M.J. Pearle: Many issues for unemployed

Regarding the Aug. 14 Dome item “Job contacts for unemployment insurance would increase under bill”: Extremists controlling North Carolina have no clue how to land a job today. No one wants to be unemployed.

Gone are the days of walking into a company’s office to complete a job application. The unemployed are wasting their time making two or five or even more contacts with employers weekly.

Jobs today are found by networking. Some work can be done online via LinkedIn, etc. But the best way to find a job is to join a job support group, hire a job coach or work with an outplacement company to find someone to advocate for you inside companies.

I have found the state unemployment folks hopelessly out of date. Making a lot of computers available to the unemployed isn’t helpful if the unemployed are not working directly with experienced job specialists. No one at the state told me about free job support groups, several offered by members of our strong faith community.

But no matter how hard they work, the unemployed also have to deal with rampant age discrimination in the workplace. That’s the elephant in the room no one is mentioning.

This story was originally published August 21, 2015 at 12:19 PM with the headline "M.J. Pearle: Many issues for unemployed."