Comments on: SC’s Dirty Little Unemployment Secret

By: C. Brooks

C. Brooks — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:12:20 +0000

I agree with Hawk about the issue with ESC. I know this for a fact b/c I have work with, for, and against the agency under the Workforce Investment Act. ESC workers are not as well trained nor have the knowledge of wealth to perform like headhunters. They have no incentive at assist citzens of this state with finding work. ESC is always saying on the news, “We are a referral agency.”

Actual the DOC and ESC are really battling each other $. Now that DOC hold the federal dollars for WIA & TAA. That leaves ESC just as a partnter agency with the actual physical sites for citzens in these programs to report to.

I use to be one of the individuals, who completed the OneStop Report and what everyone here is forgetting is that there are thousands of SC citzens, who have the knowledge to do their own self-directed job search and they never report to ESC b/c of the bureaucrats there.

Mark Sanford is right many of our state agencies are doing a duplication of services and some like ESC and DOC need to be revamp from the ground up. Once they are rebuilt, performance measures, accountability, & goals need to be set for these agencies. The need to be run more like a business, not a nesting place for fat cats, who do nothing, but practice nepotism.

By: Sokino

Sokino — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:46:11 +0000

First off, dept of commerce does not over see the workforce centers. The doc oversees the workforce investment act and trade adjustment assistance act (both federal programs) that are partners in the one stop centers. Further, the boards (mentioned above) that (supposedly) oversee the one stops is an error. There are local boards that over see the wia and taa programs, but they don’t run the one stops, again they are just a partner. All the one stops in south carolina are operated in a bureaucratic rats nest with many being led by esc. The south carolina workforce system is a very complicated system and cannot be easily understood.

By: Monkeydarts

Monkeydarts — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:33:47 +0000

Don’t worry, Obama’s going to put laid-off computer techs back to work building bridges in “shovel-ready” projects in Michigan and New Jersey. All you really have to worry about is driving over those bridges in the future.

By: Jarrett Edwards

Jarrett Edwards — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:00:45 +0000

I completely agree that there is something messed up at the One Stop workforce centers. I am college educated, with no criminal record, I have submitted numerous applications through these centers and have never received one interview. I suspect that they might not be sending my applications and/or resumes to the companies.

By: Earl Capps

Earl Capps — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:31:46 +0000

Hawk – while I get the point, your comparison is apples to oranges. I used to work for a headhunter firm. We had advertising budgets as well as knowledge of the industries and disciplines we were recruiting for. We could find someone to fill an opening only if it was in our field.

The One Stop and ESC people aren’t given the time or support to learn these things, nor the resources to draw people in with the skills to meet the needs of clients. Unlike a recruiter firm, they rely on taking whoever happens to walk in the door and try to plug them into whatever positions come their way.

An incentive system might help, but where is the money going to come from to pay those incentives? The employers? The state? If you were to start charging employers, then a public agency would be competing with the private sector, right?

You pay a headhunter thousands of dollars to find a candidate, hundreds to run classified ads in papers and online, but you pay nothing to One Stop or ESC. In the end, you get what you pay for. That’s also one reason the state uses them.

I’m not questioning your claims because you seem to know what you’re talking about, instead of politicized ramblings that have little or no foundation in the real world. As an HR person, I have been in those situations too. But if you’re looking for the One Stop and ESC system to provide headhunter-quality service with no incentives and staff who are paid far less than headhunters, you’re not going to get it.

You’re welcome to drop me an email if you have concerns about the leve of service you’re getting from a One Stop center – earl@earlcapps.org. Maybe I can help you, as a local WIB board member, or I will forward it to someone who can.

By: Cooter Brown's Intern

Cooter Brown's Intern — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:57:59 +0000

Actually, it’s Gubmint

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gubmint

By: Todd

Todd — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:46:46 +0000

James, the FS: It’s not spelled guv’ment. It’s giv-a-mint. Sheesh, as Sic would say.

By: James the Foot Soldier

James the Foot Soldier — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:40:24 +0000

fitsnews – your recap has one glaring omission:

#5 – South Carolinians fraudulently collecting guv’ment checks. All they have to do to continue collecting their guv’ment check is apply to a job they have no qualification for so they have no fear of becoming employed.

It’s not hard to spot these welfare kings and queens: these are the folks you see at any bank cashing checks from all the work they’ve done “on the side”.

Exhibit A: the mayor of a small town in South Carolina that had his mayoral paycheck made out to his wife so he could keep receiving his social security disability checks.

By: hawk

hawk — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:09:31 +0000

Earl –
“One Stop and ESC people just throw people out there. They donâ€™t have the resources, training, client relationships or incentives private recruiters have” – ie they dont know what they are doing as recruiters then – they need motivation to get ANY candidate they have placed – I know several state jobs that have been open for months because the state recruiters have no motivation to fill the jobs. My corporate recruiters (work in corp HR) had a filled open reqs within 30 days – and could use the same resources that ESC use. But one more thing ESC/OS has a monopoly on ALL state job openings. ALL candidates must go through them – how can they suck that badly at filling job openings??? MOTIVATION – they have none. If they place 4 candidates or 400 their pay will be the same.
My suggestion is – place them on a quota system – fill x jobs within x time or YOU will be looking for a job. THAT is motivation. Instead they come and go as they wish wasting state money and resources by not filling jobs.

By: Cosmo Kramer

Cosmo Kramer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:58:29 +0000

Brian and Earl: Thanks for some of the most insightful comments in quite some time.