In the News

Over these last two months, we have been working hard to process a wealth of feedback from our viewers. Early on, it became clear that our Job Board Directory (JBD) needed some work.

The majority of jobs posted on the internet come from Monster and Careerbuilder. Millions of listings, in fact. But beyond these, there are hundreds of trade groups and niche job boards that post high quality opportunities. Then there are services like Indeed and SimplyHired that aggregate job listings from many different job boards without actually listing any unique or proprietary jobs. It’s a little bit of a mess.

Our Job Board Directory does not post jobs. The JBD is a portal to all of these hundreds of job boards where you can figure out which ones are the best for your unique job search. In the JBD, you can peruse hundreds of job boards based upon the industries that they specialize in or the ways that other job seekers have rated them.

It is designed to be the first stop in your job search, but not the last.

As of Monday, the JBD has an entirely new look and structure. We even added a few job boards to the database. Over the coming weeks, we will be adding even more. Check it out and let us know what you think. And if you have used any job boads in your search, use the JBD as a way to rate and comment on their usefulness.

Living in Manhattan, I spend about 20% of my salary on rent every year. When I spent five months unemployed, the rent didn’t fall. Pulling together such a large sum every month was a constant scramble of unemployment checks and odd-jobs.

But the tides are changing.

If you live in California, a sand state, or Motor City, then you’ve already seen real estate prices fall as much as 50%. But in some areas — especially greater NYC– real estate has been stickier. According to Tyler Cowen, the median price in Westwood buys you 100 median-priced houses in Detroit. For the NY home owner, that’s been good news. But for us renters it’s been brutal.

According to a number of industry experts, however, many of the more resilient areas are poised for a correction. This is by no means good economic news. But for embroiled job seekers it will take some pressure off of the wallet. Conservative estimates put NYC housing 15% lower in a year. Pessimistic ones ratchet the decline up to 45% over two years.

Anecdotally, it feels like this has already started to take hold. Our landlord lowered our rent 8% without a whole lot of prodding. In the neighborhood, comparable properties are renting for as much as 15% less than we pay already. For high-rise buildings and newly-rentable condos, it’s not uncommon to see the first 1-2 months of rent free with a one year contract.

I’m rooting for the housing market to stabilize. But in the mean time, why not take advantage of falling prices?

Recessions are like wildfires– they are destructive in the short run, but ultimately necessary to clear away the dead wood and rubbish. Companies get bloated and inefficient in boomtimes, then purge when the economy corrects itself.

In an ideal world, the first guy to get canned would be the least valuable. The all-knowing boss would rank all of his employees in terms of salary-weighted output, then estimate his budget shortfall and can the appropriate number, starting from the bottom of the list and working his way up. In reality, politics and superficial evaluations determine layoffs.

Fox doesn’t like it. In a forthcoming “reality” TV show, Someone’s Gotta Go, employees at struggling small businesses vote on who gets canned. Camera crews document the whole affair, including candid interviews and lots of (presumably) over-dramatic build-up.

Needless to say, Someone’s Gotta Go is already stirring controversy.

Regardless of the perversion of the idea — a network benefiting from the misery of others — this thing is going to be a hit. People who have recently been fired will watch it out of schadenfreude. People holding on to their jobs will watch it like a train wreck.

I, for one, am counting the days until fatal consequences work their way into reality TV. Our voyeurism have come a long way since The Real World. It’s only a matter of time until the reality TV version of The Most Dangerous Game, where men hunt other men for sport.

Until that day, I guess we’ll all have to watch people get fired on Fox. It’s far from escapist, close to home, and maybe just perverse enough to be entertaining.

There were only 59 shark attacks last year, down from 73 in good ‘ole 2007. Live Science speculates that the fall is linked to fewer beach-goers in these tight times. Either that, or unemployed people are just less appetizing than nine-to-fivers.

If I were a shark I would go for overfed, undersexed, inactive desk-jockeys. The veal-like quality of the office worker is far superior to the learning-to-cook, finding-time-to-work out, making-time-for-love jobless person. Not to mention, layoff beards are a known deterrent to sharks.

In all seriousness, vacation properties are gearing up to get killed this beach season. And they will. This is far from the lighter side if you’re looking for work in the hospitality industry, but a silver lining for the rest of us. Fuel costs are way down and hotel occupancy rates haven’t been this low since people stopped flying after 9/11. Not only are hotels courting travelers with recession specials, but you can probably squeeze them for more. People often don’t realize this, but hotel rates are negotiable. Your average booking agent has the discretion to knock as much as 20 percent of your rate without even contacting a manager.

