Three jobs ago it was a cup. Two jobs ago I had to take a TB test. The most recent job required a swab from the cheek inside the mouth. It reminded me of going to the dentist.
Thirty years ago and a few times since I have put ink on my finger tips and given prints. I've had my photo taken, background examined, and finances reviewed.
I've submitted to these various checks.
But I wonder, is there something I said on the playground in the fifth grade lurking somewhere? And what happens if I tell someone I still pray? PB
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From the New York Times online:
[Savannah, GA] A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer JCB held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an alarming thing happened: About half of them left.
That story still circulates within the business community of this historic port city. But the problem has gotten worse...
Data on the scope of the problem is sketchy because figures on job applicants who test positive for drugs miss the many people who simply skip tests they cannot pass.
...Quest Diagnostics, which has compiled employer-testing data since 1988, documented an increase for a second consecutive year in the percentage of American workers who tested positive for illicit drugs — to 4.7 percent in 2014 from 4.3 percent in 2013. And 2013 was the first year in a decade to show an increase...
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Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/business/hiring-hurdle-finding-workers-who-can-pass-a-drug-test.html
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
WSJ: Recession’s Economic Trauma Has Left Enduring Scars
According to President Obama, it's just luck. You got connections or you don't. It's the system.
The President recently said, “That’s a pet peeve of mine, people who’ve been successful and don’t realize they’ve been lucky, that God may have blessed them. It wasn’t nothing you did, so don’t have an attitude.”
Oh. So, how's that working out in your economy? PB
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The recession ended seven years ago, but persistent joblessness and underemployment marred the economic expansion that followed.
A growing body of research suggests the economic trauma has left financial and psychic scars on many Americans, and that those marks are likely to endure for decades.
About one in six U.S. workers became unemployed during the recession years of 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Today, nearly 14 million people are still searching for a job or stuck in part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work.
Even for the millions of Americans back at work, the effects of losing a job will linger, the research suggests.
They will earn less for years to come...
As in previous recessions, millions of Americans faced a phenomenon economists sometimes call wage scarring.
People who lose a job, even during economic expansions, usually earn less money when they re-enter the workplace.
They are out of work for a time and often take a pay cut as the price of returning to work at a new employer or even in a new career.
This time, the damage was exacerbated by the job market’s painfully slow recovery.
Extended or repeated spells of unemployment mean more severe earnings losses, and recent years have seen an unusually large number of job seekers out of work for more than six months or stuck in part-time positions.
“They had a much harder time finding a job, and in particular a full-time job, which immediately turns into an earnings decline...”
Job loss has more than just financial consequences.
Unemployment often is an isolating experience.
A layoff can strip people of their identity as workers in a chosen field and their workplace-based social network of co-workers and other contacts.
Researchers have linked job loss to stress, depression and feelings of distrust, anxiety and shame...
------
Link http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-recessions-economic-trauma-has-left-enduring-scars-1462809318
The President recently said, “That’s a pet peeve of mine, people who’ve been successful and don’t realize they’ve been lucky, that God may have blessed them. It wasn’t nothing you did, so don’t have an attitude.”
Oh. So, how's that working out in your economy? PB
------
From the Wall Street Journal online:
The recession ended seven years ago, but persistent joblessness and underemployment marred the economic expansion that followed.
A growing body of research suggests the economic trauma has left financial and psychic scars on many Americans, and that those marks are likely to endure for decades.
About one in six U.S. workers became unemployed during the recession years of 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Today, nearly 14 million people are still searching for a job or stuck in part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work.
Even for the millions of Americans back at work, the effects of losing a job will linger, the research suggests.
They will earn less for years to come...
As in previous recessions, millions of Americans faced a phenomenon economists sometimes call wage scarring.
People who lose a job, even during economic expansions, usually earn less money when they re-enter the workplace.
They are out of work for a time and often take a pay cut as the price of returning to work at a new employer or even in a new career.
This time, the damage was exacerbated by the job market’s painfully slow recovery.
