My wife is disabled so besides caregivers provided by Medicaid my mother moved in to help me take care of my wife. My mom gives us some money. Also, my wife gets long term care payments which are supposed to be turned over to Medicaid as reimbursement (gee, I thought we paid for Medicaid with our taxes. Seems like double dipping to me, but, whatever). Anyway, occasionally we have to use the payments to pay bills instead.
That is my concern too. I worry if I am out too long, people will assume it is because I have some major defect in my employability.
Wow. I’m employed and reading this thread is almost unbearable. I doff my cap to all of you.
I graduated with an MPH in May of ‘08, and since then, nuthin’. I do some volunteer work, and we live off of my husband’s salary, but I feel like I’ve killed my career before it could even get off the ground due to the hole in my resume. My husband (quite fairly) resents me for being essentially a ‘discouraged worker’ rather than unemployed, because I have mostly stopped looking after not being able to take the futility of it all anymore.
Yah, that’s a huge worry.
My first job out of school was a contract position at a major newspaper which expired shortly after ownership of the major newspaper changed hands. Since that time (early 2008) I’ve been doing on again / off again freelance work for a friend’s business, but it’s never developed into the full time gig I’d hope when I started and feels more like a bad relationship than a fruitful endeavor (e.g. I’ve changed the ‘end’ date for this entry on my resume three times). The money made from the freelancing has been helpful (when it’s been there) but in essence, I’ve been sponging off family for going on three years without full time work. The situation feels dire, but in light of what’s been said by others in this thread, there’s at least some comfort in knowing that the situation isn’t unique.
I hold unbounded, unfounded optimism for this year solely due to the fact that I can’t fathom how it could get any worse than the last.
I’ve been laid off for quite a while now. Which really sucks, because I’ve worked since I was 15 years old and only been laid off once before. (Also economy related)
“How does one live?”: Well, I’m not saying that some of the things I’ve had to do to pay the bills were straight up *illegal *(No, Your Honor, they weren’t *exactly *illegal…) but you gotta do what you gotta do. Now that football season is over, things are probably going to get tougher.
Not hearing from employers: Yes, after submitting over three bazillion resumes, I receive only about one response in 20, and those are usually only acknowledgement of application. It’s hard to deal with. I’ve lost all motivation months ago.
One of my main points is that while I only know a few others who are going through the same thing, they say the same thing: They don’t know how they would survive without their spouse / SO / family / whatever. Some of us are single and miles away from relatives. It’s tough for us types. So get out of my face when you tell me to “buck up because I did it too…”. No you didn’t. You relied on your SO/whatever to help out. Me, I don’t have that.
I like it best in *True Romance *when Dick Ritchey said to Clarence “…All I’ve got is fucking Floyd”.
Okay, I’m through whining now. On top of all this unemployment biz, I’ve been snowed in and stuck in the house since Friday. So yeah, we’ve got cabin fever as well.
And I’ve had no caffeine since then.
Oh, I am SO with you, Brother. Tomorrow is my one year anniversary. I hardly ever get a confirmation that my resume got there! I lost motivation too, but mainly because the want ads usually being with the words “unpaid internship”. :rolleyes:
One year, one month and one day, as of today. I had savings but only enough for 6 months. I’ve held on to most of my savings so far, but my unemployment extension runs out at the end of March. I think I can make it to July. And then… I don’t know what happens after that. My mother told me last week not to call her unless I have a job. (I called because it was her birthday, not to hit her up for money.)
However, I did get a call today for my first in-person interview since last April. I think I scared the HR person with my enthusiasm, but I got the interview anyway. I’m trying to think positively, but I’m afraid I’ll blow it by seeming too desperate. Well, I am desperate, but still.
Good luck. I hope you get the job.
Me too, Shadow. (Fingers crossed)
The only employment related thing I experienced of recent days was a job possibility for-- go ahead, guess how much? 17,000 to 21,000 ANNUAL SALARY.
5 days a week, on call on weekends, College Graduate, experience in TV and Film Post Production, experience with software, experience with translation templates, etc. PLUS, one week per month will switch from a 8am to 5 pm shift to a 3 am to 11 am shift.
I hope they don’t call me back. This would work out to around $8.62 per hour. Use “the economy” as an excuse as much as you want, employers, but if that’s all you offer, call a teenager. I really don’t live beyond my usual means, but, shit, I’ve got a mortgage. 
But I did get a fortune cookie recently saying something about my good luck becoming higher soon…
Yeah… Fortunately for me, I have an ongoing contracting gig I can list as my “current” position. That helps a lot. Even if I lose it, it will at least have filled in a gap that I’m a little embarrassed to mention here. 
(Although at least one post here has either met or exceeded my number, with similar circumstances.)
Said gig (and my cheapskate instincts, not to mention family) is how I’ve survived this long, altho’ obviously my savings has suffered immensely. (Though it took me a LOT longer to spend it than it took to get it in the first place, which is an extremely encouraging sign.)
