# How long have you been unemployed? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126 "2010-02-08T07:50:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/1 "2010-02-08T07:50:12Z")
I lost my job March 2, 2007 because the plant I was working at shut down. Using my own money I took some college classes until the Federal Trade Act\* kicked in and paid for two years of college so I could get my Associate’s degree. I graduated in June 2009 and have spent the last eight months searching for a job. So over-all I’ve been unemployed coming up three years, although I don’t count two of them since I was in college. How about the rest of you? \*A federal program to help you find a new job or get up to two years of training ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/2 "2010-02-08T08:22:17Z")
I have been unemployed and looking for work since the start of this year. So far I have applied for 31 jobs. I received a rejection email to one, and phone call asking for more info about myself from two, and no response at all to the rest. This is the third time in my life I have been unemployed. I was living in Korea last year and now I wish I had stayed there. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/3 "2010-02-08T09:24:40Z")
2 years next week. Very few companies acknowledge receipt of a resume and of those only a couple respond with a rejection. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/4 "2010-02-08T09:42:01Z")
2 years this month ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/5 "2010-02-08T10:17:28Z")
I had a couple of interviews for state jobs, a group interview for a bank teller position, and a phone interview for a bank teller position (there are a LOT of teller positions that keep opening here in Oregon). Sadly, none of them resulted in a job offer. ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/6 "2010-02-08T12:14:34Z")
4 years. I go through spurts of actively looking, because there’s only so much defeaning silence one can handle. I’ve been doing odd jobs and picking up catering gigs here and there, but I desperately want something steady and stable. Me and everyone else, right? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/7 "2010-02-08T13:39:05Z")
Since April of '08. Doing some freelancing, and thank god they kept extending my unemployment benefits, but I’m starting to get a wee bit concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/8 "2010-02-08T14:07:25Z")
Technically, only two months. But that job lasted 6 weeks before I got laid off; I spent the previous 10 months out of work. Before that, I had a job for 8 months, but spent the entire year before that out of work. The thing that kills me is what this is doing to my résumé. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/9 "2010-02-08T15:11:59Z")
1 year, 3+ months ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/10 "2010-02-08T18:20:20Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Since April of '08. > > Doing some freelancing, and thank god they kept extending my unemployment benefits, but I’m starting to get a wee bit concerned. I’m extremely grateful for the extensions too. I only have a couple of weeks left, but Googling it looks like the Oregon Senate has passed a bill to extend unemployment benefits for six weeks and it just now needs to be reconciled with the house. And apparently congress is working on an extension as well. _crosses fingers_ ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/11 "2010-02-08T18:28:54Z")
I had my last regular job about ten years ago. After that I worked for myself as a freelance carpenter about 50% of the time until about two years ago, when I became physically incapable of doing that work. Since then, nothing, with no prospects. During the first few years of unemployment I sent out perhaps 500 resumes, with fewer than ten responses and perhaps three interviews. I have absolutely no idea how or when I could get employed again. ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/12 "2010-02-08T18:58:03Z")
The call center where I was working moved some jobs to another center in November '07. I was seven months pregnant and got the axe. I became unexpectedly pregnant again in late June of '08. Had my youngest in April '09 and quickly decided I’d rather kill myself than work in a call center ever again. Now I’m in school with a graduation date of March '11. If all goes well, I will have been unemployed about three and a half years. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/13 "2010-02-08T19:15:51Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Using my own money I took some college classes until the Federal Trade Act\* kicked in and paid for two years of college so I could get my Associate’s degree. Brief hijack: from a quickie Google search it looks like someone has to have lost their job due to the company outsourcing the position to a foreign country, correct? (I would happily take advantage of some free education; but my old job was eliminated, not sent overseas. On the other hand, if anyone knows of a program I _would_ possibly qualify for, PM me?) ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/14 "2010-02-08T21:55:02Z")
I’ve been unemployed since May '09. I start the training for my new job March 1. thank God! ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/15 "2010-02-09T00:13:09Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Brief hijack: from a quickie Google search it looks like someone has to have lost their job due to the company outsourcing the position to a foreign country, correct? Correct. I and my coworkers worked for a plant that manufactured printed circuit boards. Our customers were giving more and more of their business to overseas (I think it was China specifically) companies until we didn’t have enough work to stay open any more. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/16 "2010-02-09T00:20:04Z")
I just don’t get it. How does one survive being unemployed for 2 years? 4 years? How do you live? ---
**Author:** ![akennett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/17 "2010-02-09T00:53:09Z")
You scrape up odd jobs, freelancing work, whatever you can find. You survive on whatever government benefits you can apply for. If you’re lucky, you have family that can and will help out. I’ve only been out of work for about 9 months, but I live with my fiancee and we live fairly frugally. Unemployment benefits, as others have mentioned, have been extended several times, so that gives us a little money coming in. I also do some freelance writing and other odd jobs, adding to that. Mostly, though, we survive on one income, where two would be much, much better. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/18 "2010-02-09T01:14:22Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > I just don’t get it. How does one survive being unemployed for 2 years? 4 years? How do you live? I saw some of this coming years ago so I paid off my house and all other debts. It’s been a tremendous drain on my bank account. The unemployment benefit has covered my property taxes and insurances so that was very helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/19 "2010-02-09T01:50:18Z")
I was laid off from my full-time job on 01/15/2009. Since then, I’ve had one three week contract and that’s it. I’m trying to grow the Taekwondo school into a paying proposition, but with the economy in the toilet the way it is, we may be shutting our doors. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126/20 "2010-02-09T02:49:36Z")
I’m going on nearly three years. I’m losing my mind. I couldn’t even get a call for a part-time, seasonal retail job at Christmas, with years of retail experience under my belt. I have very unusual circumstances that limit the hours and days I can work right now, so that makes it even harder to find a job. Hopefully my situations will work themselves out soon and I’ll be able to look for normal M-F 8-5, not that there’ll be anything out there. In some ways, I’m very fortunate that family has taken me in and I scrape by with enough money to get through the days most of the time. I had to let my car insurance and sticker expire last month because I couldn’t afford them, so now my car is just kind of sitting there. Since it’s not legal and I can’t drive it, it’s another obstacle to overcome for employment. (I can borrow others’ cars, and that’s great for errands, but I couldn’t do that every day if I had a job.) I do some freelance stuff, but it’s only about $100/month. I wanted to finish my degree. I assumed I would be able to find some crappy part-time, minimum wage job to make enough money to take one $300 class at community college, but I couldn’t. In some ways my situation is very dire, in others I am very lucky. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-unemployed/528126.md?page=2)