YeahSureRight

And Now, Back to the Real World

Good morning all. You are probably wondering why I, Betty Lou, am writing from home on a Wednesday morning. No, I am not taking a personal day - although those are lovely. I was laid off. A combination of budget issues and skill set problems led to my downfall. But honestly, this is a good thing. I am of the philosophy that every moment is an opportunity so me being without a job is just an opportunity to go after the bigger, better and more awesome. Besides, I have a tremendous skill set and a helpful personality and my contracting firm has already put me in for a few jobs.

But how, you may ask, have I been spending my unemployment - all 3 days of it...I coordinated Youngest's wedding shower (yes, she's gettin' hitched and moving to Texas), did some organizing of my apartment and resume and have watched a lot of TV, which I know is terrible so today that stops, I have books to read and laundry to do.

As you know this is a societal issues website now, so I need to give you a little something-something. You see, the Great Recession hit right around 2007 and I was employed (when unemployment was 5%). Yea! Yippee! Then in 2008 I was unemployed for a few months (unemployment was still only 5% then). Boo! Hiss! Then I got a job and it was great, I worked downtown (the dream was to work and live downtown), the office was beautiful and stable and then my contract was canceled. Boo! Hiss! I was contracted to another division of said former company where I learned a lot in a few roles, but honestly this last one, I never really felt comfortable in...it never jelled.

So here I am today, part of the 9.2% of Americans who are jobless...That's 14M people.

That's the population of Ecuador.

I am going to do my laundry now.


Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics; Wikipedia.

posted by HelloBettyLou @ 8:40 AM