Yup. In theory, it’s a program to gently kick the job applicants to apply for more jobs, which sounds like a good thing. In practice, it’s yet another way for the authorities to breathe down the neck of job applicants to document the busywork they’re already doing, and make sure they’re doing nothing productive besides sitting by their phones and waiting for calls (that probably never come because you just annoyed every potential employer by spamming them with applications).
Several years ago, Finnish authorities did another experiment. Universal basic income for a few lucky recipients! People who participated in this couldn’t believe how awesome it was to freely engage in a bunch of modern freelancing options that the unemployment benefits program just straight up banned. I hear it was awesome while it lasted. Now, they decided to do this mandatory application bullshit for the rest of the unemployed populace. I’m hoping they got all of the data on which of the options was more productive, because from my point of view, this hasn’t been it!
Why is the government mandating how many applications you submit? Was this in order to be eligible for unemployment pay?
Yup. In theory, it’s a program to gently kick the job applicants to apply for more jobs, which sounds like a good thing. In practice, it’s yet another way for the authorities to breathe down the neck of job applicants to document the busywork they’re already doing, and make sure they’re doing nothing productive besides sitting by their phones and waiting for calls (that probably never come because you just annoyed every potential employer by spamming them with applications).
Several years ago, Finnish authorities did another experiment. Universal basic income for a few lucky recipients! People who participated in this couldn’t believe how awesome it was to freely engage in a bunch of modern freelancing options that the unemployment benefits program just straight up banned. I hear it was awesome while it lasted. Now, they decided to do this mandatory application bullshit for the rest of the unemployed populace. I’m hoping they got all of the data on which of the options was more productive, because from my point of view, this hasn’t been it!
Damn. In the US it’s totally normalized now to just spam hundreds of job applications per month to hopefully hear back from maybe one of them
I’d struggle to name one single thing I envy Americans for. It seems like the US is exactly what I don’t want mine to become.