Written by: Nicole Harris-Armstrong
Last updated: March 7, 2025
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Getting through tough times of unemployment is hard. The unemployment rates in America are rising, which is alarming. The Department of Labor reported on December 7, 2024, that 242,000 American’s are unemployed. California has the highest initial claims, followed by New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. The numbers are growing as the government is threatening to lay off workers, and corporations are reducing their workforce as well. According to our representatives and media, everything is coming up roses as the economy is healthy, there are plenty of jobs and little unemployment. If that is the case, then why are so many people being unemployed long term? What is the solution for these people in limbo? Who is advocating for these people? According to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, the civil unemployment rate is 4.0%, so there are people that are unemployed in America that are not able to find meaningful employment. These are some of the issues plus more that will be discussed in this blog post regarding getting through tough times of unemployment.
What Is Money, How Is Money Earned, and What Is Money Used For
What is money? A medium of exchange of goods in an economy that comes in various forms and holds a system of value. How do we earn money? By most standards, people work for money in some form that earns a wage or income. Money is an honor system in which the majority of people feel that their work that they put in will earn enough money that will allow them to trade it for something else they find holds value. We have all heard the statement money is the root of all evil. Some people are consumed by money as they never have enough of it, even if they already have too much of it. In my opinion, we would probably have a more socially responsible economic system if we didn’t have the greed of some that want to live like lords of the land, as there would be enough money amongst the people for everyone to be able to live a financially healthy lifestyle. We can argue the evils of money; however, it is sensible to realize that at the end of the day we all need enough money to survive. We need money to pay for basic necessities, wants, savings, and investments. Money is earned to pay for basic needs to survive in which we find of value such water, food, shelter (house, mortgage or rent), energy (oil or electricity), communication (internet or phone), a car (transportation), healthcare (preventative and sick), protection of assets (insurance), and higher education (trade school, college, or university). If we have an overabundance of money after paying for basic needs for ourselves or for our children, we choose to spend money on various items in which we deem of value. Some people will save money, invest it, or buy a want with it. We often hear of the term live within your means, in which you earn a certain amount of money per day, week or month to pay for your wants and needs. If you spend less than you earn, then you will have created a surplus of extra money to put into basic needs, wants, savings, or investments. If you spend more than you earn, you have created a debt and do not have money to put into basic needs, wants, savings, or investments.
Obviously with being unemployed, you are earning little to no income which makes getting through tough times of unemployment difficult. Large corporations are laying off workers, downsizing to create more profits for shareholders, and are supposedly making the job market leaner. The government is also laying off workers which could lead to further corruption if there are not people monitoring what is going on. Both of their actions cause a greater loss for the entire society. I have heard some people say that unemployment is due to the increase in wages that employers cannot afford. With statements like that, people are not thinking about Americans that need a higher wage due to inflated assets such as housing. Inflated housing is the root cause for American’s need to earn higher wages. If houses were not inflated, Americans could get away with earning a lower wage and still afford to have a good life like the old days. I have learned that some people do not have an empathetic heart. With unemployment, the economy is at risk of greater loss, as if people do not have money to spend and try not to go into debt by using credit, then more jobs will be lost. Job losses cause low consumer demand, and low sales. This spirals into even more unemployment as consumer demand falls even further, which results in large-scale unemployment. Is this the vision that our leaders have for American’s? I just do not really see it as functional.
