The department of labor posts statistics on unemployment each month. My state posts it on their opening web page in addition to the national unemployment rate. It is not a secret.
I have on 2 occasions in these past 4 years applied for unemployment and recieved it both times. The most current being now, since aug 2012. It should have been 3 times but the first time around, I knew NOTHING about unemployment and being a "NURSE" I didn't think I was ever eligible for those benefits becase as we all know(tongue in cheek) "Nurses can always get a job". I had $20,000 saved so when I found myself with out a job, I and my 2 kids lived off of that for 8 months when I FINALLY got another position and a per deim one at that, no full time jobs avail even though I had recent TELEMETRY experience for the past 8 years but not a BSN!!! I now have no savings left.I found several temporary nursing position in "other" areas than bedside. All this time, never knowing what was happening to the economic, employment and nursing world. I was after the end of a temporary assignment that I decided to file for unemployment and after being so angry, I stated to read up on the job market expecially in nursing.
Unemployment has, I think, changed it's name or repackaged itself to the "Workforce Developement" Under the workforce developement name , unemployment hold seminars the first is an intro to unemployment on how to collect bene's and what they will help you with and information on how to pick up added skills and what is available as they know it. The seminars they hold regularly each seminar is held 2 times per month and their is a schedule of the seminars and they are free."Interviewing skills, resume writing, job hunting skills, and what is called"Tuition waiver" for unemployment to pay for a job retraining program provided it is in a "in demand" field. This time around knowing how tough the job market is in nursing and hearing the Unemployment department head state nursing is an indemad field and there are plenty of jobs in nursing and was encouraging all these unemployed people to go into nursing, I had to interrupt and tell the truth I am a RN and I am unemployed! because there are no hospitals hiring( the only kind of nursing I knew at that point) and I don't have a BSN. Unemployment was handing out waveirs for people to have their tuition paid for nursing assitants and LPN school!!
After reading some more and many months later in the nursing mags, the nursing gurus on nursing empoyment finally admitted that many jobs posted are either filled( mostly by internal candidates, and they already have some one in mind for those positions),and/or they are old postings never taken down(why??) and reading about every nursing lay off I come across, not to mention articles on CEO compensation in these affected hospitals and having been on many,many countless interviews having some of the ridiculous, moronic things asked of me for hiring managers(aka RN,BSN or RN,MSN) My personal favorite is"Why so many temporary jobs?" Are these hiring managers for real?? Do they live in a vaccum?? With my current experience with unemployment- i started to spill the beans on the nursing industry- to the investigator who talks to you to determine elilgiblty for benefits and the Unemployment department head giving these seminars. I told this dept head my circumstance- RN=32yrs hospital experience, all hospital based, no BSN, 4 years of temp postion because of it, can't afford to go back to school because unemployment pays very little. His response was on of shock and being honest was- "I had no idea" and "It sounds like your screwed" ! he directed me to a college and to wite a letter to the financial aid dept explaining my circumstance- I recieved need based grants and have been able to pursue that bloody BSN.
Why should unemployment care about a CEO compensation?- 1 emplyee with a miltimillion dollar payday and a 8.0% unemployment rate!! an unemployment is sending more people at the unemployment department/Dept of labor's expense into an industry( healthcare) where there are very few jobs!! And the general public is screaming about the cost of healthcare, and many 45% of this nation is without healthcare benefits and these hospitals(CEO) are screaming about the cost od charity care???? and how the hospital is loosing money so they have to lay off more nurses who are to--------be unemployed!!!
Unemployment compensation aka unemplyment bene's paid out to individuals who are unemployed - Unemployemnt is an "insurance" premium that the Employ-ER pays to the state each month for each employ-EE. The employER's premium went up in the last 2 years- in my state it is now $15,000 the employer pays for each employee it lays off or terminates. Termination eligibity for unemployment is not up to the EMPLOYER it is up to the unemployemnt department!! poor work performance is not up to the employer- it is up to the unemployment depart- that's why you get a call from an unemployemnt investigator and as the women told me- these employERs will say anything doesn't make it so.!! and is not their call. Unemployment investigators want to know why these employER are adding to the unemployment statistics!!
