Down But Not Out

’ The worst part of this holiday for me is that I cannot afford to see my daughter and my beautiful grandchildren’

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 do focus groups, tutoring, babysitting, dog sitting anything I can do to to feed myself. 

The worst part of this holiday for me is that I cannot afford to see my daughter and my beautiful grandchildren. They are all I have. I will spend the holidays alone, without family. They live in Florida.Trying to gather gifts for my grand children is difficult. I feel my financial situation has forced me to look at my life with more gratitude for the little things. I am healthy and grateful that I am still able to think of ways to come out of this.  I am grateful that I can go to school and learn. But poverty is lonely. Very lonely.  You cannot afford to go far because you don’t have gas.

I suffer with depression and each day is a battle of keeping my spirit up and to be honest with you I just want Christmas to pass because it is another financial burden that I cannot bear.  I can deal with the hope of a New Year. I somehow know that it will be a better one. I pray a lot. 

Janice R.

‘I am writing my 11-year-old daughter a nice poem this year for Christmas’

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 for Christmas and that is all she is getting from me. Every year prior I always made sure she had an expensive Wii or a Nintendo DSI. I have thought about seeking welfare or unemployment at some point but things like that go against my most cherished beliefs. I would literally starve to death before taking from the coffers. My daughter is well off with her mother and stepfather fortunately. I however eat very small amounts of food in 72 hour intervals and I have an eating disorder now as a result.
 
When I eventually do find work money will be forcefully deducted from my check and sent to the “poor” and the “miscellaneous” and to Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel and Egypt and Pakistan and on and on and endlessly on. That really kind of stinks if you think about it long and hard. I hope there are millions more suffering right now like myself. If it is just I alone then I must urgently speak with someone’s supervisor about this incident called my life.

 
Patrick M., Chicago IL

‘I find the holidays more relaxing now that there is not a lot of importance on buying all kinds of wasteful things like I use to do in the past’

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 doing our best to pay off our debt. I guess that is more of our gifts to each other, getting out of debt.
 
We have a 14 year old still at home and we are doing our best to help our teen enjoy the holidays without gifts, which is NOT easy when everybody around our teen at school are already talking about all the presents under their tree. Our teen understands our financial situation as our teen has a part in our budgeting and bill paying. Our teen knows how much money is coming in and going out. Reaction is better this year than in the years past as I feel expectations have been lowered now.
 
I find the holidays more relaxing now that there is not a lot of importance on buying all kinds of wasteful things like I use to do in the past.
 
We have started writing letters to one another. These letters are highlighting times during the past year that was really important and memorable, things that somebody did to enlighten and make another feel important, listing personal values that are growing in one another. Mainly the letters are sharing how the other person is important in our lives and what little things they have done to strengthen that relationship.

Family and friends are so much easier to be around now. There is not the worry of ‘will they like what I got’ or ‘did I spend as much on them as they did on me’ and so on … Total upside!!! Who knew that spending less would open up the chance to really feel and experience tons more?!?!
 
My resolutions for 2012? Get out of debt! Stay out of debt! Pray that this year I will get hired on to a decent paying job and get the chance to give back to all that have freely given to me and my family to help make ends meet.
 

Dina Johnson; Southeast Idaho

Reluctant slackers: economy leads young Americans to put adulthood on hold

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

‘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 it, “luck” is not my middle name.

Kathleen S., via email

‘I could not just take a ‘job offered.’ It had to be above 40k a year due to daycare costs’

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 management had come in directly after I accepted the position. They proceeded to railroad all legacy sales persons. I had been a Telecommunications Technician for 15 years and was doing well with the transition from tech side to sales side. Desperate, I had used all our savings to move and tried diligently to find a job for 3 months, with a few interviews for high paying jobs. Arizona did provide unemployment insurance, 240 a week. My wife took a part time job at Target. We barely made it.

