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Do you want the good news first, or the bad news, fellow members of the unemployed Post Grad network?
I’ll hit you with the good news: America is currently breaking records for the number of open jobs available. In April, there were 5.78 million job openings. That’s a lot of cash sitting on the table for us to grab.
Here is the bad news: It’s probably not a job in your industry! Shit!
From CNN Money:
The openings are across a range of industries. Manufacturing, trade and transportation each had posted north of 46,000 jobs.
Such a high overall number open positions is both good and bad news. On one hand, it means employers are hiring more. At the worst part of the recession in 2009 there were only 2.3 million job openings.
But on the other hand, it is also a symptom of a growing problem in the U.S. economy, where employers can’t find skilled workers for the jobs that they need. That disparity is called the job skills gap, and it’s a major challenge in right now.
Americans are also feeling hella confident about voluntarily quitting their jobs — which is a good sign for the economy, apparently:
Overall, Americans are generally feeling more confident about quitting their jobs. One key measure of workers’ optimism in the job market is the quits rate — how many people are quitting their jobs voluntarily.
…
“The increase in the quits rate is a sign that workers are feeling more confident about the job market and are likely receiving more jobs offers,” Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen noted in a speech on Monday..
There you have it, folks. The job market is back on track. People are quitting left and right. Job postings are weighing down community center bulletin boards. Indeed, Monster and JobScore are seeing record posting submissions. It’s apparently a good time to be out there looking.
When I was a kid, I always thought it would be cool as hell to be a truck driver. Now, as an out-of-work college graduate with a liberal arts degree, maybe it’s time to seriously reconsider the dream of flying down the interstate in an 18-wheeler. Sleeping and watching movies in the truck cab. Going to new places every day, even if that place is just a new truck stop. It doesn’t sound all that bad. I already survive off fast food anyway. My body doesn’t know how to digest vegetables.
I bet this isn’t reassuring if you, like me, still can’t lock down a decent fucking job, but at least we know they are out there. Lurking in the shadows. Keep fighting the good fight. It’s only a matter of time before someone hires us..
[via CNN Money]
Image via Shutterstock
Respond
I feel confident I could quit my job and eat out of dumpsters and live under bridges while I wait out the impending financial collapse. I’ll have a leg up on everyone else and my alcoholism will reach new heights to the point where it becomes my greatest attribute.
Dude, we’re all pretty surprised you don’t already eat out of dumpsters and live under bridges.
I am too actually. I know everyone hates work but I like really hate working. I’m in Silicon Valley right now and see how everyone works so much here and I’m over here looking for park benches to chill on and maybe find some pizza to snack on in the sunshine.
So what you’re saying is there a bunch of college graduates with a worthless degree who can’t find corporate jobs yet are also unqualified to work as a skilled laborer since they wasted four years of time and money? Sounds about right.
Oh, you mean that trade schools and actual skills have value too, and maybe we should think of that before paying for every dumb MOFO in the country to go to community college!?
Or maybe just educate high school students that joint vocational programs aren’t just for burnouts and poor kids, and that skilled trades have some worth in society and aren’t considered a copout in lieu of a “real education”.
As a former high school teacher you are 100% correct. Beginning in the 90’s school districts across the country began associating college placement with overall success instead of what they should be doing, which is preparing students for life after high school, regardless of what that is. Oh, Johnny is really good in shop class? Let’s not stoke that fire and allow him to succeed in a trade, let’s instead tell him he’s stupid but then still force him to take Chemistry II senior year.
Who’d have that telling an entire generation they’re all special snowflakes from the moment they’re born would create a sense of entitlement and aversion to actual hard work and the gratification that comes with earning something?
I wish I realized how much plumbers and unions made when I was growing up. Instead there’s stereotypes perpetuated of some fat doofus with his crack showing working on pipes when they (and many other skilled trades) are carving out a good chunk of change.
I am in the trucking industry so on a serious note, truck drivers are in serious demand. If they have a clean record and *gasp* experience they are getting hired and have a ton of salary negotiation room. However, when the economy drops they’re some of the first to go.
Having driven an truck during high school I can safely say that being a full time truck driver would be terrible.
College* idk why I said high school
You already lost all credibility. I wouldn’t dig yourself deeper