How much time could reaslistically be spent each week looking for jobs if someone is unemployed?

[Cant trust em]

Obviously searching for a job is a time consuming process. If someone has unlimited free time to search for work, how much time can be spent searching through want ads, attending interviews, going to networking events, visiting job fairs, etc.?

20 hours a week? 30? 40?

[quinnox]

1. Not sure, probably depends, what an odd question

Why so curious?

[Cant trust em]

10. Just thinking about how much time spent dealing with unemployment benefit bureaucracy...

can impact the ability to actually search for a job. I know that there is some thought in welfare reform circles that it's a good idea to have a lot of red tape in unemployment benefits because it will decrease the incentive to not work. Since there is less leisure time available, working will be more attractive. Sounds like crap to me.

[FirstLight]

2. welfare-to-work mandates 32 hours/week

of 'job-related' activity... that includes having to show up for remedial resume and interviewing classes as well...

It really depends on how big your job market is... you may have better luck searching in a urban area than a rural one..but it sure doesn't take long to saturate the market either...after a while, you get to the point of checking the 'usual' places once a week and trying to think of new and inventive ways to pound the pavement the rest of the time...

just my 2 cents

[kctim]

3. As many as it takes to find one

IF you are serious about finding a job.

[Cal Carpenter]

4. How about 60? 70? 80?

For most people it's a needle-in-the-haystack exercise.

There simply aren't jobs for everyone right now.

[stopbush]

5. It becomes a fulltime job PLUS to look for work.

40 hours is a minimum.

We're fortunate that the internet is around to help in the search, but the fact is that the further one drills down in the job hunt - and the further one gets from jobs that actually align with one's experience and skill set - the less likely it is that one will be hired for those jobs.

So maybe 20 hours a week is the limit of a *productive* job search.

All I can say from my own experience being unemployed within the last year is that it is very hard to step away from the job search for any length of time, because you're desperate and consumed with the fear that you may have left a stone unturned that might result in a job. In my case, going outside of the box in my search paid off - I was coming up empty in my chosen field (the arts) and landed a job in an entirely new discipline for me (HHS).

Any port in a storm.

[closeupready]

6. The job-seeking advice I've always heard is to spend as much time looking for a job

as you would spend working if you HAD a job. So if your work week would normally be 40 hours per week, spend 40 hours per week looking.

[Xithras]

11. Yep, that's always been my advice, and perspective.

When you're unemployed, looking for a job should BE your job.

[elehhhhna]

7. It depends on the type of job, imo.

I was laid off in early October. Started REALLY sending out resumes after the election. Had an interview Friday, met the owner/CEO yesterday. Interesting job, fits everything on my wishlist (!!!) and pays well. I expect an offer tomorrow. BUT I'm a hell of a great interview (work in staffing and have sales experience) and I got very lucky finding this gem of a company.

I've sent out about 25 resumes, got 3 interviews, and haven't even gone on 2 of them yet!

It only takes one great contact to get hired, and you never know where it's going to come from.

[slackmaster]

8. It varies greatly based on the kind of work you are looking for

If it's an IT job, you can get by with maybe an hour each day.

For a sales position, you probably need to burn up a lot more shoe leather.

[RockaFowler]

9. I'll tell you

My husband has been looking for a job for the last 8 months. He has done more work looking for a job and spent more time than he did at his previous job. Plus we have updated his resume, gone to training and even handed out flyers for him to do odd jobs. Oh yeah and people just don't seem to want to call back. The calls he gets back state the job is already filled. I'm not sure what they're looking for out there. My husband has such wonderful experience in everything from carpentry to data entry. It is unbelievable. But we are trying to be confident that there will be good news soon.

[TexasObserver]

12. Digging for gold in your backyard won't make gold appear there.

The problem is a lack of jobs, and no amount of looking for jobs that aren't there will make them appear.

[littlewolf]

13. my dad told me that when you are looking for a job

your JOB is to GET a job .... so at least 40 hours per week ...

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. The problem with that is it is a job that you not only do not get paid for,

but one which costs you money. That's one reason there are so many 'discouraged' workers out there - it's just too expensive to keep printing up new resumes, keeping the wardrobe nice and appropriate, buying gas or bus fare to get to interviews, spending money on fast food while out searching. It's just cheaper to conserve your resources, stay home and watch TV. Until you have to sell the TV.

[littlewolf]

16. I understand .. but ya gotta keep it up ...

sometimes you don't get what you want .... but you get a job ....
and it is easier to get a job if you already hve one ...

[Iris]

15. I'd say treat it like it is a job and dedicate 38-45 hours a week n/t

[TheKentuckian]

17. Depends. Some weeks it will be over 40 hours with interviews, resume tune ups, a job fair or two,

a few hours (if it is busy) at the unemployment office.

Some weeks there will be literally nothing to do but search, send out resumes, work contacts, and customize cover letters and you will do like 20-25ish at most.

Hell, some weeks there will be so few plausible matches that you might be spinning wheels trying to make reasonable use of 10 hours.

On average, I'd say most people average under 30 and that for most jobs if you are consistently doing 40+ that you are almost certainly just driving yourself batty and are in serious danger of being burnt out before the first day of the next job.

The old 40 hour rule is a relic from the age of pavement beating.
Most places aren't even accepting applications in that manner anymore. You aren't walking streets, driving all over, talking to owners and managers, and reporting with an unending sea of people to a senseless and counter-productive weekly or bi-weekly wasted day at the relief office.

Job sites, fax, email, and all the modern methods increase your net and speed up your application process but it isn't an infinite job creator. Once you have a stock of targeted resumes, a variety of cover letters that act as templates and are forced to fish there is only so much to apply to.

Any serious seeker will be able to multiply by 5-10 the most hard core old timey pavement pounder from back in the day, jobs legitimately applied for in a quarter to a third of the time.

I'm sure that some are out buying lunches and drinks, making golf and tennis matches on a never ending hobnob tour and folks that travel or even still work jobs where hitting the streets is still the way it works but those in the cube rat to deskjockey world are hard pressed to find enough matches to fill a work week, every week. If it does then your are either dragneting the region (or even the country), applying for everything from junior ditch digger fourth class to astronaut, qualified, not qualified, or don't know what it is.

A couple to three sweeps a day at most. If it is a good day that will take maybe three hours.

On a bad day there will be not a damn job to apply to you haven't already hit that you are remotely qualified to do.

You either get hired quick or probably taking the bullet train to depression. Staying sane and a consistent 40 hour search for the months it can take to get anything in the part of town you were before, much less the neighborhood or even the wrong side of the tracks from there.

I could be wrong, but I'd like to see a schedule from folks who call the forty hour rule.