August 2012
2 posts
4 tags
July 2012
1 post
3 tags
'I pay on the loan monthly, but I still owe pretty...
I was able to get through undergrad without having to get loans. But the summer before I entered graduate school, my parents got divorced and were no longer going to be able to help pay for my Master’s degree.
I ended up taking out loans to cover my three years of school, while also working full time. I decided to go into the Social Work field and without a Master’s Degree I would not...
June 2012
5 posts
4 tags
'North Korea and student loan debt have this in...
North Korea and student loan debt have this in common: both are difficult to get out of.
At the time of writing, my student loan debt sits over $40,000, divided up into three different loans, which are owned by three different companies. During the five years of owning this debt, those three different loans have changed more hands than I can remember.
When a loan changed hands, which happened...
3 tags
'Maybe one day I’ll go back to school ... but I...
My name is Kyle, I’m 27 and I graduated from ITT Tech in 2008 with a drafting/design degree. At a cost of $40,000. $20k a year, now that’s a lot, but figured it was the first step in the right direction. Before I took up drafting, I use to work as a “housekeeper” for a local medical clinic. That’s really just a fancy way of saying I emptied the trash and cleaned the toilets. It was a dirty job,...
3 tags
'It was only recently that I have been able to...
The decision of taking out student loans was never really a question. Growing up in the mid-90s, the pervasive mentality was that successful people went to college. College people were smart. In an era where everybody was a winner, I was smart, so I was going to college to be successful, regardless of cost.
The initial thought was that scholarships would be prevalent, but they were not, so...
5 tags
'I wish I knew then what I know now, I would not...
I had to go to work right out of high school. Yet ever since I knew what one was I wanted to be a teacher. So with no savings I decided to take out loans. I went to the University of Phoenix online (I still had to work full time) in 2003 and received my Associates Degree in General Studies in 2005. I then found an online accredited teachers college called Western Governors University and...
3 tags
'I don't necessarily think that someone else...
Down But Not Out started as a project to gather the stories of those dealing with long-term unemployment in the summer of 2011. We continue to gather stories of how Americans are coping with a rocky economy. In May, we asked Yahoo News readers about their experiences with student loan debt. We’ll be sharing some of their stories this week.
I like to say I’m a victim of the poor...
December 2011
21 posts
2 tags
'Sort of like being the only sober person at a...
My husband is officially laid off today, after 26 years with the company and roughly 2 weeks before Christmas. We have scaled back tremendously—no gift baskets to relatives, only cards. No big presents to my two adult kids—just some cash and a few stocking stuffers. No trips to see family. My adult son has only been able to get part time work and lives at home with us.
To cheer the...
3 tags
'I do not have a new years resolution. Well maybe...
I am a mother of three living in Reno, NV. The holidays this year are rough.
I am still without work and my husband is just starting his job on Monday and we do not know if it will even pay the bills. We have gone from making $72,000.00 a year to food stamps and $100.00 to my name.
To add to our struggles the home I live in is being auctioned off on Thursday and my oh so wonderful...
2 tags
'Holidays literally around the corner with with...
I have been jobless for about a month or so now. My previous job was in Fremont barely making enough to get there and back due to my car that ate my gas and of the prices being outrageously high. But like everyone else, I needed a job to get me around. Let alone every pay check went into bills which now is piling up due to no income. And giving money to my parents who unfortunately are unemployed...
2 tags
'My presents from my family members will be things...
This Christmas will be worse for my family than it was last year. My parents and I are unable to buy presents for any family members. If we’re lucky, maybe we could at least buy them some of those chocolate-covered cherry candies. My presents from my extended family members will be things to help me in any way get a new job, such as how two of my aunts are buying me a new pair of glasses....
3 tags
'This past Friday, on the afternoon of our annual...
I thought I would add my two cents to the tale of the down but not out stories. I have been employed for the past eleven years in a small Civil Engineering and Surveying office. Times have been tough and we all have been taking unpaid furlough days to help keep the office overhead in check.
This past Friday, on the afternoon of our annual evening company Christmas party, I was told I was being...
3 tags
'I'm grateful that I don't have a family of my own...
This is my second Christmas in a row unemployed. In fact, my 99 weeks of unemployment are ending in January, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do. My usual work is as an entertainment executive in Los Angeles, but my holidays this year will be spent looking for any job I can get and deciding if I’m going to have to declare bankruptcy. Merry Christmas to me!
