If You Are Unemployed, Should You Move Somewhere Else In Order To Find A Job?

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Unfortunately, millions of Americans find themselves slowly going insane as they apply for hundreds upon hundreds of jobs and yet never get hired. It is incredibly difficult to get a good job in most areas of the United States today. So if you are unemployed, and there are no jobs in your area, should you move somewhere else in an attempt to find work? That is a very hard question. Of course if what you are currently doing right now is not working it is only natural to want to change course, but sadly unemployment is absolutely rampant all over the United States. Today, the "official" unemployment rate is hovering around 9 percent, but the true employment picture is much bleaker than that. There are millions and millions of unemployed Americans that are so discouraged and have given up looking for a job for so long that the U.S. government does not even consider them "part of the labor force" any longer. If they were included in the "official" figure, the true unemployment rate would be well into double figures. In addition, there are millions upon millions of Americans that are working part-time jobs or very low paying jobs because that is all they can get. Those millions of "underemployed" Americans would jump at the chance to get a "good job" if that opportunity was available. Low income jobs now make up 41% of all the jobs in the United States. So there are a lot of people that have a job that really wish that they were making a lot more money. Because of the lack of good jobs, millions of American families have been pushed to the edge of economic desperation and millions of American families are drowning in debt. So what do you do if there are no good jobs in your area? Do you sit tight or do move to a new location hoping for something better?

On the negative side, it can be extremely expensive to move. Not only will you have moving expenses, but you will also have to find a new place to live, set up new utilities, change your insurance policies, register your vehicles in a new area, etc. etc.

Moving somewhere new almost always costs more money than you think that it will.

Then, once you get to a new location, often you don't have the same "connections" that you did in the place where you used to live.

And in today's economy, having "connections" is one of the only ways that you can get a good job.

On the flip side, there are actually a few areas of the United States where the unemployment rate is low right now and where there do seem to be some good jobs available.

When people ask me where to look for a job, I tell them to check out North and South Dakota. It is cold as the dickens up there, but if you can handle the cold you just might be able to find work.

However, it is extremely risky to move somewhere new without having a job first. Most people that have been through that "adventure" know what I am talking about.

But sometimes in life you have to take a risk. Today there are over 47 million Americans that are living in poverty, and that number is increasing every single month. Sitting on your couch and doing nothing is not going to get you where you need to be.

Rather than just sit there and sink even deeper into desperation, an increasing number of Americans are deciding to make a move. There are some areas of the United States that have become absolute hellholes. After years of experiencing intense economic frustration in those hellholes, many Americans are picking up stakes and are heading for greener pastures.

For example, the following video report from RT describes how large numbers of people are now abandoning Riverside, California....

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

Sadly, very few jobs are truly safe anymore.

Years ago, I would tell people to look into government jobs because they were relatively more secure. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

Today, state and local government debt has reached at an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP. State and local governments from coast to coast are implementing austerity programs and are laying off employees at a staggering pace.

The following is a chart from the Federal Reserve of local government hiring over the past five years. Obviously, the trend is not heading in a positive direction....

Most Americans don't realize just how nightmarish the financial problems of many of our state and local governments are right now.

For example, the state of California is basically a financial basket case at this point. In a recent article I discussed the cold, hard reality that California is broke and I explained some of the reasons why millions of people have already left the state....

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a seemingly endless parade of pop songs about how great life was in California, and millions of young Americans dreamed of moving to the land of sandy beaches and golden sunshine. But now all of that has changed. Today, millions of Californians are dreaming about leaving the state for good. The truth is that California is broke. The economy of the state is in shambles. The official unemployment rate has been sitting above 12 percent for an extended period of time, and poverty is everywhere. For many Californians today, there are very few reasons to stay in the state but a whole lot of reasons to leave: falling housing prices, rising crime, budget cuts, rampant illegal immigration, horrific traffic, some of the most brutal tax rates in the nation, increasing gang violence and the ever present threat of wildfires, mudslides and natural disasters. The truth is that it is easy to understand why there are now more Americans moving out of California each year than there are Americans moving into the state. California has become a complete and total disaster zone in more ways than one, and an increasing number of Californians are deciding that enough is enough and they are getting out for good.