Deindustrializing America
Getting through tough times of unemployment is hard, as many people within our country have experienced repeatedly throughout history. Decades ago, our country and world decided it would be best to have a global economy. China reduced their agricultural land to become an industrial powerhouse, in which many people’s human rights were violated because their people went hungry at the time. At the same time, America decided to deindustrialize by sending American blue-collar jobs overseas for products to be manufactured at a cheaper cost which made us a great importer rather than a great exporter. Manufacturing jobs as well as call centers moved to other countries, as labor costs are cheaper in other countries along with the cost of living. American’s have been told time and time again that this is good for us, as we will import less expensive products. American’s have been dealing with inflated food and products for years now since the pandemic started. Tariff’s may make imports more expensive as businesses will offset their increased costs to American consumers, so not only do American’s need to pay for inflated assets like housing but also need to pay higher costs for goods as well. Wasn’t deindustrializing our nation supposed to make the cost of goods less expensive rather than more expensive to import? Housing has also become unaffordable, so many Americans cannot even afford to live in the country they are born in. Along with China, America also violated people’s human rights because they did not tell the blue-collar workers they were deindustrializing the nation and left it to the American middle class to figure out on their own through job losses. There are ways to do things and ways not to do things, and I feel our country chose the wrong way.
I feel our country could have done a better job in recognizing the gap in education regarding the blue-collar workforce. On top of that, I feel that blue-collar workers children that were being educated in K-12 schools at the time should have been educated better by explaining that the blue-collar job your dad currently has will eventually go away from this country and may not come back for decades, if ever. At the time I went to grade school, there were minimal computers. We did all our schoolwork on paper, and I was given one computer programming lesson throughout the entire time I was in grade school. When our country globalized and technology was going to be the way to greater financial freedom, I think the higher up leaders should have recognized that and trained us better than they did. To me, they lacked foresight of how things would turn out, and to this day many people that grew up in middle-class families are suffering. Either they are in denial of what they did, or they just do not really want to address the failure on their part. Looking back, my training in K-12 grade school would have been much more complete if we were taught about technology, along with the economy. From what I have witnessed over the last several years, there is a gap in understanding by our leaders that not only were low-income people done wrong in America, so were many people in the middle class as well. To be more socially responsible, this fact must be understood as I do not like how the middle-class people have been treated in our country in recent years. It is not fair, and it is wrong. It is not right to just say that some of the American workforce is not trained to do jobs here. If there are gaps in training amongst the American workforce, then shouldn’t the gaps be filled in through on-the-job training, or some other workforce training that is inexpensive so that all people can thrive in this country? Getting through tough times of unemployment is unfair and difficult, and I feel our country could do much better for our people.
The Old Days Before Bots
Computers are supposed to make the world a better place, but sometimes they do not. In the old days, people could walk into the Human Resource Department, meet a human being face to face, and create a warm connection. The interaction was humane. Now Human Resource Departments are being replaced by bots for corporations to save money. As a result, Human Resource Departments are no longer human or humane. Some people have difficulty in receiving even one interview after applying for 100+ jobs. The bots have been programmed in reject mode rather than accept mode. Resumes now need to have preferred key words in hopes that when the bot scans your resume it progresses to the next level hiring manager. Also due to technology, more people can apply for the same job. In the old days with physical Human Resource Departments, you may have 10 qualified applicants apply for the same job that lived locally. Now there are hundreds of applicants applying for the same job through technology who may or may not be qualified. As a result, qualified applicant resumes get stacked in piles with hundreds of other applicants resumes that never even make it to the hiring manager.
After working for a corporation, I have learned that sometimes corporations can turn people into monotone robots. Once that demotion occurs, the job actually does get replaced by a bot which is demoralizing. In order to maintain humanity once the job is replaced by a bot and to prevent demoralization of human beings in this way, corporations could train the workforce in different positions within the organization to keep the employee gainfully employed. Many times this does not happen, and people are treated inhumanely. All of these acts make the American work force less secure rather than more secure, with worker’s rights trampled on. How are these acts making America better and how are we different than other countries if this is what we are doing to our own work force? There comes a point that we need to ask ourselves, is progress worth human suffering and the atrocities against human rights? Some positions are being cyclically eliminated altogether due to technology, but isn’t this technology supposed to have limits such as if it interferes with human rights it is stopped? I do not really see that happening, so if it is not happening now how is it supposed to happen when corporations grow even bigger and more powerful than they already are? Throughout history there has been this type of suffering, but isn’t technology supposed to alleviate suffering and make our world a better place to live rather than worse? At least that is what we are told. There are many questions I have along with many other people that may or may not be answered. We do not have all these answers, as technology is going to continue to be built to keep up with other countries as our leaders take the wait and see what happens approach which to me seems irresponsible. Once again, computers can be good for people, but they can also be unbelievably bad for people as well. There is a gap in social understanding between those that have, and those that have not which is why I decided to write this blog post getting through the tough times of unemployment.