I’m 36 now and...
3 tags
'We will have a special dinner if the meat goes on...
I am a 56 year old female who has been out of work since early Feb. 2009. I worked with an educational travel organization located here in Spokane, WA. I live 25 miles west of downtown. My significant other is a 60 year old male on disability retirement from the federal government (not SSI).
Having run out of unemployment in Jan, 2011, I’ve been supporting myself by taking cash out of a...
3 tags
'I've found that so many of the people who I...
I quit my job with a Project Management company in early 2010 to come back to my hometown and take care of my elderly parents who both have major health issues. As one of 5 children and the only single one, I felt it was my responsibility to care for them. Like most people who have not been hit very hard by the economy, I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be trying to find work. I...
2 tags
'I got my parents to help me get baking products...
I am 19 years old and live in Northern Virginia. I have been out of work for a year now, I was working at Spirit Halloween/Toyzam for the holidays last year and was laid-off right before Christmas. I have been searching for a job since then and I can’t find one that I meet qualifications for. This year for gifts I got my parents to help me get baking products to make everyone sweet...
3 tags
'I will be home, alone, in a city without my...
I graduated in May with a Masters degree and moved from Los Angeles to Sacramento, CA to be closer to my boyfriend who moved here for a job. I thought being fresh out of graduate school from a renowned university would make me a top candidate for jobs. Well six months later, I realize now I do not have enough work experience for jobs compatible to my degree or I have too much education for...
3 tags
'My 2012 resolution is simple: survival'
I have been unemployed for almost 15 months. My last position was as an assistant manager for the US Census. Before that position, I was unemployed for almost 11 months. In total, I have been unemployed for 26 of the last 46 months.
Even with putting in thousands of applications, I have only received three interviews. I am not one of those people who, “sleeps later” and is...
2 tags
' The worst part of this holiday for me is that I...
I have been unemployed for a long time now. I am 54 years old. I live alone with my dog and every day I am one step away from homelessness. I have cleared out my storage and sold its contents for money. I have sold anything I have of value for money so that I could pay my bills. I have been lucky in that I qualified for financial aid and loans for school. I take any odd job I can find. I...
4 tags
'I find myself on the Internet looking at...
I have currently been out of work for two months but was living paycheck to paycheck before i was fired. I was fired after being in the hospital for 4 days from my job as a head housekeeper. I have 4 kids all under the age of 6 and am finding it extremely hard to get into the holiday spirit. We cant pay the basic bills fully and as far as rent goes its not getting paid at all, and we are in the...
5 tags
'With every potential fun outing there is hidden...
I am married with two children, a 12 year old daughter and a 4 year old son. I have been out of work for nearly four years. Before I was unemployed I was a counselor, involved with teens and children in a residential treatment setting for almost 10 years.
My wife and I found ourselves living off of a part time job in southern Oregon, with our bills quickly closing in on us. We moved to Northern...
'I have found myself wondering if it is the right...
I am a 30 year old husband and father of 3. I have two daughters ages 2 and 6, and a son that turned 4 today. I have been out of work for almost a year straight now, and have only had infrequent work for the past few years, since the markets crashed. I am licensed Financial Advisor and have struggled to work in this down economy. I live on Cape Cod, MA. As a primarily tourist economy, it is...
4 tags
'You make me laugh when you ask me to now...
The black hole of unemployment hit me almost two years ago. Each step, every passing day, of collapsing into that dead-beat vortex is like a kind of double-triple slide further down into a black pit of emptiness. Yea, you travel through every stinkin’ layer of Dante’s hell. Not pretty. You make me laugh when you ask me to now juxtapose being out of work with the materialism of the Christmas...
3 tags
'I am writing my 11-year-old daughter a nice poem...
I am 31 years old and I have been out of work since June of this year. A few staffing agencies have contacted me regarding temporary positions but I never seem to get picked. I lack a college degree and am now drowning within a reality where even a horrible gas station cashier position seems to be a market full of too much competition. I am writing my 11-year-old daughter a nice poem this year...
4 tags
'So I guess what I am feeling is that from this...
I lost my job at the end of November. I had only thought about being jobless in terms of paying bills, and not really related it to Christmas coming up. Not only does it mean that there will be less money for presents, but traditional holiday meals are going to have to be tweaked. We will also not be able to afford traveling to visit our family as we would have in the past. It takes me back...
