They didn’t even jet-pool!

I have been on the job market for just over a month now and I’m here to tell you that it is an absolutely brutal time to be looking for work.

I’ve been to the big job boards and I can tell you that every job that’s posted is getting hundreds and often thousands of applicants. In fact, I was lucky enough to get a call-back from one employer and I asked him straight up, how many resumes he received for the job I was trying to get.

“Well over a thousand.”

And that’s for one position. Just a single opening.

Monster.com publishes a monthly analysis of online job demand based on a based on a large selection of corporate career Web sites and job boards called “The Monster Employment Index.”

For October 2008, the index dropped 10% marking the lowest level of online job availability since 2005.

And the problem extends to almost all industries in almost every location. In fact, Pittsburgh is the only major market showing an increase in online recruiting activity. Of the 24 industries tracked, only utilities, public administration and “mining and quarrying” showed any gains at all.

So fewer jobs than ever – except for miners and Wichita linemen.

Now get this: According to CNN, as of last Friday, the US economy lost 110,000 jobs so far in November – 60,000 last week alone! An economist at Wachovia predicted that we would lose a total of 350,000 jobs in the month of November. First time filings for unemployment insurance increased by half a million last week - the most since 1992.

More job seekers than ever and fewer jobs than ever.

You don’t have to be an economist at Wachovia to understand the brutal mathematics of that equation.

So it is in that mindset that I have been watching the news coverage of this $25 billion bailout for the auto industry. On one hand, adding everyone working in the auto industry to the growing ranks of the jobless is going to make this employment nightmare worse. And I don’t need any more competition for work.

On the other hand, those executives who testified before congress? Fuck those guys. Really, I can’t think of a way to squeeze enough vitriol into a paragraph to capture my repulsion at their smarmy, rotten fucking faces.

For one thing, this bit about them all flying private jets to Washington to testify? What a bunch of fucking arrogant fuckers. They’re crying poor-mouth and trying to take $25 billion (at least! Probably more!) from your kids and my kids and our grand-kids (because that’s how long it’s going to take to pay back this royal fuck-over) and they have the fucking nerve, the unmitigated gall to fly three different private jets from the same airport to Washington to ask for the handout?



Nice blind-spot you fucking fucks.

And do you know what else? Get a load of the money these assholes make. And don’t even begin to tell me that these compensation packages are needed to attract the very best talent available. Need I say it again? These guys need our $25billion Just to keep the doors open for a couple of months! They’ve presided over one fucking disaster after another! And been well compensated! Can you imagine the fucking nerve of these pieces of shit? (Compensation data from http://www.companypay.com/.)

G.R. Wagoner Jr., Chairman & CEO General Motors
2007 total compensation: $14,415,914
(Oh, and according to the Wall Street Journal, “Wagoner got “a 33% raise for 2008 and equity compensation of at least $1.68 million for his performance in 2007, a year for which the auto maker reported a loss of $38.7 billion.”)

Alan Mulally, President & CEO Ford Motor Company
2007 total compensation: $21,670,674

Robert Nardelli, CEO Chrysler
2007 total compensation: $????
(Oh, actually, we’re not really sure because Chrysler is a privately held company. It was reported that he took the job for a $1 annual salary but the way these things are structured, “salary” is just a portion of total compensation so that could be just for show while he rakes millions in stock options and other money deals.

What I can tell you is that he used to be the CEO of Home Depot. Ran it into the ground in fact. When the stock was floundering in 2006, he refused to take questions during a shareholder meeting about his compensation package and was eventually thrown out.

What was that compensation package at Home Depot? Well, according to Fortune magazine he made $38.1 million in 2006. After getting shit-canned in 2007 he got a $210 million golden parachute in cash and stock options that included a $20 million severance payment and retirement benefits of $32 million.

Yeah, he’s working for $1 per year now. WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM, FUCKING STUPID?? )

And you know what else? American cars have sucked since I was a kid. These guys have had their asses kicked up and down the road for 40 years now. They've been beaten pulpy in green technology, the so-called "fit and finish" of American cars blows, they’ve pushed back and cried and bitched at every single mandated increase in fuel economy or cleanliness and they’ve made planned obsolescence an art form.

So fuck those three guys. Maybe we should pitch in to help the industry get on its feet and get competitive and prevent job hemorrhage or maybe we shouldn’t. I don’t know. But if any of those three pieces of shit see one lousy nickel then you and I are the suckers of the century.