LANSING, Mich. — Nationally, the number of people filing for unemployment rose slightly last week to 870,000. The labor department says 12.6 million people are continuing to get unemployment. Alicia Nieves shows us the help some have received to get back to work and what advice experts have for those on the job hunt.
The unemployment rate in the U.S. is going down, but it is still almost triple what it was pre-pandemic. Bridget Altenburt is the President of the National Able Network that shared “I just never anticipated this is where we would be in September.” For 40 years it’s been helping people find work, but in the past 6 months it has been working overtime. “It is scary for the people that we are talking to, it’s scary for them because we thought it would be a month or two months of unemployment and here we are basically six months later trying to help people navigate who’s hiring.”
Altenburt says everyone looking for work should know two things. One, “there are employer that are hiring. There are employers that are desperate for people. so don’t immediately assume that there is nothing out there so I might as well not look and the second thing I would say is figure out what you want to do and then don’t sell yourself short in terms of what makes you uniquely qualified for that role.
”For example, you wouldn’t think of a restaurant worker having a unique skillset to be a good fit in the I.T. field, but the National Able Network has been training them to switch over and I.T. employers are flocking to recruit these workers.
“People who have been servers intuitively know customer service in a way that i could never teach somebody that is in it.” In addition to the National Able Network, there are also more than two thousand (2,400) government funded American job centers offering free career and job hunt services most local/public libraries, even many community colleges are offering free resume and some career services as well.
“At Lyft when we think of the way we can make on communities we think about how we can use transportation to do so.” Lyft has even jumped in to help the millions on the job hunt, by providing free rides – in 20 cities -- to people going to and from job interviews, job training, and even free rides to work until they get their first paycheck.
“We have a job access hub on our Lyft website that will help you be able to go in and sign up on a form. Where you will say a little bit more about what kind of help you need and what city you live in and based off of that we will connect you with your local United Way or your local Goodwill.
”The two partner organizations actually distribute Lyft’s free rides, and they offer additional free career services help.
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