So I've noticed something about temp agencies. I've noticed that no matter what is going on it's a "prime time for temporary work." Now, I realize that it's in their invested interest to get as many people into their database as they can and so they'll always hype themselves to get the highest response rate. But it's funny.
For example, when it was the holidays, they said a lot of folks wanted temp work because there was a hiring freeze until the new year. When it was the new year, there was a lot of temp work because it was the beginning of the year and there was a lot of work. Now it's because of the so called recession and a lot of places don' t want to hire permanent, just task by task.
Now, the whole recession thing is a joke. There's a whole lot of stuff hiring right now. In Chicago there are a lot of companies that cut corners to save more money for themselves. I can't count how many times I've talked to a potential employer who has a perfectly good explanation for why they won't give benefits. Sometimes it's a one year "temporary" position, sometimes it's 39.5 hours a week and sometimes they just don't give you benefits. They pay maybe a little above standard (which still comes out to less a year than benefits would be, and I get taxed on them.) I don't think companies in Chicago really need an excuse. Labor laws are pretty damned relaxed here, and generally if a company can find an excuse they can. This is especially true in what is politely  referred to as "junior white collar workers" (aww, look honey isn't that cute, it's a junior white collar worker!) the moderately skilled, lower on the totem pole corporate jobs. Heh, what I do, basically. But I suspect this is because companies have to pay rather high salaries  to the high skilled technical positions in order to compete and get the best employees. Naturally, they cut corners with the less skilled positions because if someone won't accept it, someone else will. And since there is no pressure to have certain fair labor standards (even if there were the laws, this city is so backlogged from everything that they would never get discovered most of the time.)
Now let's discuss this recession thing. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. It's also the cheap employer's dream. Recession is a convenient way to cut back on hiring, build up the workload and generally cut corners.
The funny thing about a recession is nobody knows what it means. When the word recession is uttered, even when actions are taken to balance out any dip in the economy, everyone panics. People spend less, worry about their jobs and financial security more and HR departments tighten the belt. This, of course, means less money is being put back into the economy and voila! It's a recession.
Making matters worse is that we have a republican president. Now don't get me wrong, I don't consider that a bad thing per se and have high hopes of less taxes and less knee jerk political correctness. But for a lot of people, republican=recession and no amount of facts will convince people of otherwise.
So what can you do about this? This faux recession? Well the best advice I can give you is this: Tap your heels together and chant "there is no recession" over and over again and buy yourself that new toy you've been so desperately craving. After all, if someone with *my* credit can get a Visa card, the economy can't be *that* bad.

february           pontifications