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Worlds Without End Blog

Working Class Dog Posted at 11:31 PM by Paul Thies

Savalas

Working Class DogThese last two years have been particularly tough on the American worker.

A turbulent economy. Industries roiling on the brink of collapse. Layoffs and pay cuts. Government takeovers and bailouts. An increase in disaster epics at your local cinema. And more zombie films.

A big downer all around.

Basically if you’ve remained employed during this time, you were one of the lucky ones. (A fact not lost on the evil overlords at the C-level of your company.)

A few highlights from the Bureau of Labor Statistics / June 4, 2010:

 

BrazilIn May, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was about unchanged at 6.8 million. These individuals made up 46.0 percent of unemployed persons, about the same as in April.

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in May, up by 291,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.

Look familiar?However, media and industry pundits are starting to point to signs that the job market is beginning to turn.

Really? Hmm.  Your friends at Worlds Without End figured we’d put this budding optimism to the test. It wouldn’t be socially responsible of us if we just took this information on face value. After all, if science fiction films of the last thirty years have taught us anything, it’s that you can’t trust the government or big business.

1984(Interesting to note is the evolution of villainy in science fiction films from rogue government agencies in the 1970s to corporate entities in the 1980s and beyond. Some try to blame Reagan for the Gordon Gekkozation of sci fi’s malevolent wonders. For my money, the blame goes to the hippies. After all, wasn’t it in the 1980s when they finally discovered gainful employment? And showers? The shift of collective hippie anger from government to business is hardly surprising, when seen in this light.)

To that end, we devised a special socio-economic project for our WWEnd intern, Barry. Young, foolhardy and naively trusting of his WWEnd supervisors, Barry is up for just about any assignment, which makes him the perfect intern.

(“Intern,” as anyone who has ever interned will tell you, is a code word for “slave labor.”)

Barry’s assignment? To secure a position – any position – at a real company, using a resume peppered with fictitious evil corporations from science fiction films of the last 30 years.

We wish to learn if: 1) companies really are starting to ramp up their new hire positions, as pundits claim; and 2) just how savvy their hiring executives are.

We’re sending Barry out with a variety of resumes and a borrowed suit. He’ll pound the pavement over the course of the summer and report back to WWEnd. We’ll tabulate his progress and then share the results with you in a future installment.

Happy hunting.

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