Everywhere I look on the Internet, I see quite a few people, recent college graduates, advlts with no degrees, and people who graduated college a long time ago saying how hard it is to get a job nowadays and carve out a decent life for yourself.

I didn't grow up rich per se, but my dad got enough money to provide me and my brother plenty of luxuries. He grew up in a family quite far below the international poverty line, so I always thought that if he could do it then I could as well. But I realize more and more every day that he's quite a bit smarter than me and a will that would easily shame most people, including me.

My brother's easily getting jobs as well, but again, he's incredible at mathematics and has an amazing grasp with computers. I'm not that good at anything by any means.

So basically what I'm trying to say, is it really that hard now?

The "middle class" is disappearing & it's been happening for a long time. So-called blue-collar type jobs that provided an income/living between the highly degreed/white collar type class and the low-paying minimum wage type class aren't exactly the backbone of the US anymore.

That said, it does still depend somewhat on where you live. Want to live in NYC, Washington DC, San Francisco/Los Angeles etc etc? Expect to be hurting for money and find it difficult to buy property/save for retirement w/out at least a six figure household income. Other places...housing can be much cheaper so that even with the lower average salary for similar work, one may be 'better off' financially.

And of course, it depends on what job/career you're looking for. That's always true. Ups and downs in all job markets...altho right now of course it's especially difficult for some because of the overall economic situation. Your mileage may vary.

No it's not, don't worry.

This indeed. It only took me one weekend to get a job myself and one that allows me to work only on weekends so I can pay for my college education at that. So if it's possible to find such specific jobs I wouldn't put it beyond anyone to find a job, you just have to have the right attitude.

I have a friend who has been searching for a job for half a year now too, he however hardly tries and can have a hard time controlling his temper (lost one job because he complained about having to wait over an hour for a job interview after he had come to it on time, that is he was told to be there at a certain time and while he was ready they were not) and then there is my brother who tried to find a job too but with a better attitude and got one within a week.

Granted it may differ between countries how easy it is to get a job but here it's just moderately hard and it seems to be getting better.

Really depends on where you are.

For reference, my post was re: the US.
It's not hard to find A job, even now, but whether it'll be a job you want with the pay you want...that's another matter and varies wildly from place to place, person to person, skillset to skillset. The US has a ton of little micro-economies, so to speak.

I do know that hiring in certain tech areas has slowed way down where I live, with companies still occasionally laying off, and we're in the so called Silicon Valley. But in other tech-job categories it may have increased/people are hiring.

Where I am, at least, you can certainly find ways to live on $12-$15 an hour but it will not get you far long term.

Edit: I should add that it also depends on what "decent living" means to the individual. Some people don't care about owning property, for example. There's plenty of folks around here who pack themselves into a shared rented house, have parties on the weekend, and seem quite happy.

I'm American, to clarify. I'm not particularly interesting in moving to other countries for the time being, but any opinion is welcome here.

My job is barely hanging on a thread. My job was a profitable business for over 25 years. Since 2008 my boss has invested all his capital and personal savings just to keep the doors open and to make sure good honest working folks like myself still have a job. It's a struggle to say the least. I've seen once long thriving businesses drop like flies in my city in just the past 3 - 4 years. My industry is retail, second hand, and restorations, Antiques/Furniture Sales and Complete Restorations.

It may vary regionally. Orlando is obviously a mostly tourist based economy so it hurts when out of town folks can no longer afford to take family vacations here and such anymore.

I live in Michigan. I can't think of anywhere that got hit harder than us.

That being said, I have a BS in psychology (ALL THE LULZ I KNOW)

Anyway I don't have a collegiate job, but I also haven't looked particularly hard for one. I'm just starting out. I am 23. I live with my 2 best friends. My girlfriend lives in the same city and we spend a lot of time together.

My job is market research. I sit in a nice air conditioned/heated firm. Chill at my cubicle for a few hours. Talk to people from all over the world about a variety of topics. It's not necessarily high-paying or prestigious, but I enjoy it decently and it's not stressful or something that takes a toll on my body.

If your willing to work hard enough, you can find a job anywhere. It just might not be your PERFECT job. Humble yourself a little bit, and be patient. It's all good and you will be fine.

Alot of people say it's easy to get a job and condemn anybody who is unemployed. I was unemployed for a few months not long ago and I was branded lazy, bone idle and unambitions. All false, all I can really say to people who think like that is don't call me lazy until you try to find a job in an economy heavily affected by a recession. It really enrages me that when some one asked me if I had a job yet and I replie "no" they would give me that knowing look, that look that said "Lazy".

