Job Search

Posted by JHW22

Since President Obama was elected, his policies (the ones NOT blocked by the GOP) have created 4.5 million jobs. There are days when I get so furious thinking how many more jobs his policies could have created had the GOP actually not been assholes.
4.5 million jobs! That's a LOT. That's a lot considering how close we were to a Depression. It's kind of like being in 8th place until the last 50 meters and then pulling out all you've got and getting the Silver Have to have an Olympic reference, right). We still need to get the Gold but that would require some team effort. Sadly, with the GOP working against us, our team isn't being very productive.

Today we got a new jobs report and our economy added 163,000 jobs. The unemployment rate went up a click and that's what the GOP will focus on. They'll pretend the addition of jobs is a bad thing because the percent went up. But 163,000 jobs exist that didn't exist before.

-- Kevin Drum, Mother Jones

As a person who has been looking for a job for the first time in six years, and really longer ago than that because I had a job before I decided to be a stay-at-home mom, this is great news.

However, my problem isn't the number of jobs out there. I look at job boards several times a day. I have apps I check obsessively. I see jobs all day long. I see jobs in health care. I see jobs in retail. I see clerical jobs. And at times I see jobs in my field. But the jobs I see the most are in technical fields. Seriously. The problem isn't that we don't have jobs. The problem is that we aren't all qualified for the plethora of good paying jobs because we all decided to major in Literature (well, I did, anyway).

So I have a hard time applying for more jobs than I'd like simply because I don't have the skill sets needed for the jobs that ARE out there.

I read a quote a few weeks ago and I think about it all the time. I have to paraphrase it because I don't remember it specifically, and I have no idea who said it, but the gist is this:
[quote]Don't wait for something to happen. MAKE something happen.[/quote]
I'm trying to follow this in my job search. I am trying to be creative and inventive. It hasn't worked so far but at least I FEEL in control. I KNOW I'm not in control -- after all, there are hundreds of applicants competing for the same jobs, I've been off the circuit for A LONG TIME, and I have to admit I had a pretty glaring error on the resumes I was submitting for almost two months. I can't control the person's schedule who receives my resume to ensure they don't go on vacation or call in sick while my resume is at the top of the stack.

But I can take classes, I can read books, I can read articles, I can find ways to hone my skills.

And I can help re-elect President Obama and work to elect good Democrats to support him in Congress. Because if the 2012 election results in a Democratic win, I am confident that Obama will have more job creation policies enacted and a lot more opportunities for ALL of us and not just the techies. Or hell, maybe I can find something to hold me over while I become a techie, myself. Ahahahahaha. That was funny.

Cross-posted at www.ThisWomanThinks.com

President Obama's Weekly Address - June 9, 2012

Congress Must Act to Keep Our Teachers On The Job

President Obama's Weekly Address - June 2, 2012

It’s Time for Congress to Get to Work

President Obama's Weekly Address - March 3, 2012

Taking Control of Our Energy Future

President Obama's Weekly Address - February 18, 2012

Continuing to Strengthen American Manufacturing

President Obama's Weekly Address - January 7, 2012

Continuing to Grow the Economy in the New Year

President Obama Beat NFL in Ratings

President Obama's speech Thursday on jobs to a joint session of Congress outscored the NFL season opener in the Nielsen TV ratings. The President's jobs speech was watched by an estimated 31.4 million viewers while the New Orleans Saints/Green Bay Packers NFL season opener drew about 27.2 million.

(Via Washington Times)

It's All In The Timing - UPDATED

For months now, all we've been hearing from the Republican Party is a mocking tone led by Speaker of the House, John "Big Gavel" Boehner. "Where are the jobs?" Boehner would ask/mock/yell any time he took a podium within earshot of network microphones. All you need to do is take a look at Boehner's tweets to see that his constant harping about any Obama plan and the damage that it would do, adding the modifying "job killing" phrase to every other sentence and even a couple of bills, and the transparency is obvious. Nevermind that the GOP ran on "jobs, jobs, jobs" in 2010 and as of this writing, the Republican led House of Representatives has not passed one single jobs bill.

And for weeks now, there's been nothing but whining and moaning from the GOP on wanting an economic and jobs plan from President Obama, regardless of the fact that it's the House that ultimately controls the pursestrings and creates and passes economic legislation.

Well, they wanted a jobs plan and now President Obama is going to give it to them. So it happens that they requested a joint session of Congress to reveal said plan on the same night as a Republican primary debate at the Reagan Library on September 7th. ...Oops.

While it may be a thumb in the eye to the GOP, the fact of the matter is that September 7th is also the first day that Congress is back in session after a five week recess. Yes, they were off for the entire month of August while some whined about the President's 10 day vacation. So it makes absolute sense to make the address on the first day of school. Is it also a 'fuck you' to Republicans who've been badgering him about a jobs plan for months? Probably, although they'd never admit to it. But now the White House has put the GOP in a tough spot. If they're so eager to hear the President's plan, they'll have to decide to agree to the joint session and prioritize what's important. They'll have to deal with the optics of a real President giving an important address regarding the nation's most pressing issue while the wannabes squawk about their one idea yet again: deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy as job creation.

