Unemployment Stories, Vol. Three: ‘Absolute Hell’

Every week, we’re bringing you true stories of unemployment, from the vast land of unemployed America. Today: depression, redemption, struggle, optimism, and the bitterness of the 99%. This is what’s happening out there.
Do I really have to do this again?

I am a mid-30s female with an Ivy League graduate degree. I just received my third layoff in a little over four years. The first layoff was just a month or so long, and I found something immediately. The second one was soul-crushing, and I was out of work for over a year. I applied to *everything*, interviewed for jobs paying much less than half my former salary, networked, etc. My friends were always supportive (“At least you’re not like so-and-so, who has no intention of going back to work till his unemployment runs out,” was a common refrain), but I could see that after a while they didn’t seem to get what the big deal was — was it really *so* hard to find a job?! Was I really, like, trying?

Continue reading here: Unemployment Stories, Vol. Three: ‘Absolute Hell’