like this. There will not be a good dental technician left in the US, and good dental technician are essential to producing good, healthy prosthetic restorative work - from a single crown to a complex full upper and lower implant borne restoration.

For US dentistry, and US health care overall, its crash and burn time folks.

[Catshrink]

19. I sure wouldn't want a crown from China

in a word: lead.

[Mika]

21. How would you know? Do patients paying a small co-pay ask or care, or have a choice?

Many dentists don't know where their crowns are being made.

The latest trend is the large dental lab corporations are laying off all of the most experienced techs (being the highest paid, no such thing as tenure in the dental lab field anymore) and shipping off the work via UPS and FEDEX to Chinese sweatshop labs. I've labs stick Made in the USA stickers on the boxes when its shipped back from China in 3-4 days.

This represents the death knell of affordable, but good dentistry.

This is just what Brown and FEDEX can do for you. Ship the jobs to China, and streamline the process, and then ship a lead poisoned toy or dental crown/bridge or who knows what back to us.

[Kat45]

41. There's not such thing as a small co-pay for a crown.

Every dental insurance plan I've had will only pay half of the cost of a crown, and as anyone who has a crown knows, those suckers are mucho expensive.

[Digit]

16. It is depressing

I am back in school now at 57 to get a nursing assistant certificate. Of course most of the NA jobs pay only 9/hr to start which is less than half of what I was making in sales. Hopefully, I can take it a step further and get an additional cert in something.

I was hourly plus commission before, but the good ole days are ovah!

[spanone]

17. humans are predatory, i guess

[leftyclimber]

18. We're always lowballed here, recession or not.

Here being West Virginia. When we moved here in 2005 so for me to go to grad school my SO couldn't find a job that paid more than half what he'd make doing the same job anywhere else in the country. The first job he was offered paid $9.50/hr; he'd been making over $20/hr in his previous gig. When he mentioned this to the hiring managers, they always came back with "This is West Virginia." To a one. They still do, and they still pay shit. And they wonder why all of their college grads leave the state and they can't attract any new business here.

Welcome to West Virginia, y'all. :(

[Greyhound]

22. Minimum wage is fast becoming The Wage. n/t

[GoCubsGo]

23. Nope.

I've been looking for more than two years. Not much out there in my field (Ecology) that pays more than ten bucks an hour, nearly all temp jobs. If you knew permitting, you might do better, otherwise, you're shit out of luck. 20 years research experience with a Masters degree here. When I got laid off, I was told, "With your experience, you should have no problem finding another job!" Yeah. Uh huh.

[drmeow]

26. With your experience ...

I was just told the same thing from my boss who is laying me off in 4.5 months (told me now so that I can have the full 5 months to look). If I hadn't been on the verge of tears, I would have laughed in his face.

[liberal renegade]

27. check out this site

www.usajobs.gov

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

24. my husband has been looking for work since July, 08

he was just telling me today that he is seeing more and more of the phrase "benefits after one year", which I have never even heard of before.

[Digit]

30. Yeah, I saw one of those today..."benefits after one year"

Yeah, so you can replace me before the year is up and pay someone else low wages w/no bennies.

[jxnmsdemguy65]

28. I've been out of work since May '08

... and the only interview that I've been able to get is $8/hr stocking groceries. I'm giving it up folks. I'll subsist on unemployment till December of this year (thank God for Obama), then I'll see if conditions have improved. No way I'm doing shit work for shit pay at age 43.

[Digit]

31. You had an interview?

I haven't even managed to get one interview. I can't tell you how long ago it has been since I made 8/hr. Most likely the late 70's.

As a side note: Thanks George for F-ing up the Country.

[Synicus Maximus]

29. No. They are not taking advantage of the job market.

They are paying or offering what the traffic will bare. They are offering what people who meet their requirements are willing to work for. If they can't find someone to work for the wage they offer they will raise the wage until someone who meets their requirements will accept the job.

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[greblc]

32. I'm bringing more home on unemployment than prospective employers are willing to pay.

Two months. 32 resumes sent. 2 phone interviews, one temp agency fishing for my SSN.

[Digit]

36. I hate to say it, but me too.

Wages have eroded so much I make more on unemployment than I will at any job.

Do you realize how pathetic that is?

I made $10/hr back in 1995 and now in 2009 I am scrambling for a job that pays $9 freaking dollars an hour. I give up.

[bosbdd2009]

34. They Have Jobs?

I'm shocked they even have any jobs, here in Peoria IL. the local paper has about 10 ads for jobs, when a year or so ago there would be 200 job ads in the same paper. So at least you have some jobs, we dont.

[SmileyRose]

39. In the Atlanta market "ads in the paper" are yesterday's news.

The Atlanta market mostly uses Yahoo hotjobs. I don't know about Peoria but it's possible what jobs there may be are either on the net or are filled through networking and never posted. All but 1 job I've ever had was through someone I know - at least in passing.

A job hunt is a time to shake a lot of hands. Tell everyone and their mama you are looking for work. People love to be helpful. They'll tell you about every lamo lead they can dream up. All you need is just one to work out.

[Kat45]

40. I've been telling absolutely everyone I'm looking for a job--

and not one person had any kind of lead for me. And the people I talked to included my town's State Rep and a couple of other local politicians. But of course, it's not an election year.

[Blue_Tires]

35. i wouldn't know...i'm not even getting interviews

[Manifestor_of_Light]

37. No, because the crap started back in 1996.

For me. In the legal profession.

I haven't even gotten as far as a job offer for anything other than a few days of temp work (then I get fired because they tell me I violated some stupid rule they neglected to tell me).

I got one interview in 3 yrs of looking for a legal assistant job (with a B.A. in biology, a J.D., and 20 yrs experience as a court reporter), back around 2005.

And they weren't even nice enough to call me back to tell me they picked someone else. I never found out what the job paid.

:wtf:

[Digit]

38. Who else has had to return to school to change careers

The Republics would have you think this crappy economy will correct itself and nothing should be done.

Yeah, right.

[Skittles]

42. have you noticed many companies are making pay cuts?

many of these companies posted a PROFIT

[Digit]

45. Try looking for new jobs you are qualified for and see what they offer

You may find you do not qualify for your job and/or the pay is GREATLY reduced.
It is depressing.

[Skittles]

46. yes

what I'm saying is, companies are fucking us every way they can - EVERY way - if the economy isn't forcing them to do it, they're using the economy as an excuse to stick it to the American worker

[Kat45]

43. SInce I haven't found any employers yet, I can't answer that. But

knowing the business of business, I'm sure I would be shocked and disgusted.