On the "Survive And Thrive TV" channel on YouTube, one Californian that was in the process of moving to a different state was recently interviewed as he was preparing to leave. The following interview shows the mindset of many that are leaving California. It also contains just a bit of strong language, so if you are sensitive to that you may want to not watch this video....

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

Other desperate Americans are taking a different approach. Instead of moving to a new area, these Americans are coming up with "creative" ways of raising cash.

For example, a criminal gang of white middle-aged women in Detroit nicknamed the "Mad Hatters" has become so successful that they have made international news. It is alleged that they have pulled off a stunning series of robberies.

According to the Telegraph, the "Mad Hatters" have stolen somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million dollars so far....

The total value of merchandise and cash stolen could be as high as $500,000, police said. The women stole almost $200,000 from one bank.

In a previous article I detailed many of the ways that Americans have "gone wild" lately, but it was even shocking to me to hear of a gang of middle-aged women terrorizing the city of Detroit.

What in the world is happening to America?

Is there any hope for us?

Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown in the economy, Congress has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 50 years of age and above on early, mandatory retirement, thus creating jobs
and reducing unemployment.

This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).

Persons selected to be RAPED can apply to Congress to be considered for the
SHAFT program (Special Help After Forced Termination).

Persons who have been RAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under the SCREW program (System Covering Retired-Early Workers).

A person may be RAPED once, SHAFTED twice and SCREWED as many times as Congress deems appropriate.
Persons who have been RAPED could get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependents
& Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance).

Obviously persons who have AIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any
further by Congress.

Persons who are not RAPED and are staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Congress has always prided themselves on the amount of SHIT they give our citizens.

Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring this to the attention of your Congressman, who has been trained to give you all the SHIT you can handle.

Sincerely,
The committee for Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)

PS - Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.

If You Are Unemployed, Should You Move Somewhere Else In Order To Find A Job?

I know a 62 year old male who lost his job then accepted a contracting job in North Carolina that lasted for 6 months. During that time, he had to rent an appartment in NC and try to commute back to Michigan whenever he could to see his family.

At the end of the contract he had to go back home to Michigan......He was then offered a permanent job with the company he was working at so rather than sell his home and move south, he accepted the job and rented once again. Three months later, the company went out of business and he once again had to move back to Michigan......

Unable to find a job, he had to sell his house in Washing Twp. at an enormous loss and move into a smaller one in Warren........

He eventually found another contracting job but it required him to locate to Germany for the extent of his employment. After almost a year away from home, he had to call it quits and move back.

So I'd just as soon not hear any criticism from anyone claiming that if you want to work then you have to move...........This guy did everything in his power to make ends meet but slowly kept falling behind............He's now about 64 years old and his ability to find gainful employment commensurate with his knowledge is pretty much gone.

I am starting to get on in years but, my urge to survive (and actually thrive) is as strong as ever. Many see the extreme challenges facing America as overwhelming. Look again America, these challenges can be seen as OPPORTUNITIES.

IMO, Robert Heinlein said it best.
QUOTE A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. UNQUOTE

A look through the David Gingery HOW-TO books at Lindsay Books might well be particularly helpful. This is how things were done before "must haves" like iPhones. After all, everyone needs pots, pans, bowls and other utensils. It's also a great way to pick up USABLE SKILLS. There are countless other places around the Web on HOW TO do useful things and there are sets of books in FREE public libraries that provide knowledge, free for the asking. Maybe its time to rekindle, MADE IN AMERICA again. That goes for anything from sewing and knitting to electronics and anything in between.

I watched the video on the website about the economic collapse in California. I have read many websites and watched many videos on YouTube about the economic collapse in other states around America.

One very particular comment that piqued my curiosity was made on the video at the 2 minute 40 second mark on The Economic Collapse website by Dewayne Nichols. Nichols said, QUOTE You don't want your children waking up at night with their bellies hurting. UNQUOTE

Seeds from almost ANY vegetable found in the vegetable aisle at any supermarket can be REPLANTED.

Let me re-phrase that for Dewayne Nichols and others. You could save and dry the seeds from the tomato you bought or if its over-ripe, you were given for free at Trader Joe's or Golden Farms or Gelsons or Bristol Farms or hundreds of other supermarkets around the country and you can re-planted those seeds in the loosened-up soil, then watered and cared for a bit. And within 90 days, you'd have tomatoes to feed your children.

