Posted: 25 Apr 2010 11:16 PM PDT

Gardaí are calling for the rule which prevents them from taking up certain part-time jobs to be abolished.

The Garda Representative Association says many rank and file gardaí are experiencing serious financial difficulties and a motion for its Annual Conference which opens today says members should be allowed to work as barmen and security guards when off duty.

Delegates will also debate whether or not to withdraw from productivity and changes in work practice already agreed under the last pay agreement, including a refusal to co-operate with the Garda Reserve.

The theme of the Garda Representative Association annual conference this year which opens in Limerick this evening is 'angry, betrayed and disillusioned', leaving no doubt as to the mood of the delegates who represent around 80% of the force.

Delegates are demanding a reversal of the pay cuts and pension levies and the right to negotiate directly with their employer and they have condemned the Minister for Justice for what they say is his failure to adequately resource the gardaí.

The GRA have also called for the regulation on civil debts which says gardaí can be sacked if they get into debt to be abolished.

They say this rule means that gardaí having trouble paying their mortgages could also lose their jobs because of the debt.

While most of the motions over the next three days deal with pay and conditions - policing is also an issue.

Gardaí in Galway want a complete review of the Garda fleet and all Garda equipment to ensure it is safe.

Meanwhile, gardaí in Dublin's south inner city are calling for new legislation to include a mandatory 12-year sentence for the specific offence of a gratuitous assault on a garda.

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Essay: Too Few Jobs or Too Many? Time Will Tell - AOL News

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 05:13 AM PDT

(April 11) -- When she learned last week that the country had actually started adding jobs instead of losing them, my friend Molly was unimpressed. She's a slim, lively 67-year-old who has been trying to find work since September.

"It doesn't do anything for me," she said. "They're looking for young people on the cheap. I'm not young and I'm not cheap."

Her timing's not so good, either. In another six or seven years, the U.S. may be eager to put people like Molly to work. A major new study holds that by 2018, there will be at least 5 million jobs going begging -- and it may be up to people of retirement age and beyond to fill them.

How is it possible for the country to go from the worst job market since the Depression to a big job surplus in a handful of years? According to Barry Bluestone, a professor of political economy at Northeastern University and author of the study, it's all about demographics.

"The baby bust generation is simply not big enough to handle all the new jobs created by an economic recovery," he told AOLNews. "If the baby boomers leave the labor market at the same age as past retirees, we'll be in real trouble."

The labor shortage would rob the economy of a potential $600 billion a year in GDP, Bluestone says. It would also squeeze health care and social services, where many of the new jobs will be created.

On the other hand, everything could work out fine if only some substantial number of the 78 million boomers opt to stay in or return to the labor market -- and there is evidence they might, with a little encouragement.

My friend Molly, for example, has some savings and could probably scrape by without a job, but retirement doesn't appeal. "I'm looking for part-time, something I'd enjoy," she said. "I want to use my talent and experience and participate in life. I want to give back."

Many boomers feel the same way: They're healthier than earlier generations and not ready to hit the rocking chair at age 65. Others expect to keep working simply because they don't have enough savings to provide for their retirement. For those who have lost their homes and/or jobs and gone deeply into debt, the economic downturn has effectively ruled out retirement.

The recession has also forced more retirees to go back to work -- 16 percent of those 65 and older now hold jobs versus 11 percent a decade ago. Many have taken low-paying entry-level posts usually filled by young people with limited education.

Bluestone expects that kind of generational competition to be gone by 2018, when there will be more than enough jobs for all.

To help make up the shortfall, he envisions a substantial increase in the labor force participation rate, the percentage of those employed or looking for employment, among older people.

Current trends will not do the job. The government projects, for example, that the participation rate for people 65 to 74 years old will be 30.5 by 2018. That figure takes into account the studies showing that many boomers plan to work longer. In his scenario for meeting the worker gap, Bluestone pushes the rate up to 33.3.

For that to happen, he acknowledges, the traditional job market will have to be turned on its head: Employers will have to find ways to entice the once-disdained elders to stay on the payroll or get back into the labor market.

Full-time jobs might be reconfigured as part-time, performed by pairs of older workers. Some tasks could be adjusted to make allowance for elders' reduced physical capacities as well as their desire to enjoy their work. Social and recreational facilities at the work site might help.

