Unemployment fucking sucks

[BushOut06]

I just got laid off last week after 7 1/2 years on the job. No big deal, I figure. Supposedly the unemployment rate in Florida, and Orlando in particular, is very low, so shouldn't be hard to find a job. I figured that on unemployment, collecting 60% of my previous salary, I should be able to make ends meet while looking for a job.

Then today I received a HUGE eye-opener in the mail, when I received my unemployment statement in the mail. It said my weekly benefits would be $275 per week. That was WAY below what I had figured I would be getting, so I called to see if there was a mistake. NO, I was told - this is the new maximum weekly benefit that Florida law permits. THANKS A FUCKING LOT, JEB BUSH AND YOU FUCKING GOP ASSHOLES! Shit, I could probably go down the corner and get a job at McDonalds for that much, probably more!

To top it off, when I went into to apply for my unemployment this past week, the office was hardly empty. The jobs I've applied for so far? Already filled. If unemployment is so fucking low, why are positions being filled so damned fast?

The best way I can figure why unemployment rates are so low is that the new laws limiting what you can receive are a fucking joke. People can no longer afford to take their time looking for the job they want, they're forced to take shitty jobs offering shitty pay with no benefits.

FUCK YOU REPUBLICANS!

[DS1]

1. More than I was making at my last job

:shrug:

[Neil Lisst]

5. he likely has hard expenses of that much a week

mortgage, phone, electricity

He's probably further down the road in his life, and therefore has higher fixed monthly expenses. Prolly.

[SoCalDem]

14. In 1995, I got $448 a week

Yep. the economy's just peachy :(

You're right.. the benefits are super low, so you will JUMP at the opportunity to work 2 shitty jobs in order to make more.. (makes their numbers look better too...you trade in a $15 hr job for 2 $7s..1 lost..2 "filled"..)

[BushOut06]

24. I actually got $320 a week back in '97

Back then, it really was determined by how much money you made on your last job. The job that I got fired from back then payed a helluva lot less than the job I just got laid off from, and I was still able to get roughly $320 per week. Almost ten years later, and now I'm getting LESS?

Sure sounds like progress, don't it? :(

[ThomCat]

2. I'm sorry.

I hope you find something good soon.

Jeb is a republican. Of course he want's to punish you for not being rich. If you came from a wealthy family you'd have investment income to live on. Duh.

[Vincardog]

3. Don't forget when your benefits run out you will no longer be unemployed

The government statistics are being done up by the Enron accountants.

[sandnsea]

7. That's not true

I really wish people would quit saying that, it isn't how the unemployment numbers are calculated. They are done with a household survey.

The reason the numbers are so low is because when the unemployment runs out, people have to take any odd job, from mowing lawns to selling crap on Ebay. (Not that all people sell crap) As soon as that happens, they count them as self-employed, when they didn't used to. That is, in part, why the unemployment numbers are off.

[Vincardog]

12. Nobody is surveying my household. I am not working and I am not counted

The reason the numbers are so low is because they call us chronic or disaffected and they do not want to count us. The books are cooked.

[sandnsea]

20. It's a survey, like a poll

That's how they do it. Obviously they don't call every household in the country every week. But they also don't use unemployment benefits to do the calculation. And obviously the numbers are cooked, I told you one way they cook them. It doesn't have anything to do with dropping off of the unemployment rolls though. It's an error that people make here all the time, and it gets corrected all the time, yet people keep saying it.

[BushOut06]

15. There is a cap

I don't know if you're referring to the 60% figure that I and almost everyone else was telling me (actually that's what it used to be in Florida), or the $275/wk figure. But I was told by the woman on the phone that even if I was making a million dollars a year, that Florida law only allows a maximum of $275/wk to be paid out.

Which here in Florida works out to barely above minimum wage.

[sandnsea]

19. Yes, I know that

I'm not arguing with anything you're saying at all, I'm sure you're right that people are taking crap jobs because unemployment benefits are so low. I'm just saying that unemployment figures are not calculated by the number of people receiving benefits, that's all.

[acmejack]

17. The ever popular Current Population Survey

My poor old Economics 101 Prof would be stunned...

