Daily Kos: Official Unemployment Hits 9.5%
Daily Kos: Official Unemployment Hits 9.
Some of what I’m about to say is going to sound crassly self-centered. But last month, before I was able to file for unemployment and before my personal contribution to the national unemployment figures, we read about some “light at the end of the tunnel” with respect to jobless claims. And I thought, “Oh, great. Just as I’m about to become a statistic, everyone is going to start thinking that the worst is over and it’s not as bad as it once was.” Maybe I was just sore at the irony of being on the dole just as the focus was coming off of the terrible cost the middle class has paid so far in this economic crisis. Maybe I was anticipating the inevitable comments like “Well, at least the worst is over.” As if that’s somehow going to make me feel better.
Probably, I was just overreacting to the anger and embarrassment of being out of work. Today’s numbers were a setback for the recovery process. But plenty of experts are predicting that we’ll see 10% unemployment before we really hit bottom. That doesn’t make me feel very good about my prospects for finding work.