Some experts challenge the Bluestone scenario. It assumes no change in the rate of immigration, for example, and they suspect employers will lobby the government to allow many more foreign workers into the country. They also suggest that employers may export jobs overseas rather than jumping through hoops to attract older American workers. And the critics doubt that really large numbers of older boomers will delay their retirement for very long or return to the work force once they do retire.

The debate will have consequences. At some point, Washington will have to decide how the nation should prepare for the coming of age of the baby bust generation. There are all sorts of possibilities to play with. If larger numbers of older people do remain in the work force, for instance, their payments into the Social Security fund could push back that program's day of reckoning.

Meanwhile, a number of nonprofit organizations are already helping older workers and retired people find jobs.

The AARP, for example, has dozens of WorkSearch sites around the country. They provide access to skill testing and instruction as well as on-the-job training with partner companies.

New York-based ReServe places skilled retirees in part-time jobs with nonprofits or government agencies where they are paid $10 an hour. The stipend is intended to encourage both employer and employee to take their association seriously.

As it happens, Molly is trying to find work through ReServe. "I want to try something new, and I may have found it," she said. She has applied for a job in a prison. "It's in the office," she assured me.

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Students may be considered impoverished - Daily Cardinal

Posted: 25 Apr 2010 11:37 PM PDT

As graduation looms near and thousands of University of Wisconsin students descend into the real world in search of a full-time job, and thousands of others scramble for a summer position, it can be hard to ignore the frighteningly high unemployment rate.

Despite the fact that Madison has been able to insulate itself from much of the recession, the unemployment rate still remains relatively high, at 6.4 percent, making the level of poverty that exists throughout the city quite daunting.

"Madison has changed to an extent," Bill Clingan, director of economic and community development for Madison, said. "Even with the recession the city has been fairly well-protected with the university and so many state employees anchoring it, but still the unemployment rate is twice what it normally is."

While many students are sometimes able to avoid falling into a poverty trap because they are in school and usually supported by governmental aid, it is not the case for everyone, especially when part-time jobs are increasingly hard to come by.

"College students are notoriously poor. In a robust economy, there are enough jobs for folks," Clingan said. "But now when employers are looking for employees, are they going to hire the person with a family, or a college student? They become pitted against one another and a change in the service sector occurs."

Although more companies are hiring across the nation compared to last year and students stand a better chance of landing a job, the recession is still present, so the traditional next step after graduation is not clear-cut.

"[Students] start contemplating grad school, or maybe doing some volunteer work and a part-time job to weather it out," Clingan said. "It's fair to say students are not going to have a lot of money while in school … It's not right or wrong, it's usually just by definition. They have limited resources as well as competition in the work force. And that's unfortunate. Poor is poor."

While many college students may struggle for money to help pay their tuition, some say it is unfair to consider them impoverished.

Tim Smeeding, director for the university's Institute for Research on Poverty, said it is hard to talk about students being impoverished at all.

"That doesn't mean that some students' families are considered poor," he said. "But a student makes a choice to go to school and they're heavily subsidized. That's very different from, for instance, someone of that age who is an unmarried mother with two kids, who isn't in school."

Chynna Haas, president of the Working Class Student Union, disagrees with Smeeding.

Haas, currently a senior preparing to graduate in May, has worked two jobs since before her freshman year of college just to make ends meet. During the school year she works at least 35 to 40 hours a week, while still maintaining a full-time class schedule. During the summer months, she has worked up to 70 hours a week to earn money for the next year's tuition costs. Her parents are not in an economic position to help financially.

"There are students who are living independently at or below the poverty level," she said. "I have peers who have applied for food stamps and are using those to get what they need."

Haas, a first-generation college student who has paid for 99 percent of her educational costs and taken out two federal-subsidized loans to do so, will graduate in a not-so-hot job market with $20,000 in debt.

And although according to Smeeding, if a student has a college degree they will find work, it still does not ease Haas' time during school.

Haas said the university should do more to prioritize financial aid.

Still, possessing a college degree puts soon-to-be graduates in a better position than those who don't. And at the very least, when the economy turns back around, college graduates will be prepared, Smeeding said.

"Low-skill wages in the service agencies have declined," Smeeding said. "But employment among people with college degrees actually went up."