By Staff

Who says you can’t make money just lazing around the living room? Well guess what, experienced slackers, the federal government recognizes your special skills and is offering companies a bundle of money to hire you. Yes, that’s right, you may now be more valuable having done nothing the last six months than if you’d been working away at another job or attending school.

Of course, it’s been damn hard for anyone to find a job these days, much less those in certain “targeted” groups, and the government wants to provide an extra bonus to employers for adding targeted individuals to their workforces. But the law doesn’t distinguish between those who have been trying hard to secure employment and those who have just been goofing off.

A company that hires a “disconnected youth” in 2009 or 2010 can claim a tax benefit of as much as $2,400. To be eligible for disconnected youth status, you must meet the following requirements:

-       You are at least 16 years old but not older than 24.

-       Over the last 3 months you earned less than 390 times the minimum wage.

-       Over the 3 months prior to that, you earned less than 390 times the minimum wage.

-       Over the last 6 months, you did not attend school for more than 10 hours per week on average during the periods school was in session. School means a secondary, vocational, or postsecondary school, but not a GED program.

-       You don’t have a graduation certificate from a secondary school or GED program, or if you do have one, you received it more than six months ago and you haven’t held a job or enrolled in postsecondary school since then.

Does that sound like you? Are you ready to exit the couch and enter the workforce? If your answer to both questions is “yes,” get yourself to your local jobs agency and become properly certified as a disconnected youth. Proudly add your new designation to your resume and let potential employers know that you are worth MONEY to them. Perhaps they’ll even increase your starting salary.

Photo credit: oddsock