How long have you been unemployed/laid off?

[d.mcc]

I started this on the Non-Detroit side, but I figured I would fire it up here too:

I wanted to do an informal survey based on our current economy, see how people are fairing and what they are doing to get by.

I have been out of work for 13 months, scraping by on the occasional freelance job and unemployment benefits [[which are about to run out).

How is everyone else hanging in there?

[1KielsonDrive]

I was unemployed/laid off for about 2 years prior to this past fall when I purchased my business. It happened very quickly. I was working all over the place, in great demand, then events stopped coming in. As an extra employee for events, and a small business caterer/staffer, I was first to go. I was pretty well prepared, financially [[who could ever be fully prepared for the blood bath of Wall Street?) but was poorly prepared, emotionally, for full retirement.

[lizaanne]

My husband has been on unemployment for 18 months. Fortunately I have a good job and I'm still working. So far. But I am a contractor to the auto industry....don't think I need to say much more than that.

[gazhekwe]

I have been working at consulting/education for the past five years. The funding has dried up, so I am donatiing time. I guess you could call that under-employment.

[Motor City Sam]

Was laid off from my primary job last March. I've been making it on unemployment, my savings, and the occassional contract job. Recently started a home based business and hoping to get back in my field soon. As Roger and the Zapp would say, "Playing kind of rough, sure getting tough out here..."

[PeterhuntPrincess]

Its only been since Jan. 29th, but it feels like forever. My bank account is slowly but surely shrinking. Who needs teachers these days anyway, smh...

[professorscott]

Fascinating thread! Let me put perhaps a different spin on it.

Your kindly old professor has only ever taught at University part time, except for one short stretch a few years ago, and he has always been a consultant for his full-time gig. Specifically, he has been consulting within the automotive supply chain.

Almost a year ago, he saw the automotive consulting gig start to dry up most severely, and decided he had better do something else, or starve. So he has branched out into different businesses which he would not even have considered three or four years ago.

This, I think, is how we all had better plan to get along, from here on out. Gone are the days when some big-corp sugar-daddy would take care of us from 18 to retirement. Start a business, if it fails start another, if that fails start yet another; fuck it, start two or three at a time.

You could sit back and starve, or wish for more effective government assistance, or whatever, but why bother? You already know how that's going to work. So join with your kindly old prof, and let's entrepreneur our way out of this sack of shit.

By the way - things being what they are now - one hopes Pres. Obama can get this damned health care thing figured out. The one big bummer about the entrepreneur track is no health care, and your prof has plenty of those preexisting condition thingies.

Good luck to all! Let me know how it's going.

[BillyBBrew]

Was laid off Feb. 09 - Aug. 09 -- Work on Zug Island -- Number 7 in seniority with 23 guys under me also. Everyone is now called back and they just hired 3 more guys a couple months ago....Feast or famine.

[Lowell]

Bless you all and best wishes. I have been knocked down to the bottom a couple of times, fortunately long ago in the early 80's and again in the early 90's. The hardest struggle was to overcome my feelings of loss of self worth and believe in better times. The Electrifying Mojo was big in one of those times and one of his calling cards rallied me, "When you think you are at the end of your rope, tie a knot! Hang on!"

In job search one yes cancels out one hundred noes.

[bee@dee]

i've been under-employed for sometime,virtually unemployed for the last year. i've been in the building trades for 35yrs. and found myself taking on other jobs working for unsuccessful entrepreneurs that have folded up and left. we've been close to starving at times but have a roof over our heads and condider ourselves fortunate. after 9/11, i could see the'writing on the wall'and decided to sell our farm[[1hr. from the city) and got out from under a mortgage that made sense 10yrs. ago, but not today. my wife and i are fortunate that we took that painful step back then. we loved our 'lil corner of heaven. we'd only been there 5yrs. and no equity to speak of but turned enough of a profit to buy a much smaller place for cash. we receive no unemloyment benefits, no assistance, no gov't help whatsoever. the gov't that can give you everything can take everything away. not that i condemn others for doing so, i refuse to cave in for 'principled' reasons. i've been following up countless classified ads, online and print media. i'm abled bodied and versatile, but i think being 55yrs. old certainly is'nt helping my cause. i've recently found a seasonal position 70 miles north of me that starts in May, low pay but provides living quarters. i'm glad to have it, but it ends in October. this job was never advertised. i was recommended by a friend. i've always agreed with the 'adage', it's not what you know,it's who you know. for those that are seeking employment, you will probably do better 'networking' and cultivating friendships than you will driving around , dropping off resumes to strangers. if you see a 'classified ad' that says 'EOE' on the bottom[[equal opp. employer), beware, the position has most likely been taken by someone within the Co. i could be mistaken, but i suspect the company only 'posts' these ads to secure 'stimulus'dollars.

