Unemployment Pays Better Than Working!

A recent article on careerbuilder.com has some interesting numbers:

17% of unemployed workers have received at least one job offer since they have become unemployed.
Of those who received a job offer, 92% rejected it.
Of those who rejected a job offer, around 50% said that the pay was 25% below what they were making at their previous job.

(The numbers are from research conducted by Personified, careerbuilder.com’s consulting division.)

The numbers raise more questions than answers:

Are the unemployed thinking that a recovery, along with better salaries, is coming soon?
How long should a reasonable person wait before taking a job with a 25% pay cut? 15%?
How much should a person say about the salary they are looking for when applying for a job?

Of course, it’s hard to answer such questions because:

1. Every unemployed person has a different set of personal circumstances,

2. Unemployment compensation rules vary from state to state (anywhere from 46 weeks to 79 weeks)

3. With over 14 million unemployed workers, it’s hard to gather reliable data.

But for staffing professionals, the above numbers suggest three things:

Beef up your search tools. The pool of people looking for work is as large as it’s been in a generation. Find ways to reach them and screen them. Facebook and LinkedIn have free internal search tools, and LinkedIn Corporate Recruiting Solutions has several tools that (for a fee) can help manage their 80 million member database.
Be willing to pay a bit more for the potential employee who is really qualified. If they’re recently unemployed, they may be willing to forego the job in hopes that a better offer will come along before unemployment benefits run out.
Investing in staffing software as a complete Human Capital Management solution will help you excel in everything from applicant tracking and resume management to invoice customization and web timecards.

Recent employment statistics suggest that the unemployment rate may have peaked. So here’s another idea: get ready. At some point – hopefully soon – the employment tide is
going to run the other way, and staffing professionals will have to have all the tools necessary to catch the high-quality employees they will need.

Comment by Yonica S.Pimentel on November 15, 2010 at 3:41pm: Great post. It's great idea for the hiring authority or recruiter to know the past salary history of the candidate also, with the understanding that the candidate more than likely will expect a little less compensation then their prior place of employment.

Companies should have a set salary scale to operate from so they can indicate to their candidates the opportunity for an increase in the future.

Remember not to prey on the long term unemployed and offer them scraps; they are still human beings with the ability to contribute to your company.

Comment by C. B. Stalling!! on November 16, 2010 at 8:16am: I went 3 months ago to speek to a local collage on how Sr should handle the job search. There was someone there from Virginia employment as well to sppek on what they had to offer.

We both spoke and then questions and answer time.

The first question was how long can you stay on unemployment. It went down hill from there. These kids did not want a job they want a free lunch.

I learned you can stay on unenployment for a long long time in VA. something like 90 weeks. Crazy