As a regular visitor of WhyDoWork.com you may have noticed us pushing a contest sponsored by the US Department of Labor designed to seek out the best employment resources on the net. The top voted sites were to be included on the Department of Labor’s job site Careeronestop.org. Unfortunately we didn’t make the cut, but a great thanks to everyone who voted, and especially those who left some really positive comments.
Now I’m writing this blog post not out of bitterness or with a ‘negative-nancy’ attitude, but to highlight a gross oversight by the administration. They seemed to have forgotten about the fastest growing source of employment available to Americans and the rest of the world; work at home jobs. Its a niche where location, traditional stereotypes, or disability are not a concern. It is isolated from local employment rates, or your specific educational background, and is open to anyone with a computer.
- Specific Occupations
- State and Local
- Military and Government
- Older Workers and Seniors
- Diverse Workers
- Ex-Offenders
- Students
What about home based moms, dads, disabled workers, or anyone that wants to make additional income without having to resort to traditional on-site work? The administration has totally disregarded anything related to working from home; there isn’t one site mentioned that specialized in that niche. Great services like oDesk, Freelancer.com etc. all provide viable home based work. Whether it be call center support, transcription, or freelance, this is an important facet of the workforce. When a town is hit with high unemployment everyone doesn’t have to pick up and abandon the city, or have people sit around on unemployment without an idea of what to do. Citizens can look at the option of maintaining their life and lifestyle through online employment and freelance work.
Instead of ignoring the entire industry it would have been nice to have a section on the Department of Labor’s website dedicated to it. Where is the advice and direction for people considering the option of making money online or working from home? Let’s face it, the work at home industry is full of opportunity as well as scamming predators. This was a great opportunity to steer people in the right direction. With all the money the FBI spends on fighting ‘get rich quick’ schemes, this was an opportunity to highlight to job seekers the relevant sites that are actually working to improve the image of the home based workforce.
Let me just say to the United States Department of Labor, you dropped the ball on this one.
Your Friends in Tackling Unemployment,
WhyDoWork.com
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I agree. Work at home jobs are very popular these days and are increasing in popularity all the time. They are practically the norm now as even large corporations are letting their employees telecommute or hiring people specifically for it. The DOL should have a section for them.
I think the government find it easier to categorize all work at home jobs as scams.
They can do a great service by having resources on their site that will help they hundred of thousand of American that are working at home.
“Dropping the ball by this administration” is about as understated without being vulgar as you can get. Any Senior Citizen you know received a letter from Social Security early this year stating, and I quote …”Based On the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the Department of Labor, there was no rise in the cost of living during the past year, so your benefit will remain the same in 2010.”
The hardware store I work at had five price increases on virtually the entire product line in 2009. Groceries are certainly more expensive, so what do you suppose the Gubmint uses to finagle and fan dangle their blather?
As good as internet connections have gotten and the number of things you can do online now, I see no reason for work at home jobs to not be a perfectly valid way of working and should be recognized by the US Dept of Labor as such.
Till then,
Jean
The government does not want “work at home” to be popular or popularized. We should all be good comrades and work normal jobs at the same rate of pay and sacrifice for the good of the system. No reward for ingenuity, working smarter, or harder.
That sucks that they didn’t add this site , You guys are ranked very well and have alot of information.
Well ranked definitely counts for more than a thumbs up from an archaic government! Just work on keeping and bewttering your search engine rankings, and all will be good! Thank goodness for the internet as a means to sidestep the disinformation and propoganda!
Perhaps the government is worried about there being too many work at home people who may feel less inclined to pay full taxes. That same issue may have lowered the government’s stats related to work at home jobs. A country with too many work at home jobs may seem less stable to a government because those people could move somewhere else and keep their job. This makes it tougher for governments to disregard public best interest and do things like raise taxes.
Government hates thing being decentralised, as it erodes their ultimate control over anything. They are supposed to be a servant of the people, but this servant has turned into a very bad rash. It makes me sick!
Yea, it definitely seems like a situation where the government is feeling insecure. They’re worried about losing grip over the people. I certainly hope they don’t win in their efforts because many people’s livelihoods now depend on work-at-home jobs.
Till then,
Jean
The government does not want “work at home” to be popular or popularized.
That sucks that they didn’t add this site
I’m now caught between my broken career because of this and My life is in dire straits. What should I do now?
I read that medical transcribing is one of the TOP 5 home based jobs listed with with U.S. Dept of Labor. Where do you get your info that those home based jobs don’t exist with the U.S. Dept of Labor??
Confused.
Their directory has no “home based jobs” category.
Your site is a huge service to this economy and the people who find themselves at the very short end of a stick.
I full-heartedly agree with the sentiment that Administrations of every country would be much better off to recognize entrepreneurship and the power home based businesses have to turn this failing economy around.
We are having to return to the economy engines of 200 years ago where almost every man and now, woman, found their niche in a service or product they provided. The farmers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, watchmakers and shoemakers are trading their wares for online/home based products.
Great site. Glad I found it.
Working from home is definitely a great option during an economic downturn – or anytime for that matter! In fact, I’ve got plenty of friends who work from home and are doing extremely well in the fiscal stakes. And further more, I worked from home myself for a long time; the internet allowed for my business team to work in a virtual space.
We’ve also found that a lot of our customers are using our loft conversion services to create a new office out of their unused attic space. Not having a designated ‘work area’ seems to be one of those impediments that can get in the way of effective work.
I think another reason the government may be avoiding acknowledging work at home jobs is the high number of work at home scams. It might be a lot of man hours to look into each work at home opportunity and determine which ones are legit.