Down But Not Out

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 Office told me I could continue receiving unemployment benefits once I started receiving Social Security. But my unemployment benefits are coming to an end and I need to find a job.

I don’t think potential employers are wary of hiring me because I’ve been out of work so long. They usually have other good reasons.

I’m still looking for work.  At this point, I have gotten used to sleeping in in the mornings, so I’m looking more for part-time work. A friend and his wife, who are blind, have hired me to read their mail to them, go shopping, etc. But I will need more.

Sheila G., via email

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 get started building careers, owning homes, getting married and having kids. They have put their lives on hold, though, thanks to the bleak economic climate.

“I feel like a failure at times,” Shemaiya Smith, 26, told The Lookout.

Since graduating from college in 2007, Smith has been living with her parents in Royal Palm Beach, Fla. In early 2008, she was laid off from her job with the local school district thanks to budget cuts, and since then has been looking unsuccessfully for full-time work—while getting an MBA that has been of little use.

Smith said her job woes have affected other aspects of her life. “All my friends I went to school with, they’re getting married, they’re having kids,” she said. “I’ve had several guys want to go out with me … but I don’t feel like don’t feel like I’m good dating material … I don’t wanna feel like I’m getting into this relationship and I’m mooching off them.”

It’s not just her personal life that’s stuck in neutral. Florida was hit hard by the housing bust, and Smith said there are plenty of foreclosed properties in her area that are for sale at low prices. “I would love to buy a home or a condo,” she said, “but I can’t.”

Smith’s experience is far from unique. She first contacted The Lookout in the summer, after we asked readers to share their stories of being out of work. That young people have been among the hardest hit by the jobs crisis has been well-publicized. Statistics suggests that the dismal employment picture is leading an increasing number of people in their twenties and early thirties to put off taking the steps that for decades have defined the transition to American adulthood.

This year, 5.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 35 lived with their parents, according to Census Bureau data. That’s an increase of 25 percent from before the recession. And between 2007 and 2009, the share of Americans living in a multi-generational household shot up by 4.9 million, or 10.5 percent, a Pew study found. Most of those households, like Smith’s, included two adult generations.

In addition, the share of Americans between 25 and 35 who have never been married has spiked, from 41.4 percent in 2006 to 46.3 percent in 2009.

Read the rest at The Lookout