The Faces Behind the Numbers: New Jersey's Un- and Underemployed Speak Out in New Report

Good post. (0.00 / 0)

I'd like to point out one more thing that usually goes unnoticed in unemployment discussions: recently-graduated job seekers and people reentering the work force who do not get unemployment because they have not paid into it, but who nevertheless remain unemployed.

These individuals (myself included) remain one step below the previously-employed on the totem pole.

My own position is that, due to a graduate degree (J.D.), I am automatically disqualified by employers for jobs that do not require my degree. But yet I cannot find a job in my field, either.

Since I have been in school for the last 3 years (or more accurately, 7 of the last 9 years), my work experience is limited to internships and various summer manual labor jobs, although I am not sure that work experience even matters  much in the current economy.

The law schools (and, I am sure, many colleges) distort unemployment information by blowing up the employment figures, while not mentioning that a majority of the students who have "jobs" are either working in part-time or temporary legal jobs, or are working outside of the legal field entirely.

I know that, in the legal field, there are many others who share my experience, although the law schools, courts and legal profession do their best to ignore or obfuscate the systemic unemployment problem. Actors in the legal establishment (law schools included) are too busy scurrying for higher ground, to make sure that when the shit really hits the fan, they will have what they need to ride out the storm.

The problem is compounded by the fact that people who are not lawyers think that all lawyers are employed and making 100,000 a year.

There have been various state and federal stimulus proposals (which should be passed, without a doubt), but my problem is that these stimulus programs focus on construction and infrastructure upgrades, but ignore unemployed people outside of those fields.

I may be a bit unrealistic here, but wouldn't it be great if a stimulus was passed that funded public interest projects like defending people in foreclosure, assisting people with bankruptcy filings, representing tenants in landlord/tenant disputes, or just providing a right to counsel in civil cases above a certain dollar amount?

I know that since Christie vetoed money for public interest legal organizations in his budget, this amounts to wishful thinking. But a man can dream , can't he?

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by: mgm8822 @ Wed Dec 07, 2011 at 21:57:32 PM UTC

Wow (0.00 / 0)

mgm8822 writes:

"I may be a bit unrealistic here, but wouldn't it be great if a stimulus was passed that funded public interest projects like defending people in foreclosure, assisting people with bankruptcy filings, representing tenants in landlord/tenant disputes, or just providing a right to counsel in civil cases above a certain dollar amount?"

I can tell you, I don't think we live in that kind of New Jersey. But it's a very creative idea.

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.  

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by: Rosi Efthim @ Wed Dec 07, 2011 at 23:27:53 PM UTC

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I agree (0.00 / 0)

At the time of the first stimulus and once again when the American Jobs Act was presented, I have been wondering what is being done to create jobs for the millions of professionals with degrees who became unemployed and are still unemployed.

The Teach for America program should have been expanded exponentially so that any unemployed person with a bachelors degree in any field who was willing to make a three-year commitment to teaching would be trained, granted provisional certification, and placed in an existing school or makeshift schools would be created where teachers could be placed.

Imagine the degree to which classrooms sizes could have been reduced if the states were given enough money (and actually spent the money where it was supposed to go) to prevent all of the layoffs that we have seen occur throughout the country and on top of that, millions of new teachers were brought into the profession.

In my opinion, this kind of stimulus spending is just as important if not more important than the infrastructure spending that we have seen, but because the Building and Construction Trades are today's "aristocracy of labor" to quote Jack London, they will always be the first pigs at the trough.

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by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Thu Dec 08, 2011 at 06:20:06 AM UTC

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Interesting Idea (0.00 / 0)

Didn't see these comments on the post until just now, sorry for the delay and thanks for your response.

Your idea for a stimulus for public interest projects is a great one. To echo both you and Rosi, not sure if we could actually get there in present-day NJ, but it is a key point that we at NJPP will try to remember when we talk about how to help solve the jobs crisis in the state.  

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by: njppwhiten @ Wed Dec 21, 2011 at 15:21:29 PM UTC

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