Did anyone take advantage of the stimulus package?

My reason for asking is that I have heard some good and bad news about it. First of all, I never knew why my nephew's dad came to me begging for his birth certificate because he "claimed" to have found a job. Even though he has never given me child support for my nephew, I turned him and down and told him to go to records and get it himself. As time went on, I began to hear about Muni (San Francisco Transportation) hiring individuals with dependents. I never knew that the stimulus was the key factor in this hiring process. By the time I found out, I rushed to child support to make sure I got my ends out of the deal but, to my surprise, they laid everyone off with the stimulus package within two months. Next thing I knew, there were community meetings going on about major companies hiring individuals with the stimulus package and letting them go very quickly.

Then I began to get a little nosy and attend these events. Of course, in my neighborhood, racial conflict was a prime factor in the ordeal. My husband was laid off at the time and I put a bug into his ear about the stimulus package. He successfully completed all the necessary steps required, with One Stop Career Links being the last step to complete. Well that is where he became stuck! He waited through crowded lines for jobs that were "suppose to be" ready upon submission of resume, only to find out that after standing in line for jobs of interest for more than one hour, no one was there to take interviews. Furture appointments to reappear were canceled without notice, locations were mis-addressed, to make a long story short, it was a bunch of bull crap.

Finally he decided to put foot-work into his search, to his surprise, employers were not aware of the stimulus package and was afraid to look further in depth. Employers thought he was actually a walking fraud individual who was out to scam their company. He even tried taking the stimulus package to his previous employer, he to was afraid to try it. About one week later, our local news broadcast the issue that my husband was going through. Statistic showed that there were very few hires with the stimulus package, and the margin of error was only 2. The news stated that after researching, they found out that many employers were unaware of the package, and those who did know about it posted their job listings into the Career Development Centers. If you were to go out on foot searching for potential jobs with your stimulus package, your chances were very slim. Thankfully, his job called him back without the stimulus package, but sad to say, they are still afraid to use it:worried:

There have been a lot of smiles and cries behind this stimulus package, I have heard of many company's hiring employees and laying them off. Now for the "horror story", I have spoken with individuals who are currently working under the stimulus package, and I asked them were they afraid of being laid off. They replied to me, that being laid off is not the problem, but to hear that the company will no longer need you is the part they fear the most. Now my question is, what about individuals who are well qualified for the position? Does their track record and hard input goes unrecognized through these employers? Are employers only out to take advantage of the stimulus package to save money for themselves? When the Governor of California announced our job increase (by the way we suppose to be at 150,000), will this number continue to rise only while the stimulus package is in affect, or does it drop significantly upon the date of expiration? I ask myself these questions because I feel like our president has given a break to businesses who does not intend to hire individuals no time soon. But I do thank Obama for opening doors that our past president kept closed.

I couldn't agree with you more. Well said Rockin35!

My only regret is that the previous Administration just had a blatant disregard for citizens. For those that voted with their pocket books in 2004, now feel the rapture of bad leadership and being blind-sided.

I'm a bit frustrated about the entire past 3.5 years. I actually think our State Representatives, Congressmen/women, Senators, all of them should FREEZE their pay as well. I work for AT&T, they wasted no time to inform us that we were not getting increases, bonuses this year,only that we MIGHT keep our jobs in some departments in the wireless sector.

The Stimulus Package...lets hope it will at least begin to initiate recovery to the US. Because a lot of these companies aren't seeing a severe hit YET choose to lay everybody off anyways. I find it strange that a company like Macy around for over 150 years, can't even sustain itself during 1 bad quarter of poor holiday sales. Their answer.... Lay off workers. Sounds like Greed to me.

One thing I've learned,....ways to become EXTRA EXTRA efficient and frugal in times like these.

Rockin35

Same here!

I am glad they finally reached a compromise with this whole stimulus package and that Obama is posting online where all the money for this package is going.

Let's just hope that companies like Caterpillar do hire back some of the employees they let go (and not pull a GM and walk away with 8 billion and order 10,000 layoffs within weeks).

Re:
https://www.financeglobe.com/Finance/Articles/articles/240/0/Congress-Compromises-on-Stimulus-Package/Page0.html