Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich decries corporate hiring practices for what she sees as an over-emphasis on upbeat, extroverted personalities, while overlooking such factors as creativity and skill.

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Author Barbara Ehrenreich discusses her book "Bait and Switch."

In "Bait and Switch," Barbara Ehrenreich goes back undercover to explore another hidden realm of the economy: the shadowy world of the white-collar unemployed. Armed with the plausible resume of a professional "in transition," she attempts to land a "middle-class" job. She submits to career coaching, personality testing, and EST-like boot camps, and attends job fairs, networking events, and evangelical job-search ministries. She is proselytized, scammed, lectured, and – again and again – rejected.

"Bait and Switch" highlights the people who have done everything right – gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive resumes – yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster. There are few social supports for these newly disposable workers, Ehrenreich discovers, and little security even for those who have jobs. Worst of all, there is no honest reckoning with the inevitable consequences of the harsh new economy; rather, the jobless are persuaded that they have only themselves to blame. – Books Inc.

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller "Nickel and Dimed." A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Harpers, and the Progressive, she is a contributing writer to Time magazine. She lives in Florida. 

From Sept 26, 2006

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