But so far, all we've heard is more whining.

ADDING... Gawker has called this move "the most gratuitously -- and joyously! -- dickish move of his presidency." Well, when in Rome...

UPDATE I (6:55pm): Well, now we know where John Boehner and the GOP's priorities lie.

House Speaker John Boehner announced Wednesday that he would reject a request from President Obama for a national address before a joint-session of Congress.

So much for the jobs crisis, huh?

UPDATE II (9:35pm): I'm disgusted.

President Barack Obama agreed late Wednesday to delay a planned jobs speech to a joint session of Congress by one day after House Speaker John Boehner objected to the date the White House originally sought.

That one day delay, September 8th, is opening night of the NFL. As a regular reader of this blog just said to me, "Fucking clueless. Even I will be watching the game. If he loses the election, it won't be because of the economy. The base will just see him as a capitulator. I hear it every fucking day."

I have to admit I'm feeling the frustration as well. It's obvious this particular Congress doesn't give a shit about even the appearance of giving this particular president a modicum of respect. And if I'm being honest, if Obama doesn't demand it, why should the GOP bother when they know they can roll him?

I'm fucking disgusted.

ADDING... Look, overall I think I'm just venting my increasing frustration with the lack of respect shown to the President from the other side. I'm tired of Boehner and Cantor and the GOP thinking they are on equal footing with the President of the United States. Never in the history of this country has such hubris been displayed by the opposition party against the Commander in Chief. Refusing a joint session of Congress to a sitting president has never happened. But what I'm projecting is what I think most of the country is projecting; the majority of the country that aren't political junkies and view this peripherally.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope the general population looks at this scenario and will see and realize that the GOP will say no to everything the President suggests, even a date for a jobs speech the GOP have been badgering for, for months. I hope they realize that the GOP is unreasonable and can't even acquiesce to a date requested by their President. I hope this is more Obama ju-jitsu and hope that the polls reflect that. I pray to the FSM that I'm wrong.

But I still can't shake my original point: why did the White House pick this particular date if they weren't going to stick to it? It looks wishy-washy and politically it'll be spun as such. There would be no controversy had they chosen Tuesday night (most if not all of Congress would be back in DC by then) or Thursday night even though they'd be fighting for ratings against opening night of the football season. So again, why did they choose the same night as the GOP debate?

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Lose them? So be it.

That's what the leader of the House Republicans said regarding the possible loss of government jobs with draconian budget cuts proposed by the GOP. Whether you believe this is wasteful spending or not is irrelevant. These are real people. These are workers that will join the ranks of the unemployed.

This is the same John Boehner that was whining "Where are the jobs?" while pointing at President Obama in the perpetual unemployment blame game during the campaign. This is the same John Boehner that was going to do the bidding of the American people, "do the people's work" and stop wasting time on health care battles and work on job creation.

And now the Not-So-Ready-For-Prime-Time Speaker of the House shrugs his shoulders at the potential loss of jobs in the federal workforce; the same federal workforce that has been dragging down the monthly employment numbers and stagnating the unemployment rate. While private sector jobs have slowly been coming back, local and state governments have been shedding jobs. But hey, firefighters, police officers, teachers, sanitation workers, those aren't real people, right?

Meanwhile, the same John Boehner supported an alternative engine for the military's F-35 fighter jet, an engine that the military didn't want or need. Couldn't be that the engine is produced in the Speaker's home state, could it?  The bill was soundly defeated in the House today, practically evenly split among Republicans.  How many more defeats can Boehner sustain before becoming completely insignificant?

President Obama's Weekly Address - January 29, 2011

Out-Innovating, Out-Educating & Out-Building Our Competitors

President Obama's Weekly Address - July 3, 2010

A Solar Recovery

President Obama's Weekly Address - December 5, 2009

Pushing Forward on Jobs



Read the transcript here.

President Obama's Weekly Address - July 11, 2009

Recovery and the Jobs of the Future

They Picked A Winner!

After a series of votes, the Republican National Committee picked former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele as their new GOP chairman. Well, it looks like they picked a real winner.

Steele: And first off the government doesn’t create jobs. Let’s get this notion out of our heads that the government creates jobs. Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job. Small business owners do, small enterprises do. Not the government. When the government contract runs out, that job goes away. That’s what we’re talking about here and those 2 to 4 million jobs that are projected? Won’t happen, trust me.

Hmmm... not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job? That's a pretty broad statement.

I suppose Steele was a volunteer for his lieutenant gubernatorial service in Maryland. As well as his staff... as well as every other elected official and their staffs in government from dog catcher to President. Oh, and I didn't realize that the current 1.5 million active armed forces personnel weren't getting paid for their efforts.

Hey Mike, you mean to tell me we get our mail for free? Awesome! And the next time I walk past a beat cop I'm going to thank him for volunteering to risk his life every day just for the pleasure of it... and firefighters too. Hell, I knew the New York City transit system claimed they're in dire financial straits, but I didn't even realize they weren't paying their bus drivers and train conductors or engineers.

But I'm so glad they picked Michael Steele for his smarts and not because they're trying to show how much their party has changed by electing an African American to the position.

(H/T Think Progress)