Have you been affected by the downturn in the job market?

The nation's unemployment rate soared to its highest level in 16 years last month, reaching an eye-popping 7.2% as businesses slashed their payrolls by 524,000 jobs in December, the government reported today.

Have you or someone in your family been affected by the downturn in the job market? Please share your story.

Read Maura Reynolds' report, "U.S. unemployment hits 16-year high: 7.2%."

Photo: People wait to talk with potential employers during a job fair Wednesday at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Credit: Mel Evans / Associated Press

Comments

[mddesighomes]

I find it interesting when same body talks about unemployment percentages, as if it’s a factual number. Now one knows how many of us can not qualify for unemployment Insurance, how are we being tracked in these numbers? What about those individuals where their unemployment insurance ran out last month, or even last year. Were they counted in the Percentages indicated in the News articles? What about small one man or husband & wife home business, are they counted in the percentages.

We happen to fall into one of the above categories. MD Design Homes provides home designs for custom homes, remodel additions, 3D previews, complete remodel additions (everything you need to get a permit), basic remodel addition (floor plans and front elevation remodel plans to place on kitchen counter for quick sell) and landscape designs (for families that wish to create their own staycations in their backyards).

We have exhausted all avenues in hopes to find jobs. My husband only knows architecture and there is no work anywhere he can apply those skills. He is currently trying to get banks, home owners trying to sell, Real Estate Agents, and home stagers to see the value in providing preliminary remodel plans to be placed on the kitchen counters to enable the potential buyer to see what the old house has to offer.

In one of Mark’s blog’s he talks about the domino affect in which one job for him creates more jobs for others. It’s cheaper to start work now when cost are low, but we here some clients say they are waiting for the bottom to start remodels or custom homes. Afraid they will loose value, but where will the bottom be? And, how many months will go by when they look in the rear view mirror and say “ooopps we missed the bottom , it was back _____ then”.

As for me, I left the medical field nine years ago to work with my husband. Now when I looked at the option of going back to work in that field, I find there have been a lot of changes since I’ve been there. To go back where I was at, it would require 81 on-line classes to obtain a new certification, and the cost is more money than I have. It’s not like I don’t have the time as I have had my foot reconstructed and have been stuck with it in a cast and elevated to recover. Obviously working from is the ideal job for me, since I’m a self starter and highly motivated.

As far as other marketable skills, since doing this business with my husband I have developed skills in graphic arts, web page design, research & development, etc. I was the one behind the scene doing everything I could to get us the exposure we need to try and keep us front and center on the internet in relation to competitors in our area. All though I am self taught with the Adobe software for these skills, there are sure to be a lot of things I don’t know. So, I’m questioning my marketable skills, I need to get back on my feet again before I can get out there.

So, our lives have changed significantly from this economic down turn, and live in fear from day to day if we will survive another month, while maintaining expensive health insurance.

[Ron]

fantastic job neocons! your loathing of America and Americans is endless. you must be proud.

[AMZ]

How about this profound idea: the US starts taking care of its people and not allowing for outsourcing of jobs or importing of goods produced on the cheap, that only profit a handful of people here and abroad. You do not see countries such as Japan allowing for wholesale fleecing of their country. We should be investing in domestic automaking, domestic clean energy, domestic mass-transit technology. If a company wants to outsource, penalize them for that, they are no longer a US company -- much less patriotic to the nation and its people.

[Earth Ling]

Any chance we can float a gas tax to artificially maintain high gas prices so that people continue conserving? Use the money for R&D and mass-transit. I guess the barbarians here would start beating their chests if such a thing ever got near to law...

[M. P. Goel]

To satisfy our GREED we outsourced all the US MANUFACTURING and so
we loose all our Jobs as well as our capacity to reenergize our ECONOMY.

We must restore/find or install NEW MANUFACTURING SET UP involving
higher technical inputs for GREEN JOBS. This is possible and if the US
Administration is willing to support we could start in the next 3-4 months.
Over a period of 2-3 years millions of well-paid jobs could be created.

[Mark Devine]

My wife and I are self employed. We are in the business of designing custom homes and remodel/additions. I am 57 years old and have been doing this for more than 35 years now. It seems like every eight to ten years, housing slows down substantially, then slowly starts back up again and recovers in about a year or so. In the past if the stock market wasn’t doing so great people would put their money into their homes. Not only was it a safe place to invest your money, but during the slower period’s, labor and materials were lower, making it even a better deal. It’s the remodel/additions that have always got me through the slower times financially. This time is different though. It doesn’t matter how good I am at what I do or how competitively I price my service. There just doesn’t appear to be anything out there to compete for.

Because we are self employed we cannot apply for unemployment benefits so we are not accounted for in the 7.2% published. I think if you were to add all the people like my wife and myself, and there are a lot of us out there, you would find there is a lot more than 7.2% of us who have lost our means of supporting ourselves. We are slowly loosing everything we have spent years working for. We have been selling off our possessions to keep the lights on and keep up with the health insurance premiums. I have had to shed my pride and ask for help from family and friends (that was really tough). I feel like a fish out of water looking for jobs outside my industry since I don’t have the background or experience they are looking for. I am not above pushing a broom for a living if that’s what it takes to put food on the table. But 35 years experience designing homes doesn’t exactly give me an edge when it comes to competing with some college kid for that job. I try to be optimistic and I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that I could loose absolutely everything and have to start over again. In the end, you have play with the cards life deals you. I myself will either win this hand or I will loose it but I will never, never fold!

[reno]

forget everything else. Healthcare is next to cut because we all know that prices for healthcare are overinflated.

[Kristal L. Rosebrook]

Great Site.

Kristal L. Rosebrook