Signs of the times

Yesterday we received a letter in the mail from the local car dealership that we like. The letter said that they would no longer be selling cars and trucks, but would continue to service vehicles in their garage. It was nice to know that you could call Mike or whomever and tell them that you were in the market for a vehicle and actually know the person you were talking to and he knew you lived on a gravel road and needed 4 wheel drive to get to work--knew just what we might need. I hope that scaling down to just mechanics work (and heaven knows we need good mechanics) is not a precursor to closing their doors, but in our area that is happening more and more.
I have an entry level secretary vacancy in my office. Ordinarily, HR would have sent maybe 15 resumes for me to look through and pick out interviewees. I received the totals on Monday. There were 115 applicants! This is for a $10.00 an hour job to start with benefits. There were applicants with Masters degrees, numerous bachelors degrees, untold associate degrees! I had people calling me about the position who have retired on what was supposed to be a comfortable retirement, only to realize that they had lost 40% of their retirement when the stock market collapsed or when they found that medical insurance was completely beyond their retirement budget! This job was traditionally for a young woman/man who is just starting out in the employment world with computer skills they may have learned in high school! That’s how it is.