The unemployment survival guide

Introduction This book will help make life more bearable while searching for employment. It won't teach you how to find a job, but it will teach you how to keep from going crazy if you're between jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, worrying about losing your job, or if you have recently retired. This information has been tested and proven beneficial for a wide variety of people-from laid-off, highly paid executives to individuals just entering or reentering the workforce. Certainly, part of finding a new job is preparing and sending résumés, perusing classified ads, searching for employment on the Internet, networking, and interviewing. But until you find work-and you will find work-your biggest, most important job is taking care of you. Hopefully, you'll never have the need to read this book, but in case you do-and most likely you or someone you love will-it should serve as a guide to improving your daily life while you're unemployed. For the purposes of this discussion, unemployed means you're jobless, looking for a job, and available for work. At some point in your life you, your partner, a parent, a friend, or a neighbor will find yourselves between jobs or out of work. Keep in mind that over 95% of the population seeking employment was terminated from their previous positions for reasons other than job performance. Over the past ten years, the unemployment rate in the United States has ranged between 3.9 and 7.8 percent. If we placed a population value on this number, consider this: At the printing of this book, a 6.4 percent rate equates approximately 9.4 million people. This statistic, while grim, does not include the estimated 4.8 million people working part-time who want full-time jobs and another 1.4 million who have looked for work in the past year, but not the last month, who are no longer counted by the U.S. Department of Labor as being unemployed. If unemployment were a disease, it would be deemed an epidemic. Looking for a job or seeking more successful employment isn't uncommon, nor is it embarrassing. Most importantly, you're not alone. Finding a job is something we usually do alone and, in fact, can be socially difficult. It's often hard to find social support, unlike other challenges for which support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers exist. Unemployment may be a bit less intriguing or mysterious to discuss in social circles since talk of one's emotional well-being while job hunting isn't usually of concern-unless you yourself are unemployed. There is an abundance of resources available on how to get a job, write a resume, and even how to interview more effectively, but there isn't nearly enough information available on how to take care of you while unemployed. Don't be shocked to find that you may face many pressures and fears during your difficult-even discouraging-search for employment, but do know that you are not alone and resources do exist to help you get through the next few weeks, months, or even longer if necessary. This sounds cheesy, but it's important: No matter how dreary a day you're having, remember that every rainbow is made from the proper balance of rain and sunshine. This book will help you in nurturing yourself while you discover what the next step is for you. Excerpted from The Unemployment Survival Guide: Nourishing Yourself Through the Lean Times by David Workman, Jim Stringham All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.