The job I lost
I was self-employed for years in the real estate investment/rental business. Then I decided to pay off my bankers and just get a regular job. It was hard to get a good job, so I worked at a hotel for a year and then tried a couple of higher paying jobs and got laid off.
I've drawn through tier 3 but still cannot find a job, being 50 years old with 4 years of college. The job market in Arkansas is just now starting to open up a little bit, but about two months ago I got cut off of unemployment benefits even though tier 4 was extended to states with 7.5 percent unemployment (Arkansas unempoyment rate is 7.2 percent).
What it's like being unemployed
It isn't a great experience considering I had not drawn unemployment benefits since 1986. I believe tier 4 should go to all states regardless of state unemployment rates and so should tier 5 if it is passed. This is discrimination in the worst sense of the word.
Also, I believe the unemployment rates are not accurate because they do not reflect the people out of work after benefits have expired and those who are self-employed so to speak that can't get enough work, or the structurally unemployed. The government is just trying to make things seem better than they really are. I couldn't go back into business because my credit wasn't great, and the banks in our area are all still in survival mode with high foreclosure rates.
Advice
- If you can actually get an interview then that would be your best shot at being hired; however, with the advent of computers the hiring process has gotten really impersonal.
