I know why unemployment is so high.
 

Because these people are not employable.
I have been trying to find a cashier for the last two weeks. A simple job of running a cash register and being nice to customers.

I have been through around 100 applications and have only found 4-5 that even make the cut to get called in for an interview.

Some interesting things on applications though:
Under customer service skills:
"im about good at that"
Under previous employment:
Employer Name:
didn't have one
Address:
Don't know
Phone number:
phone book

And best of all, when filling out an application it is a good idea to put a phone number on it to be contacted at.

Really it should be this hard to find a qualified person to run a cash register. It isn't exactly skilled labor.

It's the continuing dumbing down process of the USA and you are seeing the results of it, firsthand.

:upeyes: Awful. I wonder if any of them were just putting in applications so that they can stay qualified for unemployment benefits.

And you aren't kidding about the ease of the job. When I was working fast food in high school...


That says it right there. I was still in high school, as were many co-workers, so that means a high-school dropout could do it.

Whether they know no better or it is intentional, it is sad and telling.

I agree totally with MarinePride on the dumbing down process. I also think the process got a little out of hand and the populous was dumbed down a little too much. My evidence for this theory is the re-election of BHO.

I do carpet installation and the first question I ask prospective help is "Can you read a tape measure?" I've never been told "No" and I've rarely called out a width and length and had it handed to me cut correctly. The worst part is that when they screw it up, it's never long, it's always short.

You had 4 or 5 applicants who wanted a job. All of the rest were earning the unemployment benefits.

But they can vote, so somebody thinks they are worth thousands of dollars per year.

:deadhorse:

Hope you don't want them to pass a drug screen too.

Some times I give more than the amount due so I can get an even amount back. The last couple years all I get is a glazed face looking back at me.
When I was in high school, I worked at a gas station (they weren't called convenience yet) and we rarely put the amount tendered in the register. All change was counted back from our head. Try that now and see what happens.

I know exactly how you feel. You think it's hard trying to find a cashier. Try sorting through applications for a carpet cleaning technition with a good driving record, clear drug screen, no criminal record and trustworthy enough to send to customers homes alone and be responsible for $100,000 worth of equipment.

I love doing this . Have you had them get a manager to help them figure it out yet? Even after yo tell them several times what they owe you.

Me too; AND in Indiana at that time sales tax was calculated after the sale; so if a guy wants $10, you have to figure what the tax is on $10...BUT wait that puts the purchase price under a couple steps of the sales tax so you have to add back in a few cents to make everything come out.

I'm with you on the even change, but even then all they have to do is enter the amount tendered, what I like to do is give then say a $10 on a $6.50 purchase, let then ring it up then say "Oh I have the .50 and watch the fear jump up in their eyes :rofl::rofl: Great fun if you have the time to kill.

To be fair, nowadays everything goes into the register for transaction tracking, inventory management, etc...

I'd want employees capable of basic math, but I'd also want them using the POS system.

When I have a little time to burn, I'll do that too.

Cashier: "That'll be $4.37."
Me: "Here's $5.12."
Cashier:{deer in headlight panic}(tries to get rid of me with a dollar bill instead of correct change)
:rofl:

"I do carpet installation and the first question I ask prospective help is "Can you read a tape measure?""

(The following is not intended to blame the student. The school did it.)

Back in the '80s, I had a high school graduate referred to me for job placement assistance. He'd been trained for two years at the tech center to do siding work, etc.

He could read a tape measure, but nobody would keep him on a job. He measured everything in sixteenths. "That's 53 inches and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven sixteenths."

He couldn't reduce fractions and couldn't run a saw either.

But the school said he was prepared. (I was a state employee fwiw.)

John

No doubt. The store I used to work at (and may be again in a few weeks) has had an ~80% employee turnover in the last 5 months, and the acting SM had a hell of a time finding people.

Yeah, been there too. I had a carpet cleaning business. I had to send people into medical facilities with million dollar machines to clean carpet. I feel your pain.

Well what do you expect when you greedy capitalists won't pay a minimum of $50M/year for customer service work to someone who answers, when asked to pick up a scrap of paper on the floor, "That's not my job"?

A friend of mine was trying to hire a delivery driver. Had a guy apply with multiple DUI's and a suspended license. :rofl:

He ended up hiring a retiree that just wanted to get out of the house. I know a few positions that have been filled by seniors because the youth prospects sucked.

Approx 100 yards from the LGS I shoot in every week is a bakery. I sometimes stop there after shooting to pick up some cookies. A couple weeks ago, there appears a new young lady behind the counter. I tell her two oatmeal cookies and she replies, they are three for a dollar. I respond, I see the sign but there is only my wife and I; we don't feed people food to our dog, so I only need two. She then proceeds to look all about to find the calculator to give me my price.

What is the remuneration?

Geeze just buy the extra cookie for god's sake!

Maybe she was just very religious and you made her nervous?

I'd put money on you being right. A few years back, my sister-in-law was out of work after having her son. Her husband was doing a year in the regional jail at the time. Between my wife and my mother-in-law, all the leg work of finding out where to go and what to do to draw unemployment was done for her. All she had to do was sign a paper and fill out a certain number of applications a month(I forget how many but it was low), and she would be paid almost as much as she made working as a nursing home butt wiper. She was too lazy to fill out applications, so she never got a dime. The sad part is, she actually finished high school.

I can count the change, read a tape measure, calculate fractions and pass the drug test. If I tried hard enough, I could even be polite to customers. But you probably cannot pay me more than I make now (and I don't make much).