Emergency Unemployment Compensation

For anyone who's run out of regular unemployment, the federal government offers up to 33 weeks of emergency unemployment compensation (thank goodness!).

How do you obtain this? Ideally, your state unemployment agency will send you an application for emergency unemployment compensation approximately two weeks before your regular unemployment runs out. However, I've been told that these forms can sometimes be sent out a few weeks after your regular unemployment runs out. Yikes! My advice: go to your local unemployment office and collect the form on the off-chance that you're one of the ones who falls through the cracks and has a few week gap in your unemployment benefits!

If your application is accepted, you can keep claiming unemployment benefits as you were before. The same number of employer contacts and job log recording is required. Reporting can usually be done online or via phone, depending upon your state.

It's great to have the additional $25 per week from the feds also; thankfully, many states, such as Washington, have increased the weekly benefit as well. How long will it take for this extra money to give our economy a small push in the right direction? Hopefully, this will allow more individuals and families to hold out just a bit longer until employment is found again.

Until next time, hang in there!

HD

Persisting in the Face of Rejection

If you're unemployed (like I still am) and applying for jobs, you've likely come face to face with a fair number of rejections at this point. They come in all forms, whether they're written, electronic, or the classic money-saving complete and utter lack of response. Let's face it: it's never fun to be rejected, even if you were actually thinking that, after the interview, maybe that wasn't the job for you.

With so many people unemployed, the amazing qualifications of the applicant pool against which we're all competing make it somewhat easier not to take all of these rejections too personally. But, today, I felt more than upset and frustrated, I felt let down by our great capitalistic society. I've been working hard at being unemployed--networking, informational interviews, cover letters, resumes, reading career and life direction books, you name it, I've done it. And, I've been trained that hard work usually results in success. Well, I've hit the same wall that so many have encountered. Hard work in this economy may not mean immediate success, or even any success at all. And sure, I've used this time to redefine what success means to me and all of that. But, honestly, it's exhausting, it's a long road, and feeling like there's no end in sight leads to a feeling of desperation that I'd rather avoid.

So, how do we go on in light of all of the chaos around us? As someone who freaks out when I have to have answers about the future and don't, I simply have to focus on what's immediately in front of me, which is usually sending the next e-mail or working on the next cover letter or shutting down my computer to go for a run. What do you do? Please share your thoughts!

Good luck out there!