The Secret Upside To Being Unemployed

There's an awful air of apathy in this country right now. Many people aren't looking for work because there isn't any. Calls to job ads go unanswered. Employment agencies call you in and don't even see you, they just have you update your profile. No one is shopping, no one is getting a paycheck, unemployment doesn't allow for extras. This is outrageous. The 1st lady hired Beyoncé and Adele to sing at her birthday party and conservative talk show folks are being fired. Is anyone out there looking out for America anymore?

This has to be a political scheme to make the prez's administration look like they are doing something good about unemployment. We have millions of people unemployed and the only recommendation is to hire someone to help the unemployed reinvent themselves. If you are unemployed and have no or little income it is difficult to find funds to hire help of any sort. Sad that one of two cases are used by the media to try to show how everyone can get out of unemployment.

Nice to have a spouse that can pay the bills so you can do things your way.

the worst part is that most of these "freelance" people are still collecting some kind of unemployment benefits!

gotta love how even the media is driving this country right into a wall...

we can not keep affording these entitlement programs, PERIOD! spending FAR more then we take in is simply NOT self sustaining! and taxing the 5% who already pay for almost 80% of EVERYTHING and EVERY service already, is NOT the answer!

Being unemployed is never good. This article is misleading. Right from the start this person had work freelancing. Others are not that lucky. I am not saying that when you are in your 30's it might turn out well, you will get back on your feet get a better job. But when you are in your late 40's early 50's your to young to retire and to old to get most jobs out there. It does happen but it takes that age group longer , and God help us by then all of our savings are gone.

The "NEW" America, how wonderful it is to NOT work! She must be a union member! These are the kind of people that now litter our country, and we're seeing the results as we move closer to being like the failed Social Democracies of dying Western Europe.

This country prospered quite well for a long time with an unemployment benefit period of 20 or 26 weeks. Drawing unemployment benefits is now considered an "occupatio" by many, and no matter how long the period, "America's Greatest Mistake Ever," want to keep extending the benefits period, after which many go right onto federal disability plans. We are becoming Wester Eurpope just as "AGME" has planned from the beginnng!

Here is the NEW America:
TANF (food stamps) is just one of several welfare programs operated by the federal government to provide cash, food, housing, and health care assistance to poor and low-income Americans. Today, taxpayers fund roughly 80 different programs at a cost of nearly $1 trillion a year for these purposes. These include:

12 programs providing food aid;
12 programs funding social services;
12 educational assistance programs;
11 housing assistance programs;
10 programs providing cash assistance;
9 vocational training programs;
7 medical assistance programs;
3 energy and utility assistance programs; and,
3 child care and child development programs.

How many of the government’s 80-plus welfare programs include a work requirement? Just two.

I know people in their middle 40's who were laid off in 2009. They were general laborers. This was at and during the peak of the downward plunge. They have now given up all hope of ever working again. When they apply for any job, no matter how menial, they are never considered because:

They are too old.

Their credit rating has been demolished because of a shortage of money at the time they were laid off and because they have used up all their savings. If they had homes, they have been lost.

They are overqualified, or under qualified.

They have "too big" a gap in their work history. (This is particularly cruel under the circumstances)

The "jobs programs" are either unfunded or entirely absent.

The "job training programs" are either unfunded, entirely absent, or do not include white people if it can be avoided.

The real unemployment number is 14.2% and is nearly the same as it was in February, 2009.
U6 Unemployment Rates portal/7.com

The good thing about being unemployed is that at least you don't get to work at a job you hate. The bad thing about being unemployed is no money, insurance, etc. Face it, there's a one percent chance of me getting a job in my field, so it's either be employed at a job I hate (because lord knows I have a better chance of dating a model than landing a job in my field) or be unemployed with no money coming in. It's a lose-lose situation.

OH yes, it's just SO wonderful to be unemployed. The endless interviews that go nowhere, wondering how you'll pay for groceries every week and how you'll pay your bills EVERY month.

I guess it's easy when you have a spouse who has maintained their job and benefits and you can take the time, effort to and money to reinvent yourself instead of looking for a job. This article is bunch of "feel good" crap and not based in reality.

After working for 31 years, I left my executive assistant/legal secretary job in September 2007 when I remarried and relocated. My husband is 19 years older than me (he's 75 and I'm 56) and we wanted to spend some time together. I started looking for another job again in January 2008 and spent two years looking. I quickly realized that work in my same field would pay $10,000 to $12,000 a year less than what I was previously making. My husband encouraged me to stop looking and, fortunately, we had the resources for me to be able to do that. It's been wonderful spending time with my husband, cooking, and doing some traveling. Lest you think my life has been a picnic, though, I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in September 2012 and have been in severe pain since. I just started on Humira last week and it seems to be helping. My point is, though, that if I had received this diagnosis while still working full time, I probably would had to file for disability.