Joker wrote: I totally agree with Frugal Fran's assessment. Would you prefer to be able to make your bills and provide food for your family or not? Many are just think that temporary jobs are beneath them but in my opinion, there is nothing beneath me when it comes to my family being ok.

Well said and totally agree!

I totally agree with Frugal Fran's assessment. Would you prefer to be able to make your bills and provide food for your family or not? Many are just think that temporary jobs are beneath them but in my opinion, there is nothing beneath me when it comes to my family being ok.

Pinky wrote: When my sister passed away in 2000, I took leave from my permanent job in Albuquerque, NM and joined Robert Half Account Temps to work while I was in Dallas, TX. It worked out really well. They kept me busy and it helped me keep my mind off my sister at least for a while.

I am really sorry to hear that, but glad you were able to get some support.

When my sister passed away in 2000, I took leave from my permanent job in Albuquerque, NM and joined Robert Half Account Temps to work while I was in Dallas, TX. It worked out really well. They kept me busy and it helped me keep my mind off my sister at least for a while.

100% agreed and I am glad you were able to make it out of that situation.

Support your point of view! Think about your self-worth and self-esteem ... as a bread winner you were still providing for your family and nothing stops you from looking for the "right job" ... did this many times.

There was a point when our children were young and we both ended up without jobs. Contracts ended and we found ourselves scrambling for jobs. Thanks to our savings we were okay for a bit and when I was offered a job at a reduced income I took it. Money coming in was better than no money and I actually ended up enjoying the job. I felt it was more important to pay bills and feed family than to worry that it wasn't the job I was looking for.

FrugalFran wrote: I don't think it has anything to do with pride. More often than not, taking a job one is overqualified for means taking a hefty pay cut. It's easier said than done to go from making $200,000 a year to making $60,000 a year. Government assistance isn't the solution, either, but I don't think it's necessary to imply that people who are overqualified are arrogant about it.

That's true, some people aren't arrogant about it but, in my opinion, they overthink it sometimes. Meaning that I would rather go from 200k to 60k than 200k to nothing. Sometimes the answer is as simple as that.....do you want to earn a living or not?

I was recently in this position and I will tell you, it was not a fun place to be. It wasn't me with the issue, either, it was employers who didn't want to hire me because they knew I would eventually look for something "more fitting" and leave them. Can you imagine how difficult it was to convince someone that I needed a job to put food on my table, more than I needed a job to stroke my ego or maintain a lifestyle? After unemployment had run out, it was all about survival at that point. It had nothing to do with any sort of arrogance on my part. Last summer I went from $115,334 a year to $10.65 an hour, but it kept my lights on and my kids fed until I could find something that I was better suited to do. Thankfully I found an employer willing to hire me and give me that chance.

I agree. I am not sure that is necessarily the issue.

I don't think it has anything to do with pride. More often than not, taking a job one is overqualified for means taking a hefty pay cut. It's easier said than done to go from making $200,000 a year to making $60,000 a year. Government assistance isn't the solution, either, but I don't think it's necessary to imply that people who are overqualified are arrogant about it.

Good point! I would rather be employed (self worth and self esteem) earning an income while I quietly continue to look for employment that better suits me. May never find it depending on my flexibilities to relocate, learn new job skills, obtain more education and so on. We can only rely on government support for a period of time and it likely will run out. Also, who said I was "entitled" to a free ride. There have been several periods of unemployment in my life that raised havoc with my life but I had to pick myself up by the boot straps and dig in. No one else was going to do it or should do it for me.

We do, and the unemployed who are overqualified for jobs need to stop acting like it sometimes. Swallow some pride and don't tell employers who don't require degrees that you have one. Downplay your resume if you need to in order to get a specific job. There are many such ways of getting jobs that people may feel are "beneath", but what is more damaging to the ego? Getting a job like that and working for a living, or staying home and relying on government assistance?

Something that always sticks in my mind about the jobs reports ... where are these jobs (geographically) and what are they (Janitors, Pilots, Nurses, etc) ? We could easily have jobs where the workforce does not have the skills or the unemployed workforce is over qualified for the jobs.

There are roughly 5 million jobs available in the U.S. right now. There are also roughly 7.4 million unemployed adults in the U.S. right now. I don't have time at this moment to go through the PDF file I'm linking up, but feel free if you do. Something tells me though that there is a realistic solution to getting a good chunk of the unemployed back to work.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf