How to prove no demand for job skillsI live in California, and have been receiving unemployment benefits since December 2006. In January, I attended a workshop at the One Stop Career Center where I was informed about extended training benefits, and spoke briefly to a counselor regarding this. After five months of finding absolutely no job openings in my regular line of work, I considered returning to school for retraining. I tried very hard to get an answer from EDD as to whether I would be able to receive extended training benefits while I was in school, but the answer (if I got one) pointed back to "check off on your claim form if you returned to school and you'll have a phone interview". So, I started a training course with a 'approved training facility' as listed on the EDD website, and had a phone interview a few weeks later (on May 10) Today, I was informed that I was not eligible for extended training beneifts because "there is a demand for your job skills in your area of expertise in the marketplace". This is very frustrating, because, as I stated, I have not been aware of even one job opening inspite of checking job boards, websites (including, of course, Monster.com) newspapers, etc. I have networked with everyone I can think of to "keep me posted" of any openings. If there is a demand for my job skills, I'd sure like to know who is demanding it. I will appeal this decision, but does anyone have advice? Is there anything I can do to prove my position? Thanks in advance for your help. Start with asking them to show them to you. Then for the next few weeks, until your appeal run daily searches on any and all job boards and print the findings.
LValDean, thank you so much. I have posted this question on a half-dozen other boards and have not received one answer. You not only took the time to reply, you came up with a great idea!! So simple, yet brilliant :) Thank you again. You should also be able to print out all the postings (or lack thereof) on Monster, Career Builder etc, going back at least a month or more right now. What field are you in and where (generally) are you located? Are you looking at industry websites as well?
Tess You are welcome. There was just another good suggestion as well. I didn't know that you could pull up past postings, unless they were still open. That is another great way to prove the point.
tmsmalley and LValDean, thank you again. I have discovered I can go back a year on my local paper's employment ads...guess what, only one job posting in that one year's time...doesn't exactly seem like a "demand" to me (and this is in a very large metropolitan area with a population over one million) To answer your question, tmsmalleys, my line of work is called "radio traffic manager" or sometimes "radio traffic coordinator". It's not even listed on the US Dept of Labor job classifications. Very briefly, I schedule commercials that the sales staff has sold and make sure the right spot is running at the right time. It's not a line of work most people are aware of unless they are in the industry or have a friend or relative who is. I've been doing the same type of work for 30 years, so I don't exactly have any other type of background. I have 20 industry bookmarks I check daily, as well as other more generic job boards (Monster, Craigslist, etc) so I don't think anything has escaped my attention. I also still keep in touch with many people from the industry, so I would hear word-of-mouth information as well. I am filing my appeal this week, so please wish me luck, and thank you again! I definitely wish you luck. I'm also in a niche field. It can take a few years for the right spot to come along in the right location for me. Is there anything related you can do in the interim? Can you do a similar job in television or some other medium for example? Is there some other complex scheduling process you could slide into? I've done stuff off the beaten path of my field a few times for the same reason. Get a couple people that know what you do together and see if you can brainstorm up anything. Think really carefully about what skills you have and then how those could be used elsewhere.
Good luck! Tess | |
|
Career Tips
|