The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, and persons not in the labor force.

http://www.bls.gov/cps/

on edit: I hope something shakes out for you quick. Are you locked in to your present location? If not maybe we can help, lots of people here.

[mike_c]

4. welcome to the brave new economy, wage slave....

Would you like fries with that?

Sorry to hear about your layoff. Been there, and it does suck. Good luck-- unless you're tied to where you live, maybe you should look for work outside Florida (if that's possible).

[leftstreet]

9. Maybe the new immigration bill guarantees a $15.00 minimum wage

There are 100s and 100s of pages in the actual legislation being put forth. I'm sure that'll be one of the stipulations.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[MrSlayer]

6. Damn and I thought the $450 I was getting was weak.

That really sucks. How the hell do they expect you to live off of $275? Best of luck to you on getting a new job quickly.

[AnneD]

18. In Fla...

they pay you in sunshine. Seriously, they expect you to take a lower salary because 'the weather is great here-plenty of sunshine'...At least that is what they tried to sell me when I was talking salary for a Nursing job. Thanks but no thanks.

[EllieGreen]

8. There *are* plenty of jobs...

...just low-paying jobs. :-(

Here in GA, I had to settle for an $8/hour 36 hour a week job. This after working a $16/hour, 40 hour a week job.

And, I still have to pay student loans, had to get another roommate, gas prices rising, yadda yadda yadda.

Grrr.....

[LiberalEsto]

10. That really sucks.

I was unemployed for 13 months about 2 years ago and I remember how emotionally painful it was.

Have you tried the nearest Craigslist.com? They have some good job listings.

Good luck!

[DFW]

16. My wife works with the unemployed.

She is a social worker here in Germany, whose job it is
to try and place long-term unemployed back into the workforce.
It is a thankless frustrating job. My heart goes out both to her
and to those of her charges that desperately want work and just
can't find it. For that matter, if my wife were to lose her job,
who would hire a 54 year old social worker who has had cancer?

I have had the great luck to have a job with the same outfit I
joined at age 23--31 years this August. I know when I've lucked
out, too.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. I hear ya...

I've been looking since I was layed off in Dec. I can't find anything that pays as much as the unemployment I'm getting! I figure I need $10 per hour to make the same (after taxes), but I really need $12.50 to feel like I can pay all the bills. I was making about $15.50, damit!

[Sinti]

13. I'm sorry. Hope you find work again soon

I know, that and a $1.50 will buy you a cup of coffee.

[Deja Q]

21. If you can get the job, that is...

Personality profiling unfairly discriminates. It's fun to know hard workers not be hired in favor of those who are later seen to be total slackers despite being able to pass a test. (and not get fired or reprimanded...)

And it's all controlled by computer.

Computers do our thinking.

Those decrying these things in the 1960s/70s were right; even if the media presented the issues in a totally far-fetched, OTT manner to dilute them.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

22. I am so sorry to hear about your plight.

Been there and done that. Working now, but creditors are hounding me for defaults that occured when I lost my job.

It does suck.

[porphyrian]

23. Unfortunately, it will take this happening to a lot of republicans...

...before they start to really get it. Fortunately, that tsunami of economic failure is already crashing through the population in an election year.

[area51]

25. I'm so sorry you were laid off.

I'm in TX & am getting almost the same amount of unemployment $ you are. It's insane. The job market is brutal; no way the unemployment rate is as low as ~ 5%.

Here's an interesting pdf on one economist's view.

[jzodda]

26. The figures are terribly misleading

The middle class has been SHAFTED bigtime since Bush came to office. The stats fail to mention people who stopped looking for work because they couldn't find anything but the McDonald's job and the refuse to take it, or people who take jobs for far less then they had previously. This is happening all over the country and to MANY people I know. Some are now in jobs they are highly over-qualified for making shit money b/c they have kids to support and others have ending their search in frustration and are weighing their options like a move, or go back to school, etc.

So the situation is far far worse then the stats that they trod out there to fool people with.


O and BTW: I know exactly how it feels. In 2003 I fell down the stairs and lost my job as an attorney. Since then I have been able to find real lousy jobs for the most part that pay nothing near what I was making.

[Blue_Tires]

27. unemployed here also

nt