1000 people show up to apply for jobs where only 300 are needed.

[glowing]

Does anyone wonder why Americans are pissed off about this bail out. The CEO's and Republicans should have to take a tour of America and see what their businesses and policies have done to America... We knew this would happen. All you have to do is go back to the last Depression to see that these Republican ideals DO NOT WORK... Oh by the way, this is in Florida, Heck of job Charlie.

[ThomWV]

1. I would think that would be about normal, isn't it? 3 applicants for each job?

[dana_b]

2. oh no... what type of jobs?

it's so GD maddening - they knew this was coming months and months ago but did nothing. I guess people here were right and they were hoping it would fall on the next president's watch.

I hope these people can find something soon.

[glowing]

5. It was a new shopping center opening up... Pretty sad actually.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

3. very low paying jobs

no doubt

[glowing]

6. yep.. new shopping center.

[stillcool]

4. that doesn't seem like a lot to me..

300 jobs is a lot of jobs. How many people are normally interviewed for one job opening?

[glowing]

9. If it was a well paying job, then yes, I would agree that competition should be higher.

These are jobs for stores at a shopping center. They don't pay well, but many who were in line were at their last hope.. They "have no choice" but to stand in line becaus this is their last hope... They've been everywhere... Since housing plummeted, Florida is on average about 7 to 8% unemployment... and the jobs that are replaced are just service jobs. At my job, people call all day long inquiring about employment.. literally begging for a job. We are NOT hiring and the place may close.. Hopefully, superbowl will save the day.

[stillcool]

21. I think that I am fortunate..

in the area that I live in. I'm sure it is happening, but perhaps not at the rate it is happening in other places. I'm sure New York is no picnic these days.

[glowing]

22. Geography is a shame... Where ever Americans live, they should have the

opportunity to live a life that is guaranteed to having life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.. Many people have slipped below the line a long time ago and many more are slipping..

I also believe we must re-examine what the REAL meaning of life, liberty, and happiness mean. Does it mean everyone has a t.v., car, and a big screen t.v.? Or does it mean we have the basic freedom to be able to give the world our given (some say God-given) talents to the best use... I think in the next few years we must examine what is need, what is excess, what is happiness, what is liberty.. because the current economic model is slavery.

[dana_b]

12. well, a year or two ago retail stores couldn't get enough people to work

and now they are turning them away. I think it is a lot.

[readmoreoften]

7. In NYC a friend of mine applied for one admin assist job. It had 1300 applicants.

He moved.

[Mari333]

8. Not surprising.

yesterday, my oldest son showed up to take a test and apply for a firefighter job in sw michigan. There were 12 openings. 3000 people showed up.

[glowing]

11. wow.

[dana_b]

13. I hope they see he's one of the 12 best and brightest! n/t

[Mari333]

23. he just looked at me and said

'mom, you were right. Michigan sucks for jobs.'

[JDPriestly]

10. I applied for a part-time job teaching in a very small law school.

There were 200 applicants -- that's 200 people with law degrees vying for a low-pay part-time teaching position. It's bad out there.

[glowing]

15. When lawyers charge the amts that they do, what do they expect?

I'm still realing from the last custody battle, and know I have to start somehow digging in and saving for the next battle.. I think we have about a year and 1/2... Its tough, and when you wonder whether or not you can make it thru the month, lawyers and docors are neglected.. Middle class not having money does trickle up.. Its the way it works.

I say all the time, my husband and I are too poor to divorce and I wouldn't have healthcare without him.. we are stuck thru the tough times even if we didn't want to.

[JDPriestly]

25. Lawyers charge what they charge because nobody else really

can do the stuff they do and what's more nobody wants to do the stuff they do.

If you and your husband had been able to work out the custody battle without a lawyer, wouldn't you have done it?

Face it, maybe it was all his fault, but when it's all said and done, your was a mess and you had to get help to straighten out the mess.

Your lawyer may have been a very nice person, but let me assure you, he or she does not sort out your mess and the messes of other clients for fun.

Also, your lawyer probably doesn't clean up the messes of his or her clients without help, and the lawyer has to pay the staff that helps. Competent staff has to be paid well.

If the lawyer does not hire staff, the lawyer has to do all the work.

Some lawyers charge a low fee but charge separately for the time they do clerical work (which is a good portion of what lawyers do). Most lawyers do not charge separately for the time they spend doing clerical work. These lawyers have to charge fees high enough to include payment for the time spent making copies, filing documents in court and in their own client files, etc.