Not to mention, your joblessness gives you the superpower of flexibility. Why blow a weekend in a beach town when you can relax, apart from the crowds, Monday through Friday? Travel Zoo regularly updates a Top 20 List featuring last-minute vacation deals. Or have the Priceline Negotiator, William Shatner, put your flexibility (and frugality) to your advantage. And there are always the perennially-inexpensive options: hostels, campsites, family and friends.

The point is, the price of a vacation can get damn near close to free these days. Try taking a break from the job-search grind to enjoy yourself. Consider it economic stimulus for the shark community.

The job markets aren’t the only place this downturn has heated up competition. Yesterday in New York’s East Village, a group of unemployed workers gathered for the first annual Unemployment Olympics. They smashed fax machines like Michael Bolton in Office Space. They tossed phones like javelins, ran around, and played pin-the-tail-on-the-boss.

The purpose? Sure as Ponce De Leon searched for that elusive fountain of youth, these laid-off New Yorkers searched for the lighter side of unemployment. Whether or not they found it, no shortage of local businesses lined up for sponsorships.

Promotional campaigns tied to the recession are all over the place. This isn’t surprising: the unemployed population in the United States is a fairly representative slice. These are people across the nation, from all industries and backgrounds, of all ages and genders. If this isn’t evidence that the stigma attached to joblessness has disappeared, I don’t know what is.

Across the country, businesses are offering recession specials. If you bring your pink slip to The Delancey on the Lower East Side (NY), they’ll give you a free tequila shot. Jos. A. Bank will allow you to return your suit if you get fired after buying it.  Hyundai will even let you return a car. Gray’s Papaya has been peddling recession specials since the boom times (although ironically, they just raised the price).

And if the specials aren’t explicitly stated, don’t be surprised if retailers are still willing to knock a few bucks off the purchase price of just about anything. I called ATT to inquire about a suspiciously high cell phone bill last week and they knocked $150 off and credited me 500 rollover minutes without missing a step (or being asked). Just like many are nervous about losing jobs and paychecks, businesses are worried about losing customers. If we can all avoid losing our minds, there might be a win-win here.

You may not have a job, or a dependable income, but smile: you’re officially a target demographic. Have some fun with it.  Judging by the press coverage, the Unemployment Olympians certainly did.

If you’re involved in policy, then the unemployment rate is a key indicator of economic health. If you’re forecasting economic trends, then the same is true. But for the average job-seeker, this rate is little more than a distraction.

People are getting canned at increasing rates. If you’re reading this blog, then you already know that. We’re also in a recession, by the way, in case you’ve been living in a cave for the last six months. That’s about all the context you need in order to understand the level of competition in the job markets and to set realistic expectations.

Economic indicators, and especially the unemployment rate, are poor representations of individual opportunity. The stock of unemployed people is rising, and this is concerning to policymakers. But this is a $14+ trillion economy, and the labor markets don’t simply freeze in a recession. Businesses open and close, industries expand and contract, jobs get created and destroyed, positions get filled and vacated; the economy, and by proxy the job market, is always in motion. This motion ensures a flow of opportunities for individuals in all times. It just takes more time, more effort, more tact, and more luck to make it happen when that stock of opportunities wanes.

In addition, few people know how to interpret the unemployment rate.

First, less is not always better. Excess labor cools an expanding economy and prevents inflation, helping the economy to grow at a healthy clip. Economists disagree about where the break point is, but the “target” or “natural” rate of unemployment is probably somewhere north of 5 percent.

Second, the unemployment rate is a trailing indicator. This means that unemployment will continue to rise for a quarter or so after the broader economy has already turned around.

Lastly, the figure only counts people who are actively looking for work. Discouraged or retired workers do not count. As people give up, reignite a job search, or return from retirement, the unemployment rate will change. It’s important to realize that layoffs are not the only determinant.

Now that you know how to interpret the unemployment rate, you can feel educated when you ignore the latest release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics this Friday. If you’re looking for a distraction, watch Chris and me on Fox Business News during the lunch hour.

When the housing bubble burst, it took the economy down with it. Housing prices plummeted, investors got hosed, banks went under and jobs got cut. But you already know this.

It may surprise you to hear that the mortgage industry is adding headcount again. Mortgage rates are the lowest they’ve been since the 70s, which is starting to spur activity. According to a recent Bloomberg article, however, the industry is ill-equipped to process the $3.1 trillion in mortgages that are due to course through the system.

Banks and brokers shed so many jobs last fall that they are understaffed. Bloomberg claims Bank of America just added 5,000 to the ranks. Nobody else seems to back up the story, but it makes sense. Community lenders didn’t fire so many people, so they are less likely to be adding people. National banks and thrifts, on the other hand, are running lean.