Extended or repeated spells of unemployment mean more severe earnings losses, and recent years have seen an unusually large number of job seekers out of work for more than six months or stuck in part-time positions.
“They had a much harder time finding a job, and in particular a full-time job, which immediately turns into an earnings decline...”
Job loss has more than just financial consequences.
Unemployment often is an isolating experience.
A layoff can strip people of their identity as workers in a chosen field and their workplace-based social network of co-workers and other contacts.
Researchers have linked job loss to stress, depression and feelings of distrust, anxiety and shame...
------
Link http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-recessions-economic-trauma-has-left-enduring-scars-1462809318
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Really? Why the continuing unhappiness? The Job Market's Missing Middle
From Bloomberg.com:
Why are so many people unhappy about a U.S. economy that has generated more than 12 million jobs over the past five years?
One explanation: A lot of those jobs don’t pay very well...
Why the disconnect? One possibility is that the mix of jobs being created has been skewed toward low-paying types of work.
This could hold average wage growth down even amid strong overall employment gains and decent raises in individual sectors.
To get a sense of whether this has been happening, I split the total number of private-sector jobs into three wage groups -- high, medium and low, currently paying an average of about $16, $24 and $35 an hour, respectively.
I then tracked each group’s cumulative job losses and gains through the recession and recovery. Here’s how that looks:
The result is troubling for the American middle class.
Low-wage jobs have accounted for the largest share of the recovery, exceeding the pre-recession peak by more than 4 million.
Growth was particularly strong in activities such as waiting tables or caring for the infirm and elderly.
High-wage professions such as management consulting and computer-systems design have gained, too, but not as much.
Meanwhile, the center has suffered: As of April, the number of middle-wage jobs was still more than 250,000 short of the pre-recession peak...
The data fit well with the picture of "polarization" in the U.S. labor market described by economists such as David Autor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Various types of manufacturing jobs, for example, were among the biggest losers in the middle group, supporting the idea that globalization and automation have taken the largest toll on middle-skill jobs.
That leaves jobs that require either a lot of education or the kind of high-touch, personal attention that a robot or an overseas call center can’t provide.
So while millions of people have gotten back to work since the economy hit bottom in mid-2009, it’s not surprising that a lot of them aren’t too pleased about it.
------
LINK: http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-06/the-job-market-s-missing-middle
Why are so many people unhappy about a U.S. economy that has generated more than 12 million jobs over the past five years?
One explanation: A lot of those jobs don’t pay very well...
Why the disconnect? One possibility is that the mix of jobs being created has been skewed toward low-paying types of work.
This could hold average wage growth down even amid strong overall employment gains and decent raises in individual sectors.
To get a sense of whether this has been happening, I split the total number of private-sector jobs into three wage groups -- high, medium and low, currently paying an average of about $16, $24 and $35 an hour, respectively.
I then tracked each group’s cumulative job losses and gains through the recession and recovery. Here’s how that looks:
The result is troubling for the American middle class.
Low-wage jobs have accounted for the largest share of the recovery, exceeding the pre-recession peak by more than 4 million.
Growth was particularly strong in activities such as waiting tables or caring for the infirm and elderly.
High-wage professions such as management consulting and computer-systems design have gained, too, but not as much.
Meanwhile, the center has suffered: As of April, the number of middle-wage jobs was still more than 250,000 short of the pre-recession peak...
The data fit well with the picture of "polarization" in the U.S. labor market described by economists such as David Autor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Various types of manufacturing jobs, for example, were among the biggest losers in the middle group, supporting the idea that globalization and automation have taken the largest toll on middle-skill jobs.
That leaves jobs that require either a lot of education or the kind of high-touch, personal attention that a robot or an overseas call center can’t provide.
So while millions of people have gotten back to work since the economy hit bottom in mid-2009, it’s not surprising that a lot of them aren’t too pleased about it.
------
LINK: http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-06/the-job-market-s-missing-middle
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