Basically, lawyers cost a lot because they do work no one will do for less. The work is extremely stressful.

I should add that lawyers have to pay huge amounts for professional liability insurance. And many clients judge the quality of the lawyer by the appearance of his or her office. So the posh office is another expense that causes lawyer's fees to go up. Lawyers charge a lot for very good reasons.

[Yellow Horse]

27. Oh please. If lawyers were COMPETENT and did the work correctly for what they charge...

... I MIGHT agree with you, but many lawyers are simply not competent. Many have their biggest expertise in billing clients, not law. And the truth is a lot of lawyers find easy, non-stress niches that allow cookie cutter approaches to simple legal tasks while raking in the dough.

I recently went to a certified "elderlaw" attorney to see about arranging family affairs in case my father who has now become disabled has to go on long term care. As we all know our barbaric "healthcare" system does not provide long term care to disabled and seniors unless you go on public welfare in the form of Medical Assistance which requires spending or losing everything except a home, one car, and about $2000.

This elderlaw attorney charged me $500 for two hours worth of "consultation" -- which is money that I could have spent toward heating oil or home repairs that we desperately need. And he was clueless. Having done much layperson's research before I went to this guy, I ended up spending some of the two hours I was paying him hard-earned dollars for to TELL HIM the applicable regulations and where to find them!!

He took a lot of notes for two hours (including information about my reasearch that perhaps he will use to help his next $500 client) and in the end told me there was nothing he could do for our family that I wasn't already doing. I ended up getting NOTHING new out of the session except the $500 bill.

Oh yeah, the guy did have a fairly posh office. But sitting at a shiny hardwood conference table wasn't worth any $500.

[JDPriestly]

29. Why did you go to a lawyer if you had already done all that research?

It's that research that lawyers do. That's what you pay your lawyer for.

In law school, lawyers learn to the basic concepts of law and how to find and understand the law. After practicing a bit, lawyers know the law they have worked with. After practicing some years, they probably know the law in their area of expertise really well. But, that law can change. Sometimes the law a lawyer thinks that he or she knows really, really well can be changed with just a few words from a court or a few lines from a legislature. The lawyers job is to find out what the applicable current law is, apply it and, if the lawyer is a litigator, persuade the court (judge and/or jury) that the lawyer's interpretation and application of the law is correct.

Because you did so much research, you paid for something you already had. The danger in doing the research without checking in with a lawyer is that since you did not go to law school you may interpret the law incorrectly or without placing it in context.

You would have been taking your chances had you just trusted your research. Assuming what you said is true, you would have been fine had you not gone to the lawyer. But having talked about your research with a lawyer, you could relax and know you were probably doing the right thing. Had you not gone to a lawyer, you might have discovered you were wrong. You paid for peace of mind. Probably not worth $500, but then . . . . maybe it was.

I probably would not have charged you. Lots of lawyers would not have charged you. But, remember, you took the lawyer's time and attention away from something he could have done for someone else for pay . . . so you pay for time lost. Also, you pay to meet with the lawyer in his or her office for that time and the lawyer has to pay staff and office costs including rent, utilities, the copier (a huge expense for lawyers), telephones, etc. just to meet with you. In addition, years down the road, you may find you are glad you saw a lawyer who probably has professional liability insurance.

[Yellow Horse]

30. I didn't do all that much research. This was fairly basic stuff, and the lawyer didn't know it.

It was simple stuff from the Medicare/Medicaid website and state websites on elderly issues that I had to point him to. And this guy was supposed to be an expert with many years of experience. A certified elderlawyer. I left with NO peace of mind, and no answers whatsoever as to what to do. Our family affairs are still not arranged and thus at risk. And it matters not whether or not he has insurance because we did not sign a retainer. This was only an initial consultation and there probably is no true attorney client relationship generated.

As for going to someone else to get the help we need, I don't have another $500 to go spend on getting snookered by some other incompetent.

The $500 had to hand this jerk I needed (and still need) desperately -- and I received nothing in return. Frankly this lawyer took up MY time and attention and the gas and parking that it cost me to drive to his office in addition to my $500. I have expenses too including rent, utilities, copier (I need one in my business too), telephone, and heating oil.

A license to practice Law is not a license to steal. At least it shouldn't be.

Most reasonably educated people can understand basic law. The problem is that legal matters are skewed by your profession to make even the most simple transactions (that should be able to be handled by laypeople for themselves) difficult and complex, creating need for "counsel" to get you through the system.

