Applying for 500 plus jobs

and not getting any of them apparently makes you "one of the unluckiest people in the country" - or so this morning's paper would have us believe.

If the woman in question really wants a job and really wants to work then I can sympathise but there are some other issues here. This woman apparently left school with no qualifications. She was a single mother at the age of 21 - and of course she then had a single parent payment. Apparently she only has one child and she is now 54. 

I have some questions to ask. Why did she leave school with no qualifications? What was she doing between leaving school and becoming eligible for the single parent payment at the age of 21? Has she never done a training course of any sort? Even if she has no qualifications (and apparently cannot drive a car) what did she do to try and improve her ability to be employed? What has she been doing with her time between the ages of let's say 37 and 54? 

Her child would have been 16 long ago, old enough to be left alone unless there was some compelling reason not to do so. There is no hint the child in question is not capable of caring for himself or herself.

And how many jobs has this person really applied for? Over the course of just ten years the "500" would be around just one a week.

I know much better qualified people, myself included, who have applied for many more positions than this woman. I cannot drive but most of them do. They would present at interview dressed appropriately. They speak well. They have excellent references. They have "volunteered" for long hours - and they still fail to get positions. These people cannot even get jobs in retail or as cleaners, things they would have been prepared to do.

Like me several of them have ended up creating their own jobs. One of them has actually done quite well, at least well enough to employ one other person. Others have some casual part time work. All of them have, I suspect, put more effort in than this woman has put in. She may now be "lucky". Her story is in the news. Someone may feel sorry for her and offer her some paid employment. If they do I wonder if, after all this time, she will be able to discipline herself to go to work, get there on time and do the work required. It will be a major achievement if she does manage to do it.

It is unlikely that those whose job it is to "help the unemployed find work" have any real idea of how hard some people find it to get employment even when they are well qualified. There is much more to it than being a well qualified, well dressed and articulate person with good references. If such people find it difficult what about the many others who are not qualified, poorly dressed and inarticulate?