I am the uncounted

[PowerToThePeople]

Unemployed for going on 2 1/2 years, exhausted all standard unemployment, extended benefits ended in Dec 2013. I have exhausted all of my personal savings and live day to day, month to month, not knowing if I can scrape out enough to keep the water/power on and the rent paid. No real job prospects; lots of resumes, job applications, smiling faces, and closing doors. I do not show up in any labor statistics and do not count toward the stated unemployment rate, though I do not work or have any prospects of work. There are 10s of millions of others just like me.

I am the uncounted.

[randys1]

1. And I just read somewhere today that you are a deadbeat and do this by choice

Actually it was Labor Secty Perez who said he wanted to PUNCH people who said that about you...

Dont blame him...

My first part is sarcasm of course and yet it is exactly what the right says about you...

One day the number of you will be so great, something will change in a very DRAMATIC way...

Hang in there, some of us actually do care about you

[clarice]

2. I'm so sorry to hear this......

If you don't mind...which state do you live in?

[noiretextatique]

3. sounds like my situation

i was unemployed for 2.5 years. then FINALLY found some work through a temp agency. BUT sometimes I was making LESS than unemployment. i am unemployed again by choice....trying to ride it out as long as possible.

[jeff47]

4. Make sure you mention where you live, and what you're looking for.

I'd recommend putting it in your sig.

For example, we're hiring. I have no idea if you're here (NC), or work in my industry (Software Development).

[clarice]

8. Houston is hiring like crazy.. nt

[GentryDixon]

5. I am sorry for your plight.

Please PM me. I would like to help in some small way. If only for one month of utilities.

[clarice]

9. Very very nice . nt

[quinnox]

6. I know how that is, my best wishes to you

Keep a positive attitude, and things will happen!

[4139]

7. Just curious, how old are you ?

I'm 59 1/2, have 1 1/4 entry level jobs, I am the reason three. 17-22 years old don't have part time jobs while they go to school.
Thankfully my wife has a god job and medical benefits covering both of us.

[LiberalEsto]

10. I hope something really good turns up for you soon

Being in your situation sucks.

I was out of work for more than 5 years, unable to collect benefits because I had been part-time. I turned 62 this year and signed up for early Soc. Sec. Thank heaven my husband is employed; if I were alone I'd be living in a shelter.

[LWolf]

11. I just read a little while ago

that the "numbers" are good.

That's why they're good: the uncounted.

[clarice]

12. Wolf...In your opinion...are the numbers miss-leading ? nt

[LWolf]

15. Yes.

When those numbers, depending on what factors you include and/or exclude, and seem to say different things, they are always misleading.

Leaving out the long-term unemployed is one way that happens.

I'm sure there are places that ARE doing better, although it's not that way everywhere.

Those numbers also don't include, as far as I know, how many people while, employed, are making less money than they were before the crash. I'm one of those.

[KauaiK]

13. I am uncounted as well....

My only saving grace is that I was unemployed long enough and old enough to start collecting Social Security early. Holding on by my fingernails, but still holding on.

[DeSwiss]

14. We must do for ourselves.

- It was always thus, but we forgot how. This paradigm is exhausted. There are no more new jobs in it.

It's time for a:

K&R

[LoisB]

16. I hope things turn around for you very soon.

[bhikkhu]

17. In my neck of the woods the jobs situation is pretty good

I got a better job in the beginning of this year, and the shop I left had a very hard time finding anybody to replace me. The big shop I went to has hired another dozen people since I started.

My daughter has been looking for a summer job, put out numerous resumes and interviewed twice. She hasn't gotten a job, but then she just discovered that her phone isn't working (fine for texting, but won't receive incoming calls). Living at home still and enrolled in college next term, she's not too worried, but I wish she'd just square things away and get some kind of job.

But I can see how all that means nothing if you can't relocate. In the recession I was similarly stuck - I had a job that barely paid the bills, but to find better one would have meant moving. I couldn't move without selling my house, and there were no buyers. Now that things have picked up I don't need to sell or move.

[PowerToThePeople]

18. Everybody, thank you.

Thank you for your kind, supportive remarks.

I did not make this thread to be about me. I did not make it to look for a handout or request help in my personal situation.

I made this thread to tell a story, a story that is applicable to tens of millions of people in our current economy. The uncounted do not exist as far as our country and it's leadership are concerned. This was for all of them that otherwise are pushed to the outskirts of society.