At the very least those offering themselves as counsel, especially "specialists", should be competent to provide the services they are charging for.

I hope you get a law teaching job and if you do for God's sake teach your new lawyers to work for better.

Anyway, no. It was definitely not worth $500. Never will be.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Same thing happened during the depression

just multiply your numbers, add a couple zeros

[SoCalDem]

16. Here's an odd one.. My son got two job offers, unsolicited ..just today

The one he's interested in starts at $17 and hour and comes with a truck & free gas..40 hrs 6Am-3Pm..no weekends..

But then my son has his won contractor's license, insurance & is bonded..has a squeeky clean DMV report and loads of references from people he's done work for..

The guy who offered him the job needs a supervisor for his crew.. He's overwhelmed with work, and needs someone right away.. It's come at a great time, too because people ave started to cut back on custom tile jobs (our son's side-job favorite) and he's looking forward to some regualr hours.. He'll get full benefits at 90 days and a good review bumps the pay to $20 an hour..

and the best part? the company is 4 blocks from his house:)..

the other offer was sans company-truck, so he's not all that interested.. His own truck is a 1997 Ford Ranger that I paid $1500 for and gave to him...so it's gonna start costing him money soon on repairs..

[onethatcares]

17. your son is one lucky man.

many thumbs up to him and yourself but here in sunny Florida things aren't so rosy. I think there were 4 adds in the St. Pete Times helpwanted trades section today. Things are depressed, but on the bright side, we cut our taxes to the bone and my grandkids will be selling cookies to pay their teachers. Wanna buy some?

[SoCalDem]

18. then company that he's going with does "rehab" work on apartments

and since there are so many apartments in Riverside, they have more work than they can do.. This company has contracts with 16 apartment complexes..and these things are enormous out here..The most recent complex built not far from us, has about 20 buildings..3 story stucco -Mediterranean style.. there must be more than a thousand apartments..and that's only ONE complex.. There are about 6 other..

I told my husband when they started building all these a few years ago.. "the housing market's gonna crash".. Why else would they be building all these apartments:scared:

[onethatcares]

19. are they made out of that waferboard stuff and 2x4 framing?

Cause he's gonna have a ton of work to do if they are. There has probably been a bunch of missed flashings, non pressuretreated sill plates, and leaking windows.

With stucco on top the termites here would have a field day.

[SoCalDem]

20. Actually out here they build a lot with metal studs & tilt-up concrete walls

with rebar...earthquake country, y'know:)

[MANative]

24. My business is consulting to the staffing industry, and I've

worked in HR functions for over 25 years. It's always been pretty common to have 10 or more applicants for any one advertised position. I've seen some jobs (one opening) where there are up to 300 applicants. I certainly agree that the job market is pretty tight right now and getting tighter, but 3.5 to 1 is actually pretty light turnout.

[samuraiguppy]

26. actually that is pretty good.

my father got a good job in the early 1950's (one he stayed with for decades). There were over 2000 applicants -- and 3 were hired. just a sales position--but with a good fortune 500 company (stable, good pension plan, health benefits etc).

The unemployment sitch is bad (speaking as someone who is unemployed) but in this case 3 applicants per position is actually very good. I would love to have odds like that in my job hunt.

[demodonkey]

28. Bet not all 1000 people are out of work. Some are looking to quit a job they already have & switch.

In the Great Depression, most of the applicants really were out of work. And there were very few jobs advertised. No shopping centers opening then.

[marlakay]

31. Home Depot in our area has only hired 1 person in the

past year and they said thousands applied for that 1 job. My husband went in for part time job and thought large place surely they will need someone part time and he was shocked by what they said.

the city this store is in has about 80,000 people.

and lots of construction around here so you would think home depot would be doing fine.

[Yellow Horse]

32. Home Depot & Lowe's in my area have kiosks set up for applications w/signs directing people to them

Doubt they would do that if they were only hiring 1 person per year here.

[Quantess]

34. Not sure about Lowe's , but I know Home Depot has very high turnover.

They are hiring in my neighborhood, too.

[SmileyRose]

33. That is a very low turnout.

back in the 90's when the economy was going gangbusters, unemployment was so low tha it was difficult to find anyone needing a job, the Ford plant here in Atlanta hired about 200 off the street and had over 7000 people line up for the chance.

Recently we hired a new muscleman for our warehouse the job was advertised at $12 an hour and we got over 2000 applications/resumes.