You can do exactly the same thing (REPLANTING VEGETABLE SEEDS) with just about any other vegetable.

Instead of watching mush on the flickering blue screen all night long, you could actually read.

If Dewayne Nichols and others chose to eat fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, brussel sprouts, peas, beans, kale, carrots, onions, peppers and potatoes and they garnished these vegetables with their choice of herbs which included dill or parsley or chives oregano or sage or some other appropriate herb then neither he nor his children would ever be hungry or bored for that matter.

There are many locations and churches around every town and city in America that are giving away -=] FREE [=- dried rice. There are absolutely no excuses whatsoever why someone like Dewayne Nichols and others like him, can not eat and enjoy good quality meals in America. IMO, they are ignorant or choose not to. If they are ignorant, read this post.

Food represents about ONE QUARTER (25%) of the cost of living. Eating good tasting, high quality food for FREE, means that people would have twenty-five (25%) more money in their pockets for other necessities and OPPORTUNITIES.

We have similar weather in Wisconsin, at least here on the Western side. It is hard, but there are hardships everywhere if you lack the income stream to allow you to overcome them and as we age, it can be difficult everywhere without that income.

The problem is, those people who have been pushed to the brink used to be the market for those useful skills and those desired products. That market is contracting rapidly. There are more people with skills and products on offer than there are those who can afford them. This is a vicious cycle, of course. Every time someone has to cut something out of their budget, someone else loses a customer, account or client.

Savings and investments are devalued, while essentials are inflated. Every endeavor takes capital, especially if you are working in a net 30 environment.You can even diversify, with one service business and one manufacturing business, only to discover that as both shrink, often the cash flow is simply not there for one to cover for the other, let alone provide life support.

What drives people to despair is that, after 3 years, people find formerly fruitful avenues of endeavor blocked or dried up. I have been watching it happen, as we all have and we are personally experiencing it, as well. As markets shrink, even self-employed professionals have to cut prices to compete. Soon, the “temporary recession pricing” becomes the expected price, while essentials and property taxes all rise. People who have accumulated assets find them unsaleable. Cash earns nothing. The investment market, even in essential commodities, is volatile, dominated by advantaged special interests and risky. None of this fosters the optimism and energy needed to go forward.

Moving, especially when over 60, means you are going some place where you are just “those old folks” from somewhere else whom no one knows nor has any inclination to know. For those who are younger, the new folks are just more competition and everyone hopes they will either become a customer or just leave, or first one, then the other. How does anyone network in that sort of situation?

Kids and family are not always the answer. Many have no children or their children are off doing their own thing with no thought for the parents or the children have become subsumed in the destructive aspects of the culture. Family members have died, are divided by stress or politics or are simply in the same or worse situations and incapable of offering support. I noticed years ago how many people no longer even mention their adult children and when they do, it is obvious many of them are glossing over some reality they don’t care to speak about. And, no one pushes them to learn more, because we all have our own disappointments and don’t feel like burdening anyone else with them.

You can join a church or a shared interest group or a club only to find that it is an established mini-oligarchy and new members exist as a source of funds and labor, only. It is so ubiquitous that locally, I have heard *new* people, as the are leaving the area, refer to it as The Freeze. People will smile at them on Sunday morning and ignore them in the street or at the store. In the established social networks, people do want to find out about newcomers, but often what they find out isn’t all that inviting, so they draw back. Gossip and speculation add to the local insularity, making it even less inviting.

We are living through pernicious times. Americans were once conditioned to move on,re-invent themselves, start again from scratch, invent a better mouse trap somewhere fresh and new and thriving. Now, they find they cannot afford to to move-on, they are too tired to re-invent themselves, there is no scratch with which to start over, no one can afford the mouse trap and few places are thriving, let alone fresh.

I think a good portion of America is clinically depressed and I am not trying to be flippant. For many of us, this economic malaise, the increase in volatile weather events, and the almost Victorian devolution into a two-tiered class system under a suffocating political regime will last the rest of our lives. I am also no longer convinced that a *change* of political leadership can make a difference.

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