Miami’s Employment Agencies

Impressions of a new Cuban immigrant

Yenisel Rodríguez

HAVANA TIMES — Finding a job in Miami is getting harder every day. To make matters worse, employment agencies control a more than significant part of the city’s job market.

The unemployed and low-income people watch helpless as employment agencies, which charge a commission for finding them a job somewhere, devalue their labor power even further.

Miami’s economy is collapsing. Hundreds of businesses shut down, very little investment, and a services structure that is highly vulnerable to the international financial crisis. You can’t find a job anywhere. I’ve met people who haven’t worked in two years.

In the end, you have no choice but to fill out an application at one of these agencies, as a last resort.

This means losing a third of your salary until you can secure a full-time contract with your employer, paying 40 dollars for a “reliable” search engine or 200 dollars to be placed in direct contact with an employer.

Applying for a job directly with the employer is becoming harder every day. When you do manage to apply, you end up filling out on-line questionnaires which look more like a psychological profile than a job application.

That’s the way things are today: you stumble along, surrounded by vultures that gorge themselves on the sweat and blood of Latino workers.