5 tags
'We will spend the few dollars in gas to drive...
I am a 38 year old single mom. I have been looking for permanent, full-time work since March.
We still put up the tree this year, decorated it together as we always do. As I unpacked the ornaments that came from my mom’s tree, I talked to him about his grandma. He doesn’t remember her, she died when he was only 4, but I like to remind him of her. I am not sure he even understands,...
'I told them that this year there wouldn't be many...
My husband’s 2-year military contract ended on August 4th. He finally found a new job, working in the oil field, this past week, but will not receive his first paycheck until after Christmas. We’ve made arrangements to not exchange presents with most of our friends and family. The exception is our two children. Our boys are 7 and 4 years old, and of course, they expect presents...
7 tags
'I find the holidays more relaxing now that there...
We asked unemployed Yahoo! readers how they were coping with the holiday season. The response was overwhelming. We’ll be posting responses, edited for space, until the end of the year.
We are staying home this holiday; we have homemade gifts instead of buying gifts this year and the past years since I was laid off three years ago. There is no budget for extras for the holidays as we are...
October 2011
2 posts
5 tags
'At this point, I have gotten used to sleeping in...
I am a legal word processor. I was laid off by a multinational law firm in early April, 2009 due to a reduction in force. The firm laid off 93 people in the United States, including 16 in Los Angeles. I received a six-month severance package and then went on unemployment. It hasn’t been hard so far. I turned 66 last November and have started collecting Social Security. The Unemployment...
3 tags
Reluctant slackers: economy leads young Americans...
The slackers of the 1990s are remembered as listless MTV watchers and basement dwellers who opted out of America’s striving, mercenary ethos. Many young adults today look similar at first glance. They’re in their 20s or early 30s, they don’t have jobs or spouses, and many live with mom and dad. But that’s not by choice.
This generation of reluctant slackers is eager to...
September 2011
3 posts
6 tags
'When the government encourages people to work...
I have been out of work for two and a half years.
After working for AT&T and former AT&T companies for about 17 years in Yellow Page Sales, I was terminated. I was 59 years, 11 months old. I was told that I was terminated because I had a hearing loss. My termination happened to come the same week as downsizing was announced. I was one of the top sales reps in the company, having won...
5 tags
'How is it that you have had so many jobs but you...
I started out as an accountant at a law firm that started downsizing in early 2008. I was fortunate enough to find another job but it was a temp-to-hire. Since the economy got worries I never got hired and the department I was working in was outsourced. This was the start of my three year journey of being unemployed.
The hardest thing about being out of work so long was never having a consistent...
5 tags
'You are scared all the time about where your...
I was working as a customer service rep at Time Warner Cable for three years when they began downsizing and restructuring. They moved the call center that I worked at to another city in Wisconsin, so I lost my Job I haven’t been able to find any job since then.
I lost that job back in June 2010 so it’s been exactly a year that I’ve been out of work. The hardest thing about being out of...
August 2011
8 posts
7 tags
'I have a job now, but I'm a contractor'
I’m 38. Have a 3 year-old-son. I have a Masters and Bachelors in social science (my first mistake) and I wonder why I ever got an education.
I was working as a project specialist in Jacksonville, Florida as a full-time employee for about a year when I bought a house (my second mistake) Suddenly I was laid off. They (the same bank) brought me back on as a contractor, long enough for me...
5 tags
'I've been told I'm not a good candidate because...
I’m sure like many respondents, I’m probably not being counted as unemployed any longer because my unemployment benefits ended long ago. I lost my job in November of 2007. I was working for Citifiancial Auto as a dealer development rep when the cuts came along. At first I wasn’t too worried, as I’ve never had trouble getting a job, and have a bachelor’s degree in...
5 tags
'I interned for free just so I can put something...
In 2008 I graduated with my MBA and was extremely excited about getting back into the workforce. However God had different plans for me. God wanted me to struggle. For the past 3 years I have looked into the mirror and see disappointment. I am down and out. I cannot get a job that I desire.
The only job that I was offered paid $10/hr. The job was way below my qualifications, but I had to take it...
7 tags
'I am a firm believer keeping health insurance if...
I worked in a car dealership for 12 plus years and in 2008 decided to make a career change to selling indemnity insurance with a great company who has a great product and great opportunity for financial growth.
At the same time I met the love of my life that lived in another state and I ended up relocating not thinking it would be so difficult to find another job (I could have stayed in the...
