I’ll become part of that figure in January, since I’m being laid off at the end of December. This is a direct result of Obama’s dislike for the military in general and the missile defense program in particular. My whole branch (46 contractors) at the Missile Defense Agency has been cut, along with 800 other people throughout the agency. Though our employers have managed to find jobs for most of the engineers and analysts, there’s nothing for a tech editor who’s been around forever and makes a high salary. And word is that 2012 will be as bad or worse for layoffs, so I’m happy to take my severance pay and file for unemployment. I can’t wait to vote that Kenyan SOB out of office.
Sorry to hear about your impending job loss, especially during the holiday season. Same thing happened to me last November...the hospital where I worked for 7 years shut down the entire medical transcription department and sent our jobs to India. Most of us were women in our 50s to 60s, close to retirement age.
Transcription is on its last legs as a career in the US so most of us are still looking for jobs in different fields. Uncle Sam has a retraining program for people whose jobs have been sent overseas, so many of us are going to be doing that. I don’t know if you’d qualify for such a program but there are things like that available.
Good luck in your future endeavors!
Mrs. Prince of Space