According to an article from the Georgia Department of Labor the reason why I am still unemployed is because I am at fault. The article goes on to say that there are “1,000,000 new job openings occur each month, many job hunters find themselves unable to reconnect quickly.” After reading the article, it became perfectly clear to me, that although I did not ask to be unemployed in the first place, I must be lacking in several areas due to my failure to secure employment. The article goes on to mention that there is a “hidden job market” out there, with desperate employers looking for someone like me.

I guess it is easier to write “Sunshine and Bull-loney” articles if you are employed and you are not faced with the devastating consequences of being unemployed. If your are not able to quickly find a new job, here are the reasons why:

* At least 40% turn off prospective employers by presenting themselves poorly in appearance and manners.
* Approximately 42% are qualified but have difficulty tapping the “hidden job market.”
* More than 80% cannot identify or describe their skills and abilities.
* Approximately 85% of the long term unemployed do not spend enough time looking for a job.
* Approximately 90% cannot answer difficult questions during interviews.

Although I do believe there is a certain validity to the claims mentioned above, I am skeptical of the statistics. Statistical research data is one of the hokiest form of data in the world. Stats can always be skewed to serve a purpose or point. I am not saying that the numbers are totally wrong. They should be taken with a grain of salt.

You rarely see articles written about being unemployed from the unemployed person perspective. You never hear about how some companies have horrible HR departments, either because they are using outdated methodology or the HR person doing the interviewing lacks basic knowledge about the position. Another pitfall is dealing with recruiters, and their idiosyncrasies. Based on my personal experience, I have found about 95% of the recruiters I have dealt with to be useless and a total waste of time. They are mostly just interested in padding the recruiting database for the sales guy out there trying get companies to pay for their service. Since the reason why I am unemployed is my fault, I think I will grab a shovel and my boots and start hunting for this “hidden job market.”