[lalynch]

I have been laid off since June 2008. I was an agency employee at Ford Motor Company. I was an administrative assistant in Ford's electrical systems organization, Building 5, Dearborn and got cut when they cut 50% of their agency people that month.

Things are picking up though. Although I have not had any interviews since September 2008, I have recently received phone calls and requests for interviews. I have an interview scheduled for next week.

[d.mcc]

I've noticed things have taken a slight upturn. Friends and colleagues of mine are starting to find work, or at least get some calls back. I have been getting a few no responses lately, but just the fact that I have been receiving any type of response is a change in what I have been seeing. Still 13 months plus so far...

[Detwa]

I was off for 20 months, found a contract position that lasted just short of six months, then they let everyone go. Luckily, I saved like crazy for those months because I was still traumatized from my previous unemployment, so I was okay financially. Now I'm working on my own business and hopefully it will become sustainable soon.

[MickeyMac]

I have been laid off since January 2009. I am looking but there aint much out there. I am so not going back to the factories. I have been going to school so that keeps me busy.

[Ray1936]

Haven't worked since September, 2001. Oh...wait....I retired then.

I no longer grouse about what I had to pay in to Social Security and Medicare.

[abraham]

the better part of 2 years
I got laid off in nov of 07. went back to work for july and aug . Laid off till late nov of 09 then worked for 5 weeks . been laid off since. Been laid off for 24 out of the last 27 months. For the record I am a sheet metal worker. Worked 11 months in 07, 9 weeks in 08, and 5 weeks in 09. went from 65,000/yr to 40 to a wopping 25k last year. cant go much lower than that really. You know its bad when a 30 something runs into a buddy at Kroger at 1 in the afternoon on a weekday.

[lilpup]

Not laid off but quit my last job because the employer was starting to do illegal stuff [[technical federal felony) and expected me to go along. An attorney I queried said in my position if the employer got busted I could get charged, too. Since I quit I'm not eligible for most of the programs out there. The only other option I saw was to get fired, but I thought that would kill future job chances. The employer knew he could get away with this shit because in this market he can just hire someone else.

Worked a contract project for next to nothing and drained my savings for about 18 months. Am now holding down one nighttime contract job delivering newspapers [[no shit - it pays the rent) and a part-time day job, but still am not clearing what I used to, plus no health insurance, a pittance of savings [[maybe a month's worth) that I'm trying to grow, and a smidge in the old 401[[k) which I absolutely refuse to cash out to pay anyone.

My brother was off for only six weeks but now has to commute over an hour to Port Huron every day.

My cousin has been off from Ford for about two years - not sure what his deal is - looking, not looking - I don't know. He doesn't come around and rumor is he's about to lose his house.

Just learned today that some of the units where I rent [[a very nice place once upon a time) have gone Section 8 now. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. I don't want to move, not sure I can [[my credit is kinda trashed) but I'm not comfortable with the stasis of my situation either.

[patmc16]

I've been out of work since July 2008. When It happened I knew it would be tough to find something else but, if you had told me I would still be looking in March 2010, I would have laughed.

The company I worked for eliminated nearly 200 positions on that day. A new CEO came on board a couple of months earlier and he came in swinging an axe. The part that drives me insane is that, about a week before we were all let go, he paid himself a $2 MILLION bonus. Because it is a private company [[automotive supplier) he can do whatever he wants with the $$, but it is sad to think of all those people [[me included) that could have continued to work for some time on the $2M. Most of the people that were let go probably have the luxury of not knowing that he took that money. I wasn't so lucky. As I work in finance, I saw the paperwork for his bonus and saw the first of 2 wire transfers into his personal account. It was for $750K. They kept $250K back for taxes. The second half was most likely paid after we were gone.

[canuck]

It's only fair though when you think about it, I mean he came in wielding an axe the way Guerrero hits a homerun, the guy deserves to suck the life out of his 200 batboys and girls. Thats how the cookie crumbles. It is crumbling at perfect pitch now.