I moved from Dallas, Texas to Lawton, Oklahoma (a large military and university town) nineteen years ago.  I had difficulties finding employment.  Blue collar, laborer, service, trade, and government jobs made up most of the labor force in Lawton.  My previous work experience was white collar professional office which was impossible to find.  I got turned down on every job interview I went to.  I decided to do something I had wanted to do all my life and that was obtain a college degree.  I decided to study a field that I was very interested in and was similar to my previous work experience.  After obtaining my Bachelors degree, I found out that it was almost impossible for someone my age to break into the journalism/TV news reporting field so I pursued a higher degree.  I received my Masters degree, but found that the 33 semester hours required to obtain a degree in psychology fell short  27 semester hours needed to obtain a license to practice counseling which made that degree useless in the field of counseling.  Now I am over qualified and over educated for most of the jobs vacanies in the community where I live.  The median age here is very young so are the job seekers I have to compete against.  Many businesses are blatant in their discrimination against older job seekers.  In Lawton, people over the age of 50 are considered senior citizens and are given senior citizen discounts.  The new trend is not to consider employment or education over six years old, so all of my previous professional work experience and education are disregarded and I am treated as though I don't have any experience or education.  Out of necessity, I have applied for everything and anything that is a paying job.  I have been considered for only two jobs since I have been out of college;  they were low paying hourly service jobs.  Trust me, the younger workers resent older workers invading what they consider  "their" domain.  It is difficult, but I am glad to see that I am not the only person experience difficulty in getting a career going.  It makes me feel less of a loser.  I am looking into entrepreneurship, self-employment, free-lancing, trades, and home based businesses as supplemental income.  I have a lot of desire to get a career going, but very little money to invest in what has become a long term search for the almost impossible goal.

I agee with the above, my experience has been going on for about six years now, as my husband a professional, became an apparent strong right-winger, who would not respect me or my two daughters, and would say insulting comments regarding women regularly.  He started smoking, chewing, drinking excessively, and then I picked up on our cable bill that he was watching porno.  When I addressed it, he told me, "I was there to meet his needs, and to raise his children."  Needless to say, we have been in a divorce.  As I tried to get back into the workforce I couldn't as much as get an interview, yet I know I had a strong resume with education and experience, and I had spoken to several professional recruiters.  I then realized that because I mentioned to a legal person at my former employer that I was shocked that she could be an attorney there, the employer is cutting me down.  So my family knows one of the top executives of this Health System, and I called his office asking if he would meet with me. I explained that in my state the father does not have to pay for his childen for a college education, nor for any support after athey are 18 y.o.  Yet me and the children's father, have gone to college and post-graduate school and our parents paid for it.  So I feel educated parents should be able to pay for their children.  So now getting back to meeting with the executive, he told me," I was a disgrace for what I did and he could not do a thing for me, that I was disgusting."  Meanwhile I was raised in a strict Roman Catholic family and got my MBA where I learned business law and businss ethics, so I told him I could not be embarrassed for the way I act as a fair and honest person.  He just looked at me.  I have sense been told by others that is objective is to keep business under men, and only women getting advances are those they have an affair with.  Well, this is exactly what I saw while working.

This health system is now buying up literally every health center in their market and as a non-profit organization, they are donating millions to the public school and assured they will never have to pay taxes while doing so.

I strongly feel that ethic people have to use the UCLU, for this country is going no were but down.  This just like the "Saprano's,"  I truly think all this is purposefully being promoted in this country.

I totally understand everyones concerns!  I am in exactly the same situation - I feel like I could not even get a job at McDonalds right now.  I moved with my husband to another city never to imangine I would run into the road blocks that I have!  I found myself taking the HR Block tax class - not much money in it - but it has helped pass the time for me until HOPEFULLY something comes along!  Email me I am also doing a work from home legimate business in the travel industry.

