Employers Still Want Passives
Despite the fact that the number of long-term jobless in America is at its highest point—a third of all unemployed—since World War II, employers are still reluctant to hire unemployed people, especially long-term unemployed.
In other words, unemployed people “have something wrong with them”—especially if they’ve been out of work for more than half a year.
This Wall Street Journal article focuses mainly on skilled workers at GM, electricians, and so on, who are finding it tough to get a new job because their skills don’t fit what the world is looking for. But that may ring true for any ink-in-the-blood reporter who doesn’t get the new ways of doing things. Which wouldn’t be surprising, as sometimes it feels like newspaper execs are just throwing ideas at the wall and seeing which ones make money.
And for folks who are out of work despite a kickass skill set:
Scott Thompson has an on-the-ground view of their prospects. He is president of Lexicon Staffing, a technology recruiting firm in Portland, Ore. Employers he deals with don’t ever explicitly say they are less interested in people who have been out of work for an extended period, “but their actions tell me exactly that,” Mr. Thompson says. “We will send two or three candidates for a job. More often than not, the guy who has recent experience up to last month is the guy that gets the interview.”
What can you do? Unfortunately, there’s no magic bullet. But if you can keep active in your field through volunteering, freelancing, blogging, taking classes, anything, we’d guess you boost your chances of kicking ass in your next job interview. As much fun as it might be to train for a marathon or spend time with the kids, you can’t put that on your resume.
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