Hundreds camp out for job opportunities (Only one out of ten will actually get one of the jobs)

Imagine camping outside, waiting for an entire weekend in the rain, just for a chance to apply for a job. That's what hundreds of people did this weekend in the Long Island City section of Queens.

"It was worth anything. If they wanted me to wait another three days, I would have stayed three more days," said Brian Tindley.

Tindley, along with scores of others spent the weekend in the rain and cold without sleep, just for a chance to get an application. There were only 750 applications handed out Monday for coveted union positions as an apprentice elevator servicer and repairer. The union services nearly two-thirds of the city's 65,000 elevators.

Twenty-four-year-old Jeremy Fernandez, a father of a 1-year-old boy, was the first one in line.

"I'm here for a career. I'm here to provide a better future for my family," Fernandez said.

The potential applicant line stretched for blocks, and there were a lot of frayed nerves to keep their place on line. Police were called in at one point to deal with an alleged line jumper. One woman had passed out and was taken to the hospital.

"They were shoving and pushing. At one point somebody was throwing glass bottles," said Shirley Pineiro of Floral Park.

It is still a long shot even for those 750 people lucky enough to get an application. The union said it will fill 75-100 jobs. That means maybe as few as one in 10 applicants would get a job.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/jobs.employment.queens.2.1657008.html

For the average person out of school or the job seeker, the American Dream has become "Boy, I hope something becomes of this job application besides becoming paper mache". Maybe it's time for the "small businesses" to stop sitting on their profits in the Cayman Islands and actually start hiring people, or there could be an employer of last resort (Government jobs like in the New Deal). Being one out of 750, passing out from exhaustion, the police being called; when do people say that something needs to change?

We know from our other posters that NONE of these people want to work at a Walmart.

in this economy.

In no way am I attempting to diminish how tough it is to find a decent job...my wife is laid off, my son is in his 4th year after college graduation and still working in a gas station. I get it. However, stories such as this one, and the ones talking about thousands showing up to apply for a dozen Walmart jobs always leave out one very important factor. To keep getting unemployment benefits or in some cases, to maintain your union membership, you've got to apply for these jobs.
Applying and attempting to actually get the job are very different things. HR people are very aware of this fact...when unemployment is high, applications of course rise, but the percentage of serious applicants generally doesn't go up that much. The news never mentions how many of those Walmart applicants put "your mother" under the references section, or make it appear that they done got none of that fancy education after 6th grade.

find jobs. The footage of these people should be shown to Congress next time they don't want to extend unemployment benefits.

How far gone is this country that getting a decent paying job is the opportunity of a lifetime?! :wtf:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/hundreds-camp-out-for-sho_n_551576.html