How Many of us are unemployed??

[frontiergal]

And how long have you been unemployed?

[frontiergal]

I quit my job a year ago...(long story why) and have tryed to work doing senior care,but it is slow going.......Yes
I am still glad I left my job....but I would like a slightly regular income.

[Minelson]

Hubby has been unemployed since October

[Tom in TN]

Frontiergal,

I don't understand a lot of what the government says or does, but this unemployment thing really puzzles me. A couple of years ago we were supposedly at "full employment" with a little over 5% of the workforce unemployed.

We now are in the "worst crisis since the great depression" with unemployment running a little over 8%.

That's an increase of something like 3%. I really don't get it.

BTW - I'm 64 years old and I've never been unemployed since I got my first "off the farm" job at age 16.

Tom in TN

[Michgranny]

I have been unemployed since June of 08. But I live in Michigan and jobs are very hard to come by! This is the first time I have ever been unemployed. I am 53, have cut back on expenses and not doing to bad. I am receiving unemployment.

[whinnyninny]

Originally Posted by Tom in TN

Frontiergal,

I don't understand a lot of what the government says or does, but this unemployment thing really puzzles me. A couple of years ago we were supposedly at "full employment" with a little over 5% of the workforce unemployed.

We now are in the "worst crisis since the great depression" with unemployment running a little over 8%.

That's an increase of something like 3%. I really don't get it.

I thought those figures were calculated also by the number of people currently receiving unemployment benefits... so people whose benefits have run out, but are still unemployed, would not be counted. (Is that right? Someone correct me if I'm wrong).

[deb]

Originally Posted by whinnyninny

I thought those figures were calculated also by the number of people currently receiving unemployment benefits... so people whose benefits have run out, but are still unemployed, would not be counted. (Is that right? Someone correct me if I'm wrong).

You are correct. If you don't get unemployment benefits then you don't get counted as being unemployed. This would apply to folks who have used up their unemployment benefits or people who didn't qualify for unemployment like my DH (he had a type of state Gov job that doesn't have unemployment benefits.) My DH has been unemployed since last August.

deb
in wi

[JohnL751]

09/13/2008

[airmont]

May 2, 2008.

[MELOC]

unemployed with no benefits in 12/07 (among the first to suffer from the housing slump) and re-employed at 50% the hourly rate and 80% of the hours in a different job in 2/09.

[canfossi]

I am unemployed during the winter months as I do landscaping work. I just started back 2 weeks ago and does it ever feel good to be back. Chris

[renee o'neill]

me since kids were born 13 yrs ago but am getting a 3rd shift if I can ,hubby self employed work is so slow we are just getting by.He is a mason but has been doing anything he can find.Its scary but if I get this job Monday we may be ok with the house payment. ugh

[tnokie]

I was forced into early retirement three years ago becauseof botched surgery,was helping out at daughters daycare till about a month ago to get a little spending money in the pocket,but have now had give that up as well. Retirement sucks when yor disabled and poor!lol.

[smunn]

Unemployment 8 months. Had heart attack, left high stress job.

[beaglebiz]

DH has been unemployed sice October, with maybe 6 weeks work squished in that time. My company is cutting and cutting, and I think they will soon go under. Maybe by June or so is my guess
edited to add...I think there is a chance if we are both laid off this summer, we will take our trailer on a road trip to Yellowstone. That and Alaska are two places I have always wished to visit...this is going to take a bit of consideration, as it is 2,100 miles away!! but we may never get another chance

[Tricky Grama]

I've been retired since 1/06 and DH is contract labor for a tax company that is 'off' for a couple months. But we are doing ok-home is paid for, land is paid for. I will get SS if they's quit screwing up. (direct deposit?? Not if they don't know how it's done...)

Patty

[Jean in Virginia]

The husband and I were working in the oil field in west Texas, boss didn't believe in laying people off, "try to find something to tide you over" and with us having 900.00 rent and everything else, we left him at the end of my last job January 10. Working full time at wally didn't cut it. Since the first of the year I have worked a month, hubby 3 weeks, we moved back home to VA and are putting in a huge garden.

He did get a job but hasn't started yet actually working from home, and I'm still looking.

We were going to be out of credit card debt in July, now it will be Aug or Sept.

Thank goodness for chickens and potatoes.

[Yvonne's hubby]

I have been unemployed for quite a while, if memory serves about 1980 was the last time I worked for wages.

[godsgirl]

I am but I 'm going to college

[stranger]

Retired 5/30/03 with life time med for me and the wife til she is 65. I haven't missed a day of doing exactly what i want to do. Life couldn't be any better now although i spent many years working nights at a job that i hated just for the bennies and the retirement. For the past 30 yrs I thought the good times in American would end and worked most of my life just preparing for it and now it's paying off. Sometimes i wish that i had been more greedy and took chances, I could have had a lot more money, but i always felt that it was better to make a little or none than lose it all.