Know anyone who has lost a job recently?

One of the ladies I work with just quit her job so that she could stay home and take care of her children. (There is hope!)

Her husband who had been disabled got a job. They decided it wasn't worth it for her to work because they had to pay most of it to the day care center!

I do believe they are beginning to see the light!

Thousands on Guam over the course of the past two years. I've had many friends and business acquaintances fold up their business's. The downturn of the Asian economy has hurt us tremendously. Guam like Hawaii is tourism based. When the tourist don't travel we suffer. Prior to 9-11 Guam was seeing a rebound in tourism numbers, which dropped after the terrorist attacks. We were forecasting another rebound until this past typhoon. Who knows now.

I had been laid off in May 2001 and it took me 5 months to find another job. I must have sent resumes to 1,000 places. As it happens within weeks of the day I was laid-off Cisco laid off 3,000 people, Lucent laid-off a few thousand more, etc.. If your in high-tech and in one of the major high-tech areas you can be hurting for quite a while.

Of the 13 of us that were laid-off at my company I was the only one that found another job within the 1st year. The last I'd heard (back in October or so..) 6 of the 13 were still not working. I know a few people from other companies that are in the same boat.

I am in the upstate of South Carolina. That is opposed to the middle of the state and the coastal areas. 10,000 jobs were lost in our area last year, and more and more companies are closing up operations. The mills (making material - ala Norma Rae) are long since gone, and the hangers on are closing now.

Historically, this is a poor state, and getting poorer.

We've had 9 retrenched and subsequently reinstated pending further industrial relations commission hearings and 2 sacked for inappropriate use of company email facilities. It's been an interesting week.

We went through most of the harsh economic rationalism several years ago, which has employment at the plant drop from a high of 22 000 in the mid seventies to about 6 500 today.

I just quit my job a week ago. As my employer understood my need to quit (she was psychotic and--more importantly--knew it), she didn't hesitate to offer me unemployment benefits.

Sadly, out here in Oregon the unemployment is so frackin' high, I doubt I'll find work in either another kitchen or technical capacity anytime soon.

*sighs*

But, at least the weekly insurance checks will keep me in beer and cigarettes, right?