The average duration of unemployment has hit another record high of 30.2 weeks, with a historic 41.2% of the unemployed remaining out of work for six months or longer. 11.5 million Americans are collecting some form of unemployment insurance. During the most recent previous peak in long term unemployment in 1983, a comparatively low 26% of unemployed workers were out of work for six or more months, and the average duration of unemployment peaked at 21 weeks.
I've heard it said that timing is everything. If that's true, and I believe it is, then mine sucks. Not that there's every a good time to lose your job, I suppose, but if you believe what you read in the newspapers and watch on television, those of us without a job are just one step removed from living under the nearest freeway overpass. I mean, how bad do things suck when even "good" news is considered bad news? Yes, things suck less than they have, but not nearly as much as they will in the future. Jeebus, how 'bout I just beat the rush and play Russian Roulette in the bathtub?
I could spend a lot of time and energy parsing the numbers, I suppose. Unemployment. Underemployment. Those who've stopped looking for employment all together. Really, though, when you get right down to it, my personal unemployment rate is 100%, and when I have an income again, it will drop to 0%. Those are the only numbers I truly care about, because they impact me directly. Everything else is just an amalgam of concepts, worries, and projections concerning things that may, or may not, happen.
I prefer to traffic in optimism, in believing that things happen for a reason and that good things lie ahead. I have an opportunity to devote all of my time and considerable energy to chasing my dream. If I can continue looking at things in that manner...well, then life should continue looking pretty good. I don't have the answers yet, but I do have an opportunity to try and find them. If I can do that, then I have to believe I'm find myself in a pretty good place. If nothing else, it beats the Hell out of doing what I had been for the past eight years.
Things could definitely be a whole lot worse, and I'm fortunate to be in a pretty good place emotionally and financially. It's nice not having to wake up to an alarm clock. It's even nicer to be reminded that I'm the captain of my own ship.
How much did they pay you to give up your dreams?