I live on the gulf coast of Mississippi. I have lots of certifications in business and insurance. I have worked in the business area in healthcare for the past 4 years. Recently the hospital I worked for announced they were closing. I know 4 years is not a long time to some, but I honestly thought I would retire from this job. Here  I am 54 back hitting the pavement trying to find a job. I am already sick of filling out applications. I am even more disgusted calling about my own cell phone account and i end up talking to someone in Pakistan. How ironic that is, he has a us job in Pakistan, maybe i need to go to Pakistan or Jamaica to get a us job ????That just irrates me to no end.  It's outrageous that these countries are taking US jobs, it's more outrageous this is being allowed.  I guess it makes more sense to be unemployed  so these greedy large companies can pay cheap labor and reap the benifits. Lets see....the consumer does not seem to be reaping any benefits from this...so where is the money going, my guess is to the over-paid executives. Greed greed greed. This country is going to become another Mexico, only two classes of people exist very rich and very very poor, so what happened to the middle class,  the people who work their butts off to support their families........ they are no more they now fall into the class of the very very poor. So we are being squeezed out bit by bit. It would be nice to boycott any business who employs outside the US for US jobs, its becoming hard to find companies that are not.  Mississippi is a "at will" state, for those of you who dont know what that is .......an employer can fire you and they dont have to give you a reason why. Oh usually if you go and fill out an application, you are asked to sign and acknowledge your understanding of this. Funny thing is if you dont sign, you wont get the job. Who in their right mind honestly agrees that anyone should be fired from a job without having to be given a reason why. This should have been abolished from the beginning of time. No one should have to sign this and everyone should be given the right to know if they get fired......why ???. Five years ago I had a job at an Insurance company, I felt sick one day never had taken a sick day before, told them i had to leave and they were mad because they have  no one to cover for me. I came very close to dying that day, i had phenomia and didnt know it, I ended up being taken from ambulance and rushed to ICU. My life was spared, but when i recovered i was told i didnt have my job and they didnt give me a reason and didnt have to. I hate to think this is what i may face again. It surprises me that there is a society that protects and prevents cruetly to animals, which i am grateful for because i love animals. But there nothing to prevent this form of horrible mental cruetly to people, because "at will law" was designed for the business owner. Fortunately there are some companies who dont treat people this way. But for the companies who are not considerate and dont value and respect their employees they have this unfair law to fall back on.

In Oklahoma, the employers can fire you for any reason.  I don't know if it is called the "at will law," but it is very unfair.  In the 80's, during Bush Sr. Administration, I went up to Washington D.C. in an attempt to get some of the labor laws changed.  I felt, if the employee had to give a two week notice when terminating his/her employment with the employer, the employer should have to provide the employee with a two week notice of termination before firing or laying-off the said employee.  I met a lot of nice politicians and aides during my visit, but didn't get anything accomplished.  What I should have done was collected several thousand signatures and confronted them with that.  In the case of changing labor laws, I am afraid one person doesn't make a difference.  Employers have a lot of leverage and influence and lobbyist in Washington, what else can I say.  I would have walked right up to the White House and knocked on Bush Sr's door, but it is well guarded and I wouldn't have gotten very far, however I did knock on a lot of senators and house of representative doors, both democratic's and republicans, and met a lot of influential and politically powerful people.  I brushed shoulders with Al Gore and met the senator from West Virginia.  As far as businesses are concerned, it is very unfair to American workers that a lot of jobs are being outsource, but the companies are not doing anything illegal thanks to Ronald Reagan.  I have 15 semester hours towards an MBA and have to say if I had a business and the profits were out there, I would go international too.  I am looking into starting a business, both national and international, because I want to be profitable.  The problem with where I am living is that Lawton has a very young median age and a very young, large workforce with an abundance of young job seekers.  I really haven't met too many people in my age group due to going to college and focusing on my career, and I haven't taken the time to join any professional groups in order to network due to financial restraints.  In essence, I am not very marketable due to the lack of professional associations.  In Lawton it is "who" you know more than "what" you know.  I know I didn't address all your concerns, but there is a web site, U.S. Dept of Labor, you can visit to find out what states are paying out in minimum wages.  If they are paying low minimum wages, they are probably paying low wages in everything, in case you are considering moving to another state. 

I am in Central CAlifornia; Laid off in June, and unable to find work in the small town I live in; I am an Escrow Officer with 20+ yrs in the business, and loads of experience, yet at 45, I am competing with girls half my age...does experience count for nothing? It is very disheartening....another poster said Denver is booming...wish I could say the same for Tulare County.