If you can get past the irony and the bitter taste in your mouth, retail lending might be a a decent industry to find a job.

I once got an email from a Kenyan prince (never mind that Kenya doesn’t have a prince) claiming that he found me through an internet search for “honest and trustworthy people”.  He wanted to pay me to use my bank account to transfer money into the US.  Offers for unemployment grants are scams, just like letters from African royalty.

The federal government does not give out grants to people who are out of work.

Aside from research and educational programs, the Federal government doesn’t typically give grants to individuals at all.  So-called “stimulus grants” are available for governments and organizations, not for downsized workers.

Capitalizing on misunderstanding about the stimulus bill, seedy Web sites are popping up all advertising “stimulus grants” or “government assistance grants.”  Some of them even managed to get “.org” status (I don’t know how). The FTC warns that these scammers have distributed computer viruses, fraudulently drained bank accounts, and stolen private information.

If you are an organization that actually qualifies for a grant, go directly to Grants.gov to make sure it’s real.  If you already got scammed, call (877) FTC-HELP.

With the passage of the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), the unemployment insurance (UI) system will get a much-needed injection of funds from the Federal government. The bill provides funds to increase weekly payments, elongate the extended benefits period, and modernize the way that each state administers its unemployment benefits system.

A refresher on the basics of UI

UI is a joint program between the Federal and state governments.  The Federal government sets loose guidelines for eligibility, and then each individual state narrows them down and administers the program. The program is almost entirely funded by a payroll tax on employers, but in times of high unemployment (like this one) the Federal government will extend emergency funding.

More money each week

Each state will receive funding to increase weekly benefits by $25 each week for everybody getting unemployment benefits. You don’t need to do anything: this subsidy will automatically be tacked onto your payments unless your state elects not to participate.

Extended benefits

Typically, you can receive benefits for 26 weeks. Last December, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 tacked on an additional twenty weeks due to economic duress. As part of this stimulus bill, the extension becomes 33 weeks. Extended benefits payments are 80 percent of the average weekly amount that you were receiving before you exhausted your regular benefits.

Not everyone will have the full 33 weeks available to them, since it is ultimately decided at the state level. States with unemployment over 6 percent are eligible for funding. In some states, you may need to participate in training programs to qualify. Check out your state page here for more information.

Unemployment modernization

The stimulus bill creates a $7 billion pool that creates incentives for states to make changes to their unemployment administration. In order to qualify, states have noteworthy incentives:  they need to extend unemployment eligibility to those who voluntarily quit to escape domestic violence or care for an ailing relative.

For more information on unemployment benefits

Check out the Unemployment Benefits section of TheCanned.com for in-depth information on Federal guidelines and your state’s program!

We got a few questions following our post “COBRA Subsidy in Stimulus Package“. Here is the in-depth explanation of how this works. We will start with a crash course on the COBRA program and then describe how the subsidy will change things.

COBRA is designed to help people maintain their group health insurance following involuntary job loss (pretty much everything except gross misconduct). If you used to get group health insurance through your employer, and that firm had at least 20 employees, then you are eligible for COBRA. In many states, eligibility extends down to firms as small as two employees.

Employers are able to negotiate discounted rates because they can bargain on behalf of large numbers. If an individual looked to purchase a comparable plan, it would cost far more. Many employees don’t realize this because their employer pays all or most of their health insurance premiums. When they get canned, however, they find out the hard way how pricey insurance can be. With COBRA, you traditionally had to pick up 100 percent of the tab to maintain your health insurance. Although this rate is significantly cheaper than the rate you would pay on your own, it can still be hundreds of dollars each month.

The subsidy, as provided in the stimulus package, will pay for 65 percent of the cost of COBRA coverage each month for up to nine months. This amounts to thousands of dollars per person. For example:

When I got canned, I received a letter from my former employer explaining my COBRA option. It would have cost me about $575 per month for COBRA, but the alternative was even worse: an individual plan would have run me about $750 per month. To enroll, I would have needed to make my initial payment of $575 directly to my former employer. With the stimulus package, I would only need to pay $201.25 each month (35 percent of $575) because the government would pick up the rest. Over nine months, this would amount to a savings of over three thousand dollars!

Anybody who got canned after September 1st, 2008, is eligible for this subsidy.

Instructions:

When you lose your job, your employer is legally required to tell you about how to enroll in COBRA if you are eligible (see above). You will make payments each month directly to your former health insurance plan administrator (usually you human resources department). If you already opted out of COBRA, you are still eligible. Contact your the HR department of your former employer for instructions on how to enroll.