The local price of gasoline is just at the $4 mark. It now costs me close to $75 a week to get to and from work. The co-workers I have spoken to are paying about the same or more for their commute. Several have mentioned that they have started to look for a job closer to home even if it pays less than what they are now earning because they would save money in the long run on the cost of the commute.
As it is now, I have to work about 1.5 hours a day to pay for gasoline and the taxes they take out of my paycheck. So out of an 8 hour day I get to keep only 6.5 hours of pay. I only get $11 an hour so working for $71+ a day (after gas and taxes) is about a poverty level wage. Lets do the math - at $71 X 5 = 355 a week X 52 weeks = $18460 a year. That is about the same wage as a fast food clerk working full time. I am a highly skilled electronics tech who has taken on a low paying electronics assembly job at a job shop because all the electronics jobs have been out sourced to China. New technology has been very slow to develop otherwise I would have moved easily into those career fields.
Have I gone back to college? You bet I did - but the college courses were not geared towards todays job markets. I took several computer classes to get certified as an IT specialist but I knew more than the teachers and the material was outdated. I even tried a career change and found out that everyone else tired that same career change and the market was saturated with job seekers like me.
I am getting nowhere fast and just holding on until the economy improves and I can find a job with decent pay that I can actually live on rather than just barely surviving on - knocking on wood that nothing breaks or needs to be repaired or I don't get sick.
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