Posted on 09/16/2011 1:33:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
After 30 months of unemployment, 400 applications, and only three in-person interviews, I stood looking at my last unemployment benefit without a job in sight.
The temptation was to frame it, since it marks one of those transitions in life that merits being remembered. But I needed the money more than a memento, so I took my last unemployment check to the bank and deposited it -- $367 for some necessities. Food, rent, gas. My last unemployment check was $160 less than my usual weekly benefit, but still a welcome boost to my sagging finances. How I will miss those Tuesday trips to the mailbox and then the bank, one of the few regular events in my upended, irregular life!
I had always thought the unemployed were society's unfortunates, people unlike me lacking in education or training or experience or skills. Then in March of 2009, the Hearst Corporation quit publishing the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I suddenly became a labor statistic, one of millions without work in the worst economic implosion since the Depression. I was more fortunate than many unemployed people since the Newspaper Guild negotiated a decent severance that yielded two weeks' pay for every year of employment. Since I had spent more than a quarter century underneath the P-I's landmark globe, my severance was a year's salary, although that lump sum check as I left the building forever had a tax bite from a Great White Shark.
Now my severance is exhausted, as is my unemployment, and I am scrambling every day for work. I had been a columnist, then the book critic for the P-I, enviable newspaper jobs even among my colleagues. Now I seek any writing or editing work that I discover,
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Thought about moving to where jobs are easier to get?
“...apply for writing and editing jobs but also ...”
That’s how I ended up in quality control at an appliance factory. I try to look on the bright side: no nights, no weekends, am home by 3 p.m. to get the kids off the bus. Still enough light in the dead of winter to do outdoor chores.
I have been writing in my free time.
The P-I guy might consider such a gig. But I know there are many places where no such job is to be found.
My wife, after YEARS of “unemployment” (read “raising our kids”) decided to go back to work. Within two months she had two offers. She is now working plenty.
her qualifications? Willing to work.
This is a comparatively small job market, too. Oh, well, all depends on what you’re willing to do.
I wondered about that as well. He mentions other part-time gigs he did/is doing. Aren't you supposed to lose benefits if you are working at anything? Maybe there is loophole for part time.
I thought of another thing he can do: substitute teaching. He says he wants to be a teacher, subbing is great way to break into a full-time teaching job.
How do you feel about the Social Security check I get every month?
RE: On his website he has a whole list of books he has reviewed there. Doesn’t look unemployed to me, unless they don’t pay you at the Daily Beast (aka Newsweak).
________________________________________________________________________
If he was receiving unemployment checks while simulataneously receiving pay from his book reviewing, this is grounds for fraud... just saying.
RE: How do you feel about the Social Security check I get every month?
YOU PAID INTO SOCIAL SECURITY. Think of it as your simply receiving the money that was forcibly taken from you when you were working ( at least that was the message given to you and me when SS was conceived ).
Of course we all know that the money you put in was ALREADY SPENT. The money you are getting today in Social Security is simply TAKEN BY FORCE from CURRENT WORKERS. ( similar to what they did to you in your active years ).
RE: Oh, well, all depends on what you’re willing to do.
Of course, and what kind of job did she accept?
Yeah. I paid into it for 48 years! OMG!
Medicaid and yes food stamps. It had it made, up until the gravy train finally ended.
So in actuality, this guy made much more than $527 per week? Sickening to think about!
Those of us who work for ourselves, and have seen many (or most) of our clients go under, receive zero compensation for that situation.
Marketing. Putting up advertising material in local grocery stores & such. She also got two friends jobs (same company, related work) via recommendation. That’s THREE. It is not desk-job-easy work, but she’s a darned hard worker, willing to do it and .... employed! :)
Are they looking for civil engineers? I have a son who graduated in May,thought he had a job with the state only to find out that the job he was interviewed for was phased out along with 4 others in the same department. He’s had two interviews since with no luck. Luckily he still has his burger flipping job or he would be SOL.
You would think that after 30 months, he could at least have written a book or two. If I had good writing skills and lots of free time on my hands, I would have at least created some sort of website with the potential for income two years down the road. Or submit short articles regularly to some periodical with the hope of getting noticed. At the very least, he could have gotten on the payroll of Obama’s Ministry of Propaganda.
You're suggesting Americans are not appreciative? Are you implying America needs more foreigners?
In my town, of 8000, we lost our Barber to cancer. For about a year, the shop sat empty. Tough economy?? Why no barber..
Did it occur to you no one in your town could afford to purchase this business? Did it occur to you many times foreigners are give breaks on business loans which are not offered to existing citizens?
Not a day went by that some slackard didn't come in with the dress and attitude inapporpriate for a garbage collector asking for a job. All they wanted was to "prove" they went through the motions looking so they could continue to collect their governmnet check.
The sad part of it was the management of the place was so conditioned to this type of BS that when people I thought were genuinely interested came in, they got the same brush-off.
What the hell is wrong with this guy ?
In 1979, I saw the writing on the wall for the scribbling profession and got out. My first year in marketing and sale tripled what I’d been making as a reporter.
what?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.