I’m currently drawing unemployment from my state. My former place of work is state funded, and it took a 35% budget cut in the summer of 2009.  In August of that year, it gave roughly 30% of its workers a 90 day layoff notice.  I was part of that 30%.  Like the others who were laid off, I began searching for work immediately, hoping I’d have another job by the time that the notice had ended.  I didn’t.

Unemployment Insurance

In January of this year, I filed for unemployment. I was almost immediately “flagged” by my county’s unemployment office as someone who would have trouble finding another job. I was turning forty, and my background was in education, outreach and training. I was summoned to a meeting (required if I was to draw unemployment) with other people who were similarly “flagged.” In the meeting, I was sitting with lawyers, real estate agents, and an engineer. The person running the meeting said that since we were at high risk of staying unemployed, the office would provide us extra help, and even do job searches for us.  In the past 6 months, the person assigned to me has only found one possible lead. I’ve had similar results.

I haven’t been sitting idly, though. I set up a consulting website. I started my own virtual institute. I am very optimistic that I will make money following my passion. But, the money isn’t there yet. And, I’m almost out of my state unemployment insurance.

So, I’ve been following the federal unemployment extension in the Senate. The latest extension expired at the beginning of June. People who’ve exhausted their state benefits no longer have unemployment insurance. The Senate has rejected a bill for another extension –  four times. They will be voting on it again within this week (as of the time I am writing this post).

What’s going on?

Now, I’m not writing to debate the economic benefits of the federal unemployment extension. (Do a Google search, and you’ll find plenty of that.) I’m here to address the common comments that I see in stories about people drawing unemployment.

“There are jobs out there if you’d just look.”

“People drawing unemployment are lazy and just want to live off the government.”

“If you’d be willing to take a pay cut, you could find a job.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in June there were 14.6 million people unemployed, and in the past 6 months, private-sector employment has increased by 593,000. It’s not hard to do the math. There aren’t enough jobs.

These facts are established in almost every article I read about unemployment. The comments, however, are still the same – “there are jobs out there if you’d just look.” So, what’s going on?

Fear

I don’t think it’s a general lack of compassion. I think it’s fear. And, it’s an understandable fear. We see people losing their jobs, through no fault of their own, and it scares us. If it happened to someone else, it could happen to us. We want to believe that if it did happen to us, that we’d be okay because “there are jobs out there for people who really want them.” We have to believe that. Otherwise, it’s too scary.

Our Choice

The other day, Owning Pink’s Grendel, the Mojo Pup, said, “Stop trying to control your life, the Universe doesn’t need your help.” We can’t control what’s going in the economy. We simply must do our best, have compassion for ourselves and others, and trust that the Universe is taking care of the rest. Life is full of uncertainty, and fear may be a natural instinct. But, we have a choice to either feed that fear, or face the uncertainty with compassion and faith. I know, from experience, that choosing “compassion and faith” is not easy at first. But, trust me when I say that with practice, the rewards are great.

How do you face the fear in your life? Do you have examples of times when compassion and faith helped you through uncertain times?

Jennifer
Astrologer, Educator &
Founder of FemCentral, the Virtual Institute for Women