Long-term unemployed and/or those who have given up looking,

[raccoon]

how do they make it? If you or someone you know falls into either of these categories, please post.

[tonysam]

1. Still on UI, looking for an attorney to sue my former employer.

Will likely have to move out of state to live with relatives. There are NO jobs to be had in Nevada.

[laughingliberal]

9. Fellow Nevadan. It's god-awful here. nt

[change_notfinetuning]

2. It would be nice if the White House were asking the question and as

concerned about the answers as you are.

[humblebum]

3. Homeless shelters have become a booming business. nt

[Warpy]

4. Lived on savings for almost 3 years

by allowing myself $800/month when the mortgage took the first $560. No food stamps, no food pantry, just beans and rice.

The worst things about poverty are boredom and depression.

I have no idea what I would have done if it had gone on longer, probably sold the house for whatever I could get and moved into a studio apartment after putting my stuff into storage or just putting it into a dumpster.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Husband has a job

although it was terrifying when he got downsized the day before Christmas in 2008. Luckily, he found another one quickly.

We have no money for clothes, dentists, car repairs, restaurants, entertainment or anything else. I clip coupons and shop at yard sales.

[Berry Cool]

6. Financially, you mean?

I just got extended federal benefits which, if I don't get anything, are good for another 20 weeks. I've exhausted the state ones. If I still have nothing then, I will have to start dipping into my savings.

I was lucky in some ways. I made more money than I needed to live on and while I didn't invest it in some high-interest-earning savings account, I didn't spend it either. I also got a big check for all my untaken vacation. Combine that with state unemployment compensation that was higher than it might have been had I had a lower-paying job, and things have not been bad. Up to now, anyway. The only bad part was getting a bacterial infection and having to pay out of pocket for doctor visits because I'm not so well off that COBRA isn't out of my league, even with partial government payment for it.

The toughest part has been the morale issue. It hurts to have an advanced degree and nearly 20 years' experience, and go six months and send out scores of resumes and job applications, and get only two--count 'em--two nibbles (one of them followed by an extensive series of interviews), neither of which has yet resulted in an offer.

It hurts when they don't even acknowledge and thank you for applying. It hurts when they don't even bother to tell you they made the offer to someone else. It hurts when you know you are more than qualified for the job but you don't even get an interview. It hurts when you work hard to make sure you're what employers are supposedly looking for "today" and you don't even get a bite. It is frustrating when you have to apply online using an electronic form and it keeps kicking your form back to you saying you failed to fill it out correctly or you gave an answer it won't accept--such as when you try to answer a question about "salary desired" with "negotiable" (because YOU DON'T DISCUSS SALARY UNTIL AFTER YOU GET AN OFFER) and it wouldn't accept that answer because it insisted the answer be in the form of a dollar figure, and you don't want to give a dollar figure because you're afraid you'll either highball or lowball yourself out of even making the cut. (If I go high, will they think I'm too expensive? If I go low, will they think I don't value myself enough? You can't win.)

Oh, I could go on and on about the hoops that electronic applications make you jump through. Such as the ones where they want to conduct background screenings so extensive that you have to provide every address you lived at the past seven years--so I either need to remember the street number and ZIP code of the apartment I lived in in 2004 in another state before I moved, or dig it up, before I can submit the application--just so they know I'm not a crook.

And despite all this, I still thank heaven that I can apply for unemployment benefits online every week, rather than having to go someplace and sit in a waiting room or stand in a line and wait to talk to someone about how I still haven't found a job. And as annoying as it sometimes is, it's more convenient for me to "pound the pavement" electronically than in person. It could be worse.

But the morale? The morale of waking up every day and not having a place you have to get to and people who expect you to be there and who make you feel as if you're doing something constructive on the planet? That's tough to keep up sometimes.

[scorpiogirl]

7. My husband has been out of work for 1 1/2 years.

We are a family of four living on unemployment (just started third round) and have cashed out my husband's 401k which is now gone. We just took some money off our credit card to get us by for a while. We are in the Bay Area, CA and the job market is dead as far as we can tell. We have moved twice already, including a three week stint at the in-laws, and have sold a lot of things and are now in an apartment. My husband made six figures and now we are scraping by. I hope all people realize how fast it can happen. I never thought we'd actually get to this place. Life is crazy.

We do have something we're looking to do, but it might take a few months to get up and running. In the meanwhile, there are still things that can be sold, but I'm just not ready to do that yet. I've already accepted that our excellent credit may have to ruined by a bankruptcy if we can't pay back what we owe, but we have to live in the now. We are in survival mode.

[galileoreloaded]

8. You know what's funny.....

if you come here as an individual and say "Starve the beast. You have to hide your assets, work the bare minimum that WIC and Medicaid allow, and work under the table for the rest" you are decried at every turn.

When a bank does THE EXACT SAME THING with the explicit sanction of the US government, it is called an "economic necessity". What it is, is a violation of equal protection AS these corporations are clearly now people, and what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

[raccoon]

10. To all those who responded, thanks for your responses and I hope

things work out for you.

BTDT. In the early '80's I was job-hunting and everybody had a freeze on. Only thing I could find was temporary office work and not much of that. I didn't find a job until the economy got better.

:grouphug: