by Matt Forney
Recently, I was sent to a workshop at a Labor Department office to test its usefulness in helping the unemployed find work, helping to determine whether taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. This was in a certain county in upstate New York that I’m not at liberty to disclose, other than to say that it’s in a rural area and it has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.
It also has one of the lowest literacy rates in the state. I’ll call it “Methlab County.” The particular program I sat in on was “Internet Job Search,” about using the web to find work. You might be wondering, in this age of 4G smartphones and ubiquitous Internet access, precisely who would have difficulty applying to jobs online. The answer: fifty- and sixtysomething white ex-factory workers who don’t own computers, don’t even have email accounts. In fact, the second half of the three-hour(!) workshop was devoted to teaching us how to open and use email accounts with Yahoo! or Google.
It also has one of the lowest literacy rates in the state. I’ll call it “Methlab County.” The particular program I sat in on was “Internet Job Search,” about using the web to find work. You might be wondering, in this age of 4G smartphones and ubiquitous Internet access, precisely who would have difficulty applying to jobs online. The answer: fifty- and sixtysomething white ex-factory workers who don’t own computers, don’t even have email accounts. In fact, the second half of the three-hour(!) workshop was devoted to teaching us how to open and use email accounts with Yahoo! or Google.
