SocraticGadfly: Feeling left out of the 'jobs miracle'? You're likely not alone, despite bullshit from journos

January 26, 2019

Feeling left out of the 'jobs miracle'?
You're likely not alone, despite bullshit from journos

I may be accused of compiling anecdotes rather than data, but I could easily hurl the same back at someone like Chip Cutter of the WSJ, who writes of a waitress in his lede of successful job switching. And, I wouldn't be alone in doing that.

Several others on LinkedIn did as well. (That's how I came across the piece; Linked In's suggestions of weekly reads. "Coincidentally," after losing a job at another newspaper, Cutter worked for LinkedIn for a couple of years.)

Michael Fabris is definitely right in noting that new hires are rarely given paid training. (Unless it's Center for Progress type canvassing, or "sports minded persons" with display booths at Costco. And, done on hourly rather than salary, those jobs don't pay 30 percent more than waitressing in many cases.)

Geoff Hushaw, in a sub-comment, notes she had connections. The "work-around" link, per the full story, says she's an office manager at a fast food chain's headquarters. He adds that these are very specific job changes.

Robert Choquette notes this is nothing new to the tech industry.

Other than the minority woman overcoming single motherhood and tattoos?

Every other person has at least an undergrad degree if not graduate work. All are in tech; one double-dipping by being in tech in the medical world.

Second, they're job hopping, but not really career hopping. The story does say "job," not "career," in the header, but you have to remember that. You see none of these people becoming teachers, professors or social workers. This is a thin slice of the economy.

Third, on how old his anecdotal people are? Cutter doesn't give age on one. But, all but one of the others are under 30 and that one is under 40.

So, you're being fed more bullshit, if you think: Hey, I'm 46, or 51, or 53. Maybe this TrumpTrain (since one of Cutter's commenters specifically saluted him) "jobs miracle" will come to me, too.

It likely won't.

ProPublica has covered this in non-Chip Cutter detail. Sadly, if you're over 50, a job, or career, jump, is likely to be forced, not voluntary, and not so good.

If it does?

Please don't make yourself part of a cherry-picking logical fallacy newspaper story.

(Oh, I tweeted Cutter a nickel version of point 3 plus penny version of points 1 and 2, and of course — yes, the "of course" needs to be there — have not gotten a response tweet.)

Oh, and definitely don't think you'll be like Jodi Dean, hired without a personal meeting to be a Tulsa school teacher.

And, the same gummint claiming we have 1 million surplus jobs continues to lie about how fast the economy is growing and expected to grow.

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Finally, believing the tech world's "hustle and grind" repackaging in secular terms of the old Protestant work ethic bullshit shows that those who do have jobs are self co-opting into a less than miraculous jobs world. After all, there's nothing miraculous about likely burnout. (At the same time, reading that piece by Anne Helen Peterson, if you make choices that are ill-informed, the older you are when you make such choices, the less leeway you get, both in margin for error and in sympathy level.)

And, why should one hustle and grind for a promotion without a raise, reportedly becoming more and more common?

Maybe people who fluff the company on Glassdoor reviews get raises as well as promotions? I have seen this with small companies as well as the bigger ones detailed here. As part of that? Definitely take Glassdoor reviews with a huge grain of salt near the month of October.

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