I don't think it has very much to do with laziness but of course you can't deny that there is a small element of it. The upcoming changes in the benefit system will force many of the lazy into work.

Over the next year the public sector will lose half of a million jobs. That's more people being dumped on the unemployment market.

Yes, the economy is growing again but when you consider where it is coming from it is wrong to assume an instant positive change to the job market.

Also employers are by no means certain of the financial turmoil that surrounds us espeicially in the Euro zone.

Whatever you choose to believe there is one underlining FACT:

There are currently far more unemployed than there are available jobs, no matter how the government try to sex up the figures.

Anyone here looking for a job keep you head up, keep trying and don't loose hope.

Take what Squillian said into account, a pretty CV wouldn't work in my office as we are told to always focus on the content but good content and a pretty CV can't be bad.

You must have a job through the whole recession to be making this kind of comment. You guys wont understand.

Years ago I remember reading about a study that indicated that long term unemployment (1 year or longer) actually had a significant negative impact on a person's work ethic ...

With that said, I don't think the high unemployment has much to do with people being lazy (yet), and has far more to do with the government crowding out private industry, bailing out corrupt and inefficient large companies at the expense of individuals and small businesses, heavy weight and ineffective regulation that crushes innovation, globalization leading to offshoring of jobs, illegal immigration allowing employeers to hire someone locally at a fraction what a citizen would cost, and countless other factors that the government seems completely unwilling to address ...

Very true, and the people who bellyache the loudest about outsourcing (unions, for instance) seem totally cool with insourcing.

That's the issue... most places found out that they could actually do more with less workers.  It's not even an outsourcing thing at the moment... it's a "Out of the 10 people we fired, we probably only need 2 back even if we reach the level we did before the recession" thing.

People like to think employers are always making sure they "optimize" everything, but they actually rarely do unless their is a crisis.

Me, I woked at the Census, then a Halloween Store.  Scary thing is too, I don't qualify for unemployment cause i'm not a resident of the state i'm living in currently.

Well, it's not actually scary obviously as I'm on the internet.  I'm good with my money and all that. (internet aside.)

Also, I wanna say this article is out of date.  They approved tax cuts for all and extending unemployment for 13 months.

Life in the western world isn't going to be as good as it used to from now on. Less and less labour is needed and companies are outsourcing labour to cheaper countries. The standard of living in those cheap labour countries like China and India is going to rise while the standard of living in the affluent west is going downhill. Our generation is way more educated than our parents' generation yet we are going to be earning less than them. Home ownership rates are going to decrease significantly and the middle-class will shrink. It's not the end of the world but the standard of living is going to revert back to how things were like in the early 1900s. You can't make a living off minimum wage jobs (unless you call living in poverty and debt a living. Minimum wage is supposed to be for high school and college kids who live with their parents and want the disposable income to have a social life and buy material things. It's not suitable for raising a family or overqualified college graduates) and people are struggling to get even that (mainly because lots of applicants are overqualified for these positions and employers tend to be distrustful of overqualified candidates. Thinking that they will jump ship to a better paying job at the earliest opportunity. Which makes sense.)

The economy will eventually get better to some extent though (it just won't be what it used to be at the height of the middle class and home ownership). As more and more westerners go unemployed or underemployed, they aren't going to be buying so much shit. People won't be spending so much money while going out with their friends, will lay off the big screen TVs, the clothes, the fancy shoes, the video games, the iPhones and iPods, the Blackberry's, etc. and then the companies selling all this shit will be fucking themselves over. When they realize that you need to give the affluent west jobs so that they can keep this orgy of capitalism going (because you damn well know that the cheap labourers in China aren't going to be buying all this shit!), then they'll start hiring westerners again.

Capitalism is a two way street. In an economy that is heavily dependent on people buying shit they don't need, you need to give these people decent paying jobs in order to have the freakin money to spend in the first place. For these companies to focus so much on labour saving methods and technology and outsourcing is short-sighted.

Well, on the laziness front, I did write that to get it out of the way.  I hope no one says this, but best to ask to see if anyone would.  And yes, I will agree that long-term unemployment does take a toll on motivation.  I know this from experience.  Motivation, a key to combating slouthfulness (mix of depression and lack of effort), is something a person can only have so much of, and there is a need to pace oneself.  One gets to enthusiastic too often, and then hits the wall, they will end up depressed.  Squashed enthusiasm leads to depression.

On the CV/resume front, yes polish is nice, but content is better.  I do say find volunteer work that you can list on the CV/resume and then list it with a job title.  It will at least cover up an employment gap.  Do try to find meaningful work in the area, even if you have to create a non-profit to do so, to give yourself work.  It at least covers up the employment gap.  If asked, state the work was done pro-bono.  I found doing this enabled me to cover up a MONSTER gap I have on my resume, and was able to get a few interviews.

Anyhow, I am up to working with anyone who is interetsed here, for this employment issue.  If we have systemic issues, then doing things alone won't make it.  Yes, I am still working also on the Christian vocation support project, but am open to helping anyone.  Please drop me a note if you want to do things.  This would be a project work.  We have systemic issues here, and doing a pile of tactics won't cut it.  I also have this group up on Facebook, Degreed and Unemployed, if people want to use that as a base to do things.  The URL is here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=125157977519656

It's very difficult to summon enthusiasm to actively search for work when you apply for a dozen or so jobs and get one reply saying "thank you for your application but we can't consider you on this occasion" blah blah blah.

It's just ... why bother? But I do, and it's so difficult, and I rarely get anywhere. I just came out of a fixed 6 month contract working with the government and I'm finding it hard to get a job in factory work let alone admin.. it sucks.

I can believe it.  Either you're looking for a minimum wage service type job and just aren't looking or you aren't putting the effort into finding a career type job.  There's also the possibility that you're looking for a job you're just not suited for but let's ignore those people and assume people know what they can do.

For the minimum wage service type jobs, all it takes is looking.  You may not want to work at McDonald's but if that's all there is, then that's what you get.  Places like fast food, Wal-Mart (in the store and stocking/warehouse), and other jobs people generally consider shit jobs are always available.  If you can't find one of those, you just aren't looking hard enough.

For jobs that require some sort of training and could be a career type job, those take work and time to find.  Looking for 3-4 months for a job may sound insane but it's normal.  When you're looking for one of these jobs and it doesn't feel like a full time job just looking, you're doing ti wrong.  You have to be constantly searching, revising your resume/cover letter, sending out your resume/cover letter, (hopefully) interviewing, and following up.  You really should be spending all day every weekday on this.  If you're just waking up when the sun is warm and staying up until 4AM playing games, you are going to fail.  And if all else fails, see the above paragraph.