800,000 Jobless Americans to Lose Aid

USA Today / AP ^ | 12/28/2002 | AP Staff

[ex-Texan]

WASHINGTON (AP)

[Republic of Texas]

BTW, Unemployment is not free. Companies pay for it. How many jobs would be available today, if no company in America ever had to pay Unemployment Insurance? Maybe thousands. Maybe one. The one you could've had.

[clamper1797]

to a 3 year old = with a 3 year old.

[A. Pole]

When most people whine, "there are no jobs", that's code for, there are jobs, I just think I'm too good to take them*****

You are so clever. The Great Depression was a result of world wide laziness epidemics.

[Republic of Texas]

Wow! Five degrees and you still haven't learned that putting others down does not build you up. Well, the constuctive part of this thread is done, good luck fellas!

[gcruse]

No, this is help wanted of any sort. As for moving, I apply for positions all over the country. I am and always have been very mobile. At 60, retraining doesn't make much sense. Too close to retirement.

[clamper1797]

It will probably return upon your departure

[clamper1797]

Are you out too my friend ???

[Republic of Texas]

I wasn't referring to the Great Depression. Besides that generation survived to save the world for democracy, and they did it without unemployment insurance.

[clamper1797]

and they did it without unemployment insurance

Guess again ... your education is showing ...

I suppose you never heard of CCC, WPA or the New Deal huh

[A. Pole]

I just don't like socialism in any form.

So what about privatising the military - you want army to fight for some cause - pay from your own pocket. Next justice system - get the verdicts you can afford. You need police protection - pay. Firemen - negociate the price when you need tham. Privatise roads - imagine all those nice toll-houses. Socialism cannot work :)

[EGPWS]

BTW, Unemployment is not free. Companies pay for it.

GOOD POINT! Although I am an employee for a company, I do understand that my total income payed to me by my company is much more than my hourly wage. It IS part of the wage offered to one when they work for a business. As for unemployment wages go they certainly are not payed by the government since the government doesn't create wealth but is there to redistribute wealth.

[A. Pole]

I wasn't referring to the Great Depression. Besides that generation survived to save the world for democracy, and they did it without unemployment insurance.

I see no connection. Either way - this epidemics of laziness (called by evil the Marxists a Great Depression) drove Germans nuts. Americans got only a New Deal.

[gcruse]

I have been unemployed from photofinishing engineering since February in Seattle. I moved back to Texas but am applying to every pro and amateur lab in the country. It is dismal.

[clamper1797]

I remember talking with you about this on another thread. I sincerly hope things get better for you. I know how tough it can be.

[gcruse]

Best wishes to you, too. I made it through over forty years of work life without ever taking a penny of unemployment. Now that I have hit the age barrier, I'm glad it's there, these braying naysayers notwithstanding.

[UnBlinkingEye]

I've been in software development since 1987 when I started at Microsoft after receiving my BSCS. I returned to college at age 30 so I was older than most of the other students in school and the other new recruits at Microsoft. I have founded two small software consulting companies, led four software development teams and worked on award winning projects. In 2000 the consulting business began to diminish so I went back to working as an employee for a dot bomb company that had just received $60 million dollars in V.C. money.

What could go wrong with a well funded company like that? Nine months later they went bankrupt, no severance, no COBRA for the remaining employees.

I tried technical recruiting in 2001, but oddly enough no one seemed to require the services of a recruiter. That company went bankrupt a few months after I started.

So I found myself on unemployment, worked on picking up new skills in Java, XML, SQL etc. I sent out over four hundred resumes initially mainly in the Seattle area, for software development, then nationwide, then outside my field. Three interviews, no job.

I went from an average of $100,000 yearly to around $1900 monthly unemployment. My house was foreclosed, my car repossessed and my unemployment ran out leaving me facing bankruptcy. I now am helping part time with my wife's cleaning business. I even applied at McDonalds and some local restaurants, to no avail.

Luckily, I have ownership in a U.S. patent that I developed for a consumer electronics product that is on the verge of being licensed, thus saving the remainder of my bacon.

Many people are uninformed about the real state of affairs in the software arena and the difficulties faced by those trying to restore a shattered career and financial destruction.

[gcruse]

Wow. I haven't lost a lot and am old enough to jump to retirement. Your plight makes me appreciate what I have. Good luck.

[clamper1797]

I know ... I took my first unemployment after 35 years of working and paying into the fund ... and these "braying jackasses" would begrudge us 3 months ($4000) worth of unemployment INSURANCE. What a bunch of fools

[gcruse]

The best revenge is knowing they will probably have to do the same someday. :)

[clamper1797]

Many people are uninformed about the real state of affairs in the software arena

It's hit the hardware sector pretty hard too. I'm a hardware design engineer and have many many friends who have lost nearly everything. I guess that is why I'm so vocal on this thread.