Audrey, one way to shut the idiots at the job centre up is keeping a draft or copy of all your postulation letters, together with the details from the companies you wrote to AND their rejections, in a nice scrap-book and thumping it upon their desks the moment they start whining again.
I had a colleague once whose husband had done just that, his scrap-book was quite impressive... 3 kilos of letters and ads landing on a job centre whiners desk makes a nice hard THUD sound.

I once had a job centre lady close to sobbing myself (and it still warms my heart whenever I think of it), when I challenged her to find a job for me and she couldnt because each and every one of my excuses why I couldnt get hired turned out to be true. The massive amount of rejections from potential employers shocked her because she used to believe that anyone could find a job if you just would do the effort of looking for one. Now she knows better, and she is a lot less arrogant.
She currrently has 9 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (or ME) patients in her file and she knows it will be a cold day in hell when she finds a job for even one of us.

(Message edited by Babeth on October 15, 2005)