Presuming you're from the U.S., that country started catering more to a global market with countries, like China, that pay their workers in U.S. cents on the dollar, offshoring industrial labour, textiles, then customer service, IT jobs, if you notice where I'm going with this, it was a significant amount of mid middle class jobs and lower middle class jobs. While such a % of unemployed stayed nearly the same, that's because the jobs that covered for those were in retail and fast food. What you wound up with is increasing amounts of U.S. citizens needing to work 2 jobs to make ends meet since the jobs that were once there are gone, you have quite a number of people with degrees now vying for fewer of the upper tier white collar/professional jobs. You also wound up with a dollar that has less value, due to inflation, because the Fed likes to excessively throw currency out into society (in the U.S. and all over the world), on taxpayer dime, which consequently makes the price of goods go higher, which hurts the lower and middle class again.

So that's the issue that heavily impacts a rather large swath of U.S. citizens, but don't take away from the fact that someone who works hard and knows how to use the skills they have, even better, has a rather large list of friends in high places, can easily get one of those upper tier jobs. For some they're exposed to that environment when young and can more easily fit into it, for others it requires far more effort.

I found my 2 jobs rather easy to get, though the first one was really just a name in a hat draw. I've had two jobs since this time last year and I've been in my current on since Feburary

Depends on the location. The US as a whole, yes, it is hard as people say.

It is a myth that someone needs to hire you in order for you to have a job.

Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs. Do you know what these men all had in common? They were cogs until they left and started working for themselves. Once they did that, they became powerful innovators who changed the face of the entire world.

You can get your name on that list, all you need is a dream and the will to attain it. You do not need an employer, you just need initiative.

That's rather. . .unrealistic. For every Jobs and Carnegie, there are 1000s of failed upstarts. The odds of you being that successful are the same as your odds of playing in the NFL or competing in the World Cup. Work for yourself? Sure. Just know there's a lot of risk, and even if you're sucessful, you probably won't make that much more than you would working for someone else.

How hard is it to get a job? Depends where you live. Depends what your field is. Depends what your expectations for the job are.

I'm a lawyer and I barely got a job out of law school - and it's only part time. Most firms are relying on interns / clinical students who work for free to do 'entry level' jobs and most of the 'old timers' aren't retiring while the economy's down - so it was very hard to get that first job. Many of my classmates are still temping.

My girlfriend is in sales, and she's been able to switch between jobs pretty easily. Same with my friend who's an engineer. So what your field is goes pretty far in determining how easy finding a job will be. That and where you live.

Depends on your luck.


The truth.
EDIT: Jobs in the US is a thing of the past.
EDIT 2: If you want a job career in the US join the military.

I would personally fall into the category of hard to find a job. It really has to deal with where you are, modes of transportation, and what you can actually do right now. I've really gotten screwed since I didn't work during college and now that i'm out I don't have any "documented" work experience. The US right now has pulled a major U-Turn where all through school the 80's and 90's kids were told a degree = job period. Well that's not the case as now employer's want a mythical thing called documented work experience which = a job for you.

Basically from what i'm seeing employer's want something for nothing where they are cutting corners to cut costs. This means cutting job training wanting people to already be trained having a minimum of 1 year of experience even if it's just working a cash register. A person that goes in to apply for a job that has no work experience yet has a Bachelor's degree is pretty hosed. They'll be overlooked for a person that has 5+ years in customer service checking people out, answering phones, etc... that are entry level positions. It really does svck and makes people like myself worry if we have no place in this world since we can't get a job to be trained.

Even looking through the classifieds for jobs I would say 99% of them want 2 years minimum for entry level positions. There were only 5 out of 50 something jobs that said "No Training Required" yet would stipulate certain conditions saying "Medical Background Required" or some other weird requirement like that.

However if you have that mythical "Documented" work experience and a degree you'll be able to find a job if you keep at it.

It's common throughout history that when production is decentralized in a country, well, they don't last long. I'm skeptical if this true in our modern age; I suppose we'll see.

Yes it is. Time for a heist. I call "Mr. Black".

We don't have that problem here. Not yet. Feel sorry for you decent, worker-middle class americans.

Depends on a couple of things:

Where you are.

Your work experience.

Your education level. Break that down into what your degree is.

I know alot of people that went to College and University and they were about half way through when the world economy went to hell. They finished with degrees that mean crap all in the real world. So its been many years and they are still working minimum wage jobs because they can't find work, that they went to school for. Now if they were willing to realise their education was a waste of time and money and tired to apply for something in a different field, they might have a shot. That all goes back to work experience.

So as long as you have work experience and education that is useful in the real world, finding work shouldn't be that hard. Wild card is where you are because some places are hit worse then others.

The middle class was created to justify the exploitation of the lower class. So try not to use "middle class" as a standard.

True that. I am a working-class/lower-class citizen, but come from a typical middle-class home.

This is something of a catch 22. You normally won't get hired for a job that's completely out of your expertise, unless, by a stroke of luck, you know a lot about the field, worked in it before, or have personal connections to someone in it.

Thus, if you got the "wrong" degree you have to dump more money and time into going back to school for a new degree with no guarantee of a job when you graduate and twice the student debt.

As PredatorX mentioned, many employers only hire people with prior work experience at that job, so even if you got a second degree in the field, you aren't qualified to work in it.