The US spent the last twenty plus years moving every other job into the service sector as money to burn was materializing out of thin air.

As a result, we have a ridiculously unreasonable retail glut, with more retail and restaurant square footage/person than has ever existed anywhere, anytime.

While the dominoes are falling, this holiday season will really weed out the businesses barely hanging on, which are many.

That is when the unemployment numbers will turn from a ripple through the economy to a ruthless flood… then everyone in every sector will truly feel the pain and begin to understand just how much US employment has been artificially propped up by businesses which create nothing, but were instead dependent on the illusion of a wealthy, healthy economy.

Talk about a topical program!!! I was laid off yesterday after about ten years working on health care software. The reason: Across the board budget cuts. The company provided me some severance and some job search contacts. Not the happiest day of my life but not the worst either. Trying to pick myself up and see what’s next. Very sorry to learn so many others are in the same boat!!!

Brian Cummings
Milton, MA

A few years ago the experts predicted that when Baby Boomers start retiring en mass, there would not be enough people for all the jobs created?

Now there are not enough Jobs. Shouldn’t this balance in a short time?

Fasten your seat belts it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Unemployment is not tied to real earnings and this is a huge problem for people with mortgages or with high rents.

If you’re making $4000 a month, then $300 a week is not going to cut it based on the kind of life style and expenses one has at this pay scale. Even with cutting back on everything you’re not going to make it.

There is a real problem here with this system.

Unemployment benefits should not be taxed, period. This is adding insult to injury.

Please make sure Tom gets this: I just heard his last comments to the pregnant woman who was laid off a few hours ago. I felt for him as he tried to be empathetic on air. The reminder for her to savor the birth–no matter what else is happening–was remarkably touching. I hope it moved her as it moved me as a listener.

Glad to know there is such compassion out there.

Is it true that when the government reports unemployment figures – it does not include those that did not qualify for unemployment benefits? 70% or more of people who are laid off but don’t qualify for a variety of reasons including less than full-time employment, self-employment, consultants, etc.
Does it stop reporting on people who exhaust their benefits but still can’t get full employment?

I’m shocked that the anonymous caller who was laid off a week before giving birth has almost no chance at qualifying for unemployment benefits.

About 50% of mothers I have met, report some kind of pregnancy discrimination, with many losing their job.

I suspect that the “economic emergency” will make it just so much easier for employers to get out of paying maternity leave. There is a large civil rights issue brewing about this.

Lessons learned from job loss is that everyone is a free agent. You need to constantly look after your own economic and career well-being and not expect the corporation will always take care of you. Develop your existing skills and new ones, understand the dynamics of your field and your industry. Expect not to remain in the same field and industry throughout your life. Loss of your job can also be an opportunity to re-evaluate where you are in life, where you might go next while you meet your current financial obligations.

I wanted to respond to the pregnant caller…

I too was let go while pregnant. My daughter is now 2 months. I did not qualify for benefits during the first 4 weeks proceeding the birth. I have fallen behind with rent, am on the verge of losing my home. I am currently receiving the max for the state, but have found that not only can I not make ends meet, that the cost of child care for 3 children would make my take home much less then it is now while collecting. I am feeling very stuck. To go from making 50,000 a year to applying for aid, while trying to keep life as normal as possible for my older children is not easy.

The guest — was it Dustin Swayne? — who kept talking about the need for better unemployment benefits did nothing to forward the purpose of the program. After suggesting to my wife that she listen — she’s anticipating a pink slip in her near future — she called me after half an hour asking me never to subject her to anything like that again. She was hoping for concrete guidance, something to bolster her need to remain positive, not whining about the inadequate benefits that exist.

To the woman expecting next week:

I too was laid off when pregnant years ago. In my case the company had 60 days severance with health care benefits – and that expired days before my due date.

It was pretty clear from things management & even HR rep said (that others reported to me) that I was selected as an easy target (”she’s having a baby and will want to stay home anyway.”)

An attorney advised me that to sue would take a long time and be very unpleasant, but she was able to use my log of things people said to negotiate a payment equivalent to maternity leave, and an extension of healthcare benefits.

Use your time now to write your resume. I did and started sending it out. You don’t have to say anything about the baby. I filed for unemployment when my daughter was 2 weeks old. I probably got my first interview when she was one month old, and got a job better than the one I had before when she was 5 months. Good luck with baby and job!

http://www.fightpregnancydiscrimination.org

a new website to help women find the help they need (legal or otherwise) to fight pregnancy discrimination

Lisa J.,
The GAO also does not include in the unemployment number those who have given up looking for work, those yet to try, and many others, as well as those you describe as unqualified. This number has gotten more and more skewed over the years, mostly because each political status quo reformulates for more optimistic numbers to defend its reputation as the ruling class.

Generally, consider the “real” unemployment figure as running 4 to 5 percentage points higher than that reported by the GAO. That puts current “real” unemployment in the US above 11 percent.

I’ve been employed for two weeks now, from a white collar 1/2-time job. The other half of my earnings comes from ongoing and steady self-employment in a related field. But though my unempl. earnings will be minuscule, I can only earn up to 1/3 of that unemployment check through additional self-employment before the unemployment benefits start decreasing, dollar for dollar. In other words, lose-lose!!! I think Congress should re-think that formula and allow people who are collecting benefits to earn more from “self-employment” before they start subtracting. This might allow us to keep our heads above water while we’re looking for work. That’s another way the workforce has changed since 1935 or whenever. Many people “piece together” their earnings from several sources instead of with one 9-5 job.

