$13 An Hour Job Gets 500 Applications

nytimes.com:

C.R. England, a nationwide trucking company, needed an administrative assistant for its bustling driver training school here. Responsibilities included data entry, assembling paperwork and making copies.

It was a bona-fide opening at a decent wage, making it the rarest of commodities here in northwest Indiana, where steel industry layoffs have helped drive unemployment to about 10 percent.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[loki]

by the way, having once dealt with CR England in business , I just thought it would be worth noting they are owned by the Mormon Church of Salt Lake City. The founder gave controlling interest to the Mormon Church many years ago, but made sure his family would still have jobs and income from the business.

[sandiegoconservative]

LOL! Do you actually believe that? The family that owns the trucking company is LDS, but you honestly believe the church owns the company? What a fool!

[loki]

it shocks me that the wage is 13 and hour. Thats pretty high in the trainwreck inspired by Reaganomics.
I know of businesses that have thousands of applicants for positions with lower wages than this. Its Reaganomics dream come true. The USA is close to being a third world country with third world wages and unemployment. And third world health care if gutting of the public option and insurance monopoly exemption continue to happen.

[texastrixie]

By this time next year, there will be 500 people applying for every MINIMUM WAGE job, which has been the intent all along of the Chamber of Commerce, the US business community, and the Republican party.

I am happy for the young woman who got the job, but the trucking company may have missed an opportunity. A year from now, all those "over-qualified" people will still be out of work, and the trucking company might have gained an employee who could be successfully exploited for years to come (although that does not seem to be their philosophy since they had just promoted another administrative assistant).

Next year will be even worse, and I am not yet prepared to retract my estimate that recognized unemployment will not meet 12% before this is over. I would like to think I was wrong, wrong, wrong, but they just announced sizeable layoffs at UT-Austin in an effort to pay research professors higher salaries while cutting the rest of the staff.

[Antiks]

There was a $10/ hour software engineering job and the employer wanted someone with a four-year degree. I let him have it in an email.

[Soulsurfer]

This is where they want us; Cheap, educated, eternally in debt, and disposable. Corporate America finally has it's way, ain't it great?

[Winston120]

Obama does not seem to realize how important the unemployment problem is; he rarely speaks about it and when he does all you hear is "it took years to get us here......­......"

It's game over, we're broke. He some powder left when he came in and he wasted it.

Stimulus????? Re-investment????? Joke!!!!!!!!

[dps2]

oh he gets it alright; it's just that he doesn't care because that is all part of the plan. this is nothing more than wealth re-distribution, again, and again, it ain't favoring us. Obama is just the latest puppet who's strings are pulled by the oligarchs. they have destroyed our industrial base, and now they are after the middle class. you are witnessing the destruction of America, and the virtual enslavement of its people. we are being turned into surfs to serve our masters and enhance their wealth while fighting over what little crumbs they choose to throw us. Capitalism as it is practiced here in the States, is entering it's final stage. the only out is when they finally push the populkation too far, and revolting and eradication become the only solution.

I for one, believe it is coming.

[torello]

A law firm in NYC hires licnesed attorneys for $15 /hr, no benefits.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

I have made only slightly less than that working as a pizza delivery driver in Ohio where $14 hr. goes a lot further than NTC.

[trinity]

This does not surprise me...sever­al years ago I temped in the HR department of a steel mill down the road from Burns Harbor. There was 200 openings for 12.00/hr laborer jobs. We got over 5,000 applications, at least half came from college graduates. It had been over a decade since the steel mills hired any blue collar union positions so the 200 openings were a big deal. Many of the local mills leaned toward foreigners with H-IB visas to fill the engineering and research positions (they are cheaper).

[marijam]

$13 per hour is getting to be the norm. Wages are falling.

[mcmutter]

Raygun and the GOP have been destroying decent paying union jobs for 30 years now. Great outcome to all their nonsense.

[loki]

Ronnies train wreck policy is coming to age. It was Ronnie who implemented the plan to drive the economy into a train wreck and try to end all social programs for citizens, while increasing social programs for the corporations and the wealthy. Looks like everyone in DC , Dem and Rep are in on it today.

[nexxtep54]

Maybe 499 of the applicants are making $10 / hr at their current jobs.

[winningticket]

The want ads are full of jobs. (Sarcasm intended).

[Topsailsman]

Oh, but that's because businesses are overtaxed, say the conservatives. Let's take the average company with revenues of $1 million, you know, the small business that create all the jobs.

Let's assume they do really well and they net 15% before taxes. A whopping $150,000. Now let's say you cut their Federal tax rate as a subchapter S from an average of 30% to 20% (which is being generous, they can work it down much lower than 30%). That's a one third cut. That means they would save $15,000 per year in taxes. Do you know how many $10 per hour full time jobs that creates? None. But, on the other hand, if you had TWO of these, and they were right next door to each other, you could just barely create one job with healthcare and vacation.

[jackiero]

Ummm, this is not exactly news. I always get excessive inquires from my non-professional job postings for a receptionist or an admin, even in very good times. An admin doesn't necessarily have to have a college degree and wants the 9 to 5 hours. I always have a much harder time filling the professional positions that require more education and more specialized skills.

[Topsailsman]

Oh, ok then, I guess everything is swell.

[jackiero]

Sigh. Of course not. If the NYT had instead focused on a professional jobs that require specialized skills, and the number of resumes per job, that would paint a much bleaker picture. While I feel for those at the bottom, we tend to overlook those who spent years training for a job and honing skills, only to find that their training is now obsolete and their jobs may never return.

[Topsailsman]

Now we can see why the Republicans are blocking the extension of unemployment benefits.

Any one can get a job.

[Topsailsman]

This is why the conservatives say:

Any one can get a job.

One person. A job.

[MilwaukeeDan]

In about 30 years or so, we've gone from " the land of opportunity" to this. What a shame, but then there isn't much shame in this country.

[katieandtom]

economy first, healthcare second - are you listening obama??????

[JoeBlough]

Presidents handle foreign policy.
Congress handles the economy.
You are barking up the wrong tree.