I could not just take a “job offered.” It had to be above 40k a year due to day care costs for the children. We applied for assistance and received it. I do believe that being 37 was a factor in being passed over for jobs; technology is a young man’s game. Potential employers thought I may be rusty with my skills. I was very afraid. We finally said enough and started our own business, in my wife’s name of course, as we are relying on the unemployment to help us until the business really takes off. The reality is, there are few jobs out there for a lot of guys in my boat. Trained to an expert level, but no one can afford to hire me as their company is struggling to stay afloat, a 70k a year phone guy is a luxury. So, here we are with 1 month of benefits left and receivables steadily gaining ground. 

If you cannot get a job, make one I guess. In the last year, in order; we’ve moved for a “better life” across country, had a child (when we conceived all was good), lost job, had car repo’d, borrowed money from family to get wheels, went on public assistance, cried a river over my manly short comings, was inspired by my wife and am now an entrepreneur. Scary how quick life changes. 

Dan H., via email

‘I have led men in combat, but my last job was a temporary cashier position in the women’s department at Nordstrom’s’

I am an unemployed Iraq war veteran that hasn’t had steady work since I was Honorably discharged at the end of 2009. I have a BS in International Relations, an active security clearance, and I speak four languages. I am currently enrolled in an MBA program in hopes of bettering myself, and my situation, but being a college student doesn’t pay the bills, and I have been looking for full time employment for nearly 2 years.

I have led men in combat, but my last job was a temporary cashier position in the women’s department at Nordstrom’s—I led the team in sales, but they still didn’t keep me after the holidays. My concentration is in Finance, but I am looking for jobs in virtually any field. I don’t get many interviews, but when I do, I get a lot of handshakes and a “Thank you for your service, but you’re not what we’re looking for.”

Sometimes I am told that I am overqualified for their “entry level” job, but because I have no “entry level” experience, I am unqualified for anything higher. I am in the interview process for a logistical firm at the moment, and that may be looking good, but the process has already taken two months, and that is a long time to be waiting on a yes or a no. I have defeated an enemy in battle and then rebuilt their country. I know I have the skills to succeed in business, if only I could be given a chance.

Marshall, via comments

‘Painfully obvious they were looking for the younger shake-‘n-bake folks at substantially less money’

I assume we would begin at the end. “Terminated” suddenly on a Friday afternoon by the new owner of an auto repair business I had successfully run for over 7 years, Sept. 10, 2010.
 Prior to that enjoyed a career as a retail sales and facility manager for the Winston Tire Co. from Jan. of 1988 thru Dec. 2002 after 23 plus years as a supermarket manager back in my home state of Michigan. WOW! Jobless after over 47 years of continuous employment which of course included paying into unemployment funds, social security, etc … Two functions required my immediate attention, filing early for social security AND unemployment.

As to job search, certainly I “made the rounds” of all my contacts and aquaintences within our industry locally. Lots of good talk and ideas exchanged, but, painfully obvious they were looking for the younger “shake ‘n bake” folks at substantially less money. Ah! Age discrimination alive and well. Don’t blame or condem them, far too many years in their shoes.

Over the past 9 plus months have filled out well over a hundred online employment applications as well as attending what can only be termed as the occasional “cattle call” where a company drags in numerous applicants for physco babble type interviews aka “tell me why you are the best candidate here today”. Gone with the wind are the days of an actual job opening being interviewed for by honest and ethical folks with a respectful personnel department representative.

Loyalty? Dependability? Integrity? Work ethic? Forget it! Those are qualities considered old-fashioned and out-dated by today’s movers and shakers. 
But alas … all is not lost. And we’ll keep searching as long as the good Lord strengthens me to do so. God has blessed wife and I for well over 43 years now, we know He’ll continue to care for us until it is time to go home.
 B of A is threatening to take our house of 22 years, having denied a home loan modification application back in March (just like they have to millions across our once great land). We’ll see how that shakes out before Christmas, I’m quite sure.

Thomas, via comments