I’m loosing my job on January 5th, 2009, after 4 years.(Movie DVD rental business)
#2 Movie Gallery’s CEO got greedy and wanted to purchase bankrupt #3 Hollywood Entertainment so #1 Blockbuster wouldn’t get it.
GREED….. Movie gallery alone has over 4000 stores nation wide as well as Canada, but that wasn’t enough for Joe Malugen.
After purchasing Hollywood Entertainment we had to file for bankruptcy. Once we got out of the bankruptcy, the courts fired the CEO and
hired their own people, now the home office in Dothan, Alabama, which was locally owned and brought tons of jobs and $ to this growing little
town, is slowly closing shop and moving all our jobs to Hollywood Entertainment in Wilsonville, OR.

In 2002 same scenario with a company I was with for 15 yrs.

PS:
Why can’t the government take some of our tax dollars being used to bail out all the big companies that put us here in the first place, and give some back to the folks that didn’t sell their stock and lost most or all of their savings? We were told “It’s not a good idea to sell, it will bounce back”, yet the folks that sold came out the winner, and those of us stupid enough to listen to the government have lost BIG!
I have lost 42k so far. I am by no means rich, nor middle class. I worked hard for that money; it’s not fair that I don’t get some of the bail out money when I didn’t bite off more than I can chew in the first place. I also didn’t sell any of my stock. Why are the bad guys getting all the breaks and the good guys get nothing.

Tom, while I was feeling for the pregnant woman who summoned the courage to share her story, I was equally moved by you, who could carry on and host another show after hearing so many stories of people in crisis. You are one of the finest voices on radio today. I continue to financially support WBUR from Washington DC and am thankful for web streaming. Please continue the good work of keeping American citizens informed and allowing their voices to be part of the daily discourse.

Amazing timing.

I was laid-off a few days ago from a medical products company where I’ve worked for over 20 years. The company gave me a generous severance package and I’m not bitter – I cherish my years working there and the people I worked with. My wife, who was diagnosed with cancer recently but is in remission, is now our sole breadwinner. We have lots of savings and our only debt is a $500/mo mortgage so we estimate we can last a couple of years if my wife is able to keep working through the spring.

Still I was feeling a bit anxious and sorry for myself when I went up to Nashua to shop yesterday. Then I stopped into Linens N Things, which was festooned with “Going Out Of Business” signs. The staff there were busily helping customers, working the registers, and breaking down empty shelves.

In a month they’ll be on the street in the wintery teeth of the worst retail recession we’ve seen in decades. I’m sure they won’t have my severance benefits, and, because of their low pay it’s unlikely they have my savings. So I have no right to feel sorry for myself! I need to count my blessings and spend at least some of my new free time helping those less fortunate than me.

Sorry to hear that Peter. I hope everything works out. I myself was working as an associate for a major law firm making pretty good money. At some point, though, I saw the writing on the wall and quit to take a federal legal job. It pays about $100K less and my wife does not work because of two new babies, but like you said, we have savings now that can last a few years. The only debt I have is about $200 a months in student loans. I am an immigrant so I have no problems scaling back a bit. I am still far better off than in my old country. One observation though comes to mind. It is hard to be a saver in this country. The government is itching to drop interest rates on you, stock market is crashing, taxes and inflation eat into your money. But if you are a distressed borrower – everybody seems to bend over backwards to look for a way to bail you out. Strange.

Wow, moving stories from callers and listeners. I guess our fortune is all relative. For people who know how blessed they are even when they encounter difficult times, they have the true wealth that can’t be taken out of them by the external causes. Good luck to all of you looking for a job out there. I hope Obama’s team can turn things around quickly for this country. I really hope that our law makers would listen to this program and read some of the comments by the listeners so they know how much hard-working citizens are struggling each day.

Thank you, Tom, for your excellent program on unemployment.

I wonder what effect a prolonged recession will have on crime rates. I suspect that a significant portion of those laid off are not very resourceful, and if high employment drags on without extended government benefits, some of these people may turn to crime just to survive.

I hate to say it, but we may end up paying people simply not to commit crimes. That might be an argument for extended benefits.

Jeff C., thanks so much for spouting the crap about being a “free agent” that we’ve heard from the Rethugs and their apologists for the last two decades. How about, instead of just sucking it up and accepting that we should be grateful for any bit of work that falls to us, we revamp the system to protect WORKERS, not sociopathic CEOs who ship jobs overseas so they can stiff their fellow Americans?

Excellent content and style…keep up the good work!

The “smartest people in the room”, bushed us out of the manufacturing based economy into service jobs which don’t pay much and disappear quickly. I think most Americans should take this a lesson to what the future holds for us. We are truely a “throw away” society with us being the ones tossed away at a moment’s notice.

The elites have already decided on a depopulation strategy. Call it “The Big Shrink”. The plan is to use ruinous, regressive taxation and advanced automation
to exert an insurmountable obstacle against the world’s workers. They hope for a eugenics strategy of differential reproduction as depicted in films like “Gattica”. . .

The left has been trying to kill manufacturing in this country for forty years. They have almost got their wish with the auto industry being the last one to go. I hope they are happy to see so many Americans unemployed. Not everyone can be a programmer or doctor. They destroyed the middle-class.