Me too. My last ‘real’ job was over ten years ago. I’ve sold on eBay when it was hot, but not so much anymore. I was a full time student for five of those years.
I live with my SO who has a good job. I have a bit of savings and investments, and I sell stuff on eBay from time to time.
Me too. I have a feeling that most employers don’t consider my selling on eBay since 1998 to be a real employment, and it is quite the employment gap. But what can I do on my résumé, lie about it? Rejection sucks a lot of motivation out of me. I can’t be the only woman with such a gap.
My brother got his first really good job by offering to do it for free for the first month. He impressed so much that they not only hired him after the month was up but gave him back pay for it.
Since you’re living off your unemployment benefit anyway, maybe the unpaid internship thing wouldn’t be horrible…?
Name your eBay store. Bingo - you’re self-employed and a sole proprietor. You just turned your resume liability into a selling point.
I’ve been unemployed for 1 week, and you guys are scaring the crap out of me!
I am working a very part time job (the level of hostility in this job is indescribable but I would still rather be working more hours). Collecting a tiny amount of unemployment. Had to apply for Snap or go hungry - which requires 20 hours of outside the home job searching in a rural area which has literally no jobs anywhere - none of the local agencies communicate with each other - the FSSA office is delusional about job availability. The employment office is overwhelmed with those seeking work and applying for unemployment - but also delusional about job availability. Add into it that I am older and can’t lift 100 pounds for 12 hour shifts anymore. I already have an education so I can’t get government funding to get more education in something else and in my county there are only a couple of government funded education programs anyway. I see many younger people joining the service to get out of this area. Then the government also has job training programs for the younger people too - Job corp. I seem to be in the inbetween group that doesn’t qualify for anything. Companies are laying people off right and left and firing people too for no reason to get rid of longterm employees. Since I am now required to spend alot of time job hunting and at the employment office I am seeing and hearing the stories of people who got laid off or fired for bogus reasons. Many employers are using the economy as a reason to clean house of employees who have worked for many years - so they can get rid of people who are being paid more and might soon be eligible for pensions. The attitude of the people at the government agencies is that we are all stupid, lazy, uneducated, have drug or alcohol issues, poor attendance or some issue that an employer would lay us off or reduce our hours. THEY aren’t out there looking for work and have NO idea what it is like.
I graduated in December so not too long. I do have an interview with and temp agency Friday. It may not lead to a real job but if it works out it will keep me from slowly eating every bit of savings I have. Wish me luck 
Damn. That’s cold.
Anyway, good luck with your interview.
That hasn’t been my experience, really. People value you/your skills according to how much they gotta pay you, broadly. When I offered discounts trying to get clients in the door, they walked all over me, wanted the world and the moon (but not to pay extra for it of course), and when I tried to put my foot down and point out the scope creep, they shrugged and said they’d find someone else, then. (And still not make any attempt to pay for what I already had done for them.) The same was true of W2 employers who lowballed me on salary; I was promised great contacts, a great learning environment, a great deal of professional development opportunities… no. I wasn’t even given the job I’d interviewed for; I was turned into a glorified secretary and was never allowed to leave the office, get training, or meet any of these supposedly great contacts. But the salary never got better to compensate. And eventually I was laid off because – surprise! :rolleyes: – I’m really bad at being a secretary.
I can’t point to which is the cause and which the symptom, but if someone is cheaping out on the pay, it pretty much guarantees that they don’t respect you. And if they don’t respect you, they’re not going to be too inclined to pay you any more later.
Also, unemployment (at least in IL) requires you to be available for work during your normal work day. If you are interning M-F 9-5, unemployment will not pay you for that time, because it’s preventing you from taking a paying job. They want you to take the paying job, so they can stop paying you. The only way around this is to lie on your certification, which carries some pretty hefty penalties (fines and jail time, not to mention paying back the money you fraudulently took). The unemployment office isn’t incredibly sympathetic to the way a real-world job search works, btw. In order to qualify I have to list the places I apply for work – but in my field I’m lucky if I find five job listings in a month that I qualify for. And they absolutely do not care that I’m going to networking events every week. That doesn’t count; all they care about is whether I’m shooting off resumes.
Luckily I’m listed with uhhh… 6 or 7 creative services agencies, now; so every Monday when I remind them that I exist, I can list that on my unemployment form as an “employer contact.”
I was going to say this as well; if you’re freelancing, you don’t need to have an employment gap. You can just call your “company” [your name] freelance creative services (or whatever it is that you do). It’s truthful; “freelance” doesn’t guarantee that you’re working 40 hours a week 50 weeks a year (and in fact it usually doesn’t mean that), but you can list it as “July 2009 to present” and just not go into the details of how you haven’t found a client in the last three months. As long as you’re still pursuing clients, I think it’s fair to say that you’re freelancing; most of running a business is business development and wooing potential clients, anyway.
Wow. I consider myself lucky. I am 51 years old, and since I was 16 I have never been unemployed. In fact, I’ve held as many as 3 jobs at once (one full time and two part time) including my college years.