Actions to Take: How to Get Through Tough Times of Unemployment
How do you begin getting through this tough time of unemployment if you are given the boot? First off, file for unemployment benefits right away. To receive unemployment benefits, you must qualify by being out of work due to no fault of their own. You can search online for “unemployment benefits.” From there you will need to file for the benefits, and it may take weeks to find out if you qualify for them, which is why it is important to file for them right away. If you qualify, you will be at a very much reduced income level than you previously were. It is still a hardship to be unemployed, but at least you have some money coming in to help you. After you qualify for unemployment, you will need to request payment through unemployment benefits every 2 weeks on the day that they set for you to request for the benefit while you are unemployed. You can also contact your local Health and Human Services to find more information on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Transportation Assistance, Housing, Medical, Child Care Assistance etc. You can also think of other ways you might be able to save money on things you need to pay for monthly to decrease your monthly expenditure. Only buy what you need to survive. Anything else you want can wait until you have a job again, or at least that is how I thought when it happened to me. You can search for jobs on job boards, apply for jobs weekly, and go to job fairs in your area. Many people that have never been unemployed do not understand the hardship of it. COBRA is very expensive as it is over $800 month, and so is healthcare.gov in which the least expensive plan is over $340 month with high deductibles and out of pocket maximums. If you have a greatly reduced income coming in from unemployment and have high costs of living to pay for, your life becomes very hard. Some leaders believe you should live a hard knocks life to learn life lessons, but I really do not agree with them. There are better and more humane ways to learn things rather than have your human rights violated, and our country could do better for its people. If you think you were wrongfully terminated due to a civil rights violation such as race, religion, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information you can contact the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to file a case. If you suffered an unsafe work environment or are a whistleblower, you can contact the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to file a case. You can also hire an unemployment lawyer to see if you can find legal representation to help you.
Emotionally: How To Get Through Tough Times of Unemployment
Emotionally losing a job is exceedingly difficult, so getting through this tough time of unemployment can be challenging spiritually and mentally. Oftentimes we invest our time and our talents to help others, but investing in yourself is also important. You are yourselves most valuable asset, and you have worth no matter what anyone else says about you. Find ways to train and develop new skills to make yourself as marketable as you can be. Education and skills are things that can never be taken away from you once you attain them. Books are a wonderful way to help you emotionally get through this challenging time of unemployment. Some books I read that helped me were written by authors whom I very much respect are 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and How to Win Friends and Influence People in which you can purchase through these links to help a girl out. Take the time to remember your hobbies that you always loved to do as a child but have forgotten about. Maybe it is dancing, writing, drawing, painting, or playing an instrument. Think of this time as the time to do all the things you wish you could if you only had time to do them. In essence your life is more enriched because you are living for you. Imagine the possibilities, and this gift of personal time may offer insight to help you fulfil your passions and dreams.
By sharing some of the things that happened to me, I hope it will help you get through some of the things you are going through. My hope in writing this blog is to make America a better place to live, and more affordable again. I wrote related posts titled Healthcare Has Become One of The Greatest Tragedies of Our Time, Get Through Great Loss and Worry, People in America Are Faced with Limited Opportunities, Housing Cannot Be Both A Profitable Asset and a Human Right, and Home Prices Are Inflating Faster Than Incomes In America in which I would encourage you to read, a Resource page to help people in need, as well as a Basic Bills Tracker and Budget Planner in which you can find directly on my blog Shop page and on Etsy.