6 tags
'All I can do is think about how great it would be...
I lost my job in 2009 due to cutbacks in the company, shorty after that I lost my car (couldn’t keep up the payments) and lost my apartment (living in a room for $600.00 a month now in someone’s basement with very small windows).
The hardest thing was trying to stay on top of my work skills and make sure that I get the latest training for my fields of work i.e., Deltek CostPoint,...
4 tags
'Although I found work ... the salary is only a...
I was laid off December 2007. The hardest thing is that the brain stopped working. I had two interviews via employment agency but being an older worker, probably age was the factor in not getting hired.
Jobless benefits really help and fortunately I found work just as it was exhausted. Although I found work, it is through a senior employment program funded by grants from the federal government....
5 tags
'I miss working; I WANT to work, but no one is...
I got laid off from a Toyota dealership. Sales at the store started to fall drastically and my department was one of the first to get cut back (Customer Relations Dept). I got laid off in November of 2009. Constantly worrying about how I’m going to pay my bills is definitely the hardest thing. And it’s easy to get discouraged fast because you spend hours every day fixing up your...
4 tags
'Care enough to inquire. Care enough to assist...
I was employed as a copywriter for an advertising agency in 2008-2009. In early March of 2009 I represented the only remaining creative employee at the company. Earlier that year all three graphic designers and our web designer had been let go. I was also “let go” in middle March.
The company had experienced difficulty in acquiring full payment from clients for work rendered, and...
July 2011
65 posts
6 tags
'Unfortunately, there weren't any job...
In December 2008 I, along with almost my entire department, was laid off.
At the time I was assistant publications dditor for the Star-Gazette, a daily newspaper and the first Gannett newspaper, located in Elmira, N.Y. I had worked for the daily newspaper for almost eight years, starting as a news assistant and advancing to an assistant editor and reporter.
Throughout my time at the...
4 tags
'The future for the educated is not as bright as...
In two days I will have been jobless for 2 years. This is a milestone I am not proud of. I am 27, received my undergrad degree and currently working on my master’s degree. I worked for a non-profit organization that got into some trouble. Top management assured us we would keep our jobs—only for them to get sacked right after that. Interim management then felt a need to ...
7 tags
'I'm not stupid but I sure have been made to feel...
My story won’t be any different from the article and stories I read on your website but it is good to know I am not alone. Everything people wrote about feeling horrible about themselves and not sleeping, not going out, not having money for food is true of me! I have a BS in Education and taught in the public school systems in Texas and Florida for over 15 years. I was on an annual...
3 tags
'Let's face it, 'luck' is not my middle name'
I have been out of work only since May but this isn’t the first go around for me. I was out of work for a year prior to my last position at a hospital. I worked there for a year.
My initial boss was very happy with me and my review reflected that. Then she was demoted and her replacement then got rid of me. So there goes another job for me. I try to stay positive but let’s face...
4 tags
'We just want what we had three years ago'
I had known layoffs were coming at Johnson & Johnson for months, but they were slow to move. I had put my life on hold since April of 2008, waiting to hear if my Technical Analyst job of nearly 9 years would be eliminated.
Early January 2009, I learned it would be. They needed me to finish a long-term project, so I would be kept on until September 2009, which would have given me time to...
6 tags
'I kept a job pursuit log ... it wound up being a...
I was jobless for two years, from December 2008 to December 2010. I knew my number was up because in my job I was assigned 2 accounts (customers) and both of them went away. My company had been on a several year run of RIFs [reductions in force] and we all knew there was another one imminent. It was not a good time to lose customers, with managers walking the halls looking for people to lay...
1 tag
Welcome to the realities of long-term unemployment
Back in June, The Lookout put out the call for readers who had been unemployed for six months or longer to write in with their stories. We received over a thousand emails and around 5,000 comments. Zack’s got a write up of the picture we got of the long-term unemployment crisis after going through 6,000 submissions, and we built out this Tumblr to house 50 of the most vivid stories. ...
8 tags
'I could not just take a 'job offered.' It had to...
What can I say, I lost my job after uprooting the family and moving to Arizona from Washington, D.C. for a chance to buy an affordable home and set roots with the family. I was 37. I had never been out of work since I faked a copy of my birth certificate at 14 to get a job at McDonalds; they paid a dollar more an hour. With a 4 y.o., 18 month old and a 6 month old, my company fired me. New...
