Today I Opened My Last Unemployment Check

by Guest Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:44 pm

After 30 months of unemployment, 400 applications, and only three in-person interviews, I stood looking at my last unemployment benefit without a job in sight.

The temptation was to frame it, since it marks one of those transitions in life that merits being remembered. But I needed the money more than a memento, so I took my last unemployment check to the bank and deposited it -- $367 for some necessities. Food, rent, gas. My last unemployment check was $160 less than my usual weekly benefit, but still a welcome boost to my sagging finances. How I will miss those Tuesday trips to the mailbox and then the bank, one of the few regular events in my upended, irregular life!

I had always thought the unemployed were society's unfortunates, people unlike me lacking in education or training or experience or skills. Then in March of 2009, the Hearst Corporation quit publishing the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I suddenly became a labor statistic, one of millions without work in the worst economic implosion since the Depression. I was more fortunate than many unemployed people since the Newspaper Guild negotiated a decent severance that yielded two weeks' pay for every year of employment. Since I had spent more than a quarter century underneath the P-I's landmark globe, my severance was a year's salary, although that lump sum check as I left the building forever had a tax bite from a Great White Shark.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/today-i-opened-my-last-unemployment-check/245205/

by steveninspokane Sun Sep 18, 2011 11:23 pm

Yeah, I remember my last check... about 1 year and 6 months ago. Boy how time flies when you can't pay your bills anymore.

by wausauguy Sun Sep 18, 2011 11:39 pm

I don't know what to say. I read this and it applies for me too. There is no real comfort in knowing I am not alone. Still, I am grateful for this site and all the posts.
It is one thing to be 20 years old and unemployed, but at nearly 45 years old and many years of experience and education. It just seems like all was a waste.
I have to count my blessings, and I am ready for good thing to come about.

by Guest Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:08 am

steveninspokane wrote:Yeah, I remember my last check... about 1 year and 6 months ago. Boy how time flies when you can't pay your bills anymore.

Same here, Steven - March, 2010. I can't believe it has been that long! I remember that last check, I didn't certify for it until the last possible day, knowing I was only delaying the inevitable, but still hoping things would get better. Crying or Very sad

by jmainframe Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:25 pm

DesperateInRI wrote:
steveninspokane wrote:Yeah, I remember my last check... about 1 year and 6 months ago. Boy how time flies when you can't pay your bills anymore.
Same here, Steven - March, 2010. I can't believe it has been that long! I remember that last check, I didn't certify for it until the last possible day, knowing I was only delaying the inevitable, but still hoping things would get better.

Yeah Desperate, I believe that's around the time I received my last check. We're both part of what I call "the first wave". I still can't believe it's been that long since congress turned its back on the exhaustees.

With a wife, and also a daughter who is not yet fully grown, I owed it to them to bite the bullet and find ANY job. Since my unemployment ran out, I've held 3 jobs in 2 years. Currently, I'm working 2 low-paying jobs and am a member of the underemployed. Since taking on 2 jobs, I have worked every day without a vacation, holiday, or sick day. Despite all of this, and my wife working as well, we continue to fall deeper and deeper in the hole. Because of this, I get absolutely no satisfaction despite this survival effort to support my family. Needless to say, I am extremely angry at this country, as it continues to work against us as we try to survive the worst economy this nation has ever seen, something, I feel, could have been avoided if only corporate america and the government had done the right thing not just for a few, but for everyone.

by Guest Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:21 pm

1 year and 6 months for me as well, such a heaviness and it's still with us. I wonder what it would feel like to not wake up with it every morning, to honestly be able to unclench my teeth. However, I am in really great company here and would never have emotionally made it through without all of you. You all keep me going. Today I Opened My Last Unemployment Check 769716

Today I Opened My Last Unemployment Check 769716

by rhiannonj Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:13 pm

Same with me MaryKay. Lost my benefits in March 2010. And I too wonder what it would be like to wake up without this weight on our shoulders. Sometimes I feel strong and so determined to get through this... I can see it and feel it. But other times I wake up and I can't shake these images from my mind. It's always been my belief that our thoughts create our reality so I do my best to block images from my mind that are negative. I will not give into those thoughts. God bless you all and love you bunches.