Many reports are now showing that companies both big and small are learning how to do more with less. Meaning they’re making due with less workers, getting loner hours and more work out of each individual. And people are glad to take on more work, just happy to have a job. But the reports are showing that companies that are doing this, their profits are on the rise, while the overall economy shrinks and U.S. households suffer.
I am a part of a household that holds only one full-time worker (me). My husband has been struggling with unemployment since before the recession officially began. He’s been unemployed on and off for 3 years now. 
At first, it was really a struggle for us, we had a lot of debt, like most people did at the beginning of the downturn.
We’ve learned from our past mistakes and our attitudes about money, debt, possessions and even jobs, have changed.
While I don’t like what I’m doing for a living, I’m very happy to be employed.
According to an article I recently read on Yahoo! News, economists are predicting it will take five years for employment to get back to pre-recession levels. Five years!
I don’t really see how the levels we were at pre-recession were sustainable in any way. Our economy was booming and employment levels were high, but that was ultimately not a good thing. It was unsustainable.
Unfortunately, my husband was in the hardest hit industry in the economy, residential architecture and construction. Common sense tells me that his industry will be one of the last industries to begin booming again. And it may take longer than five years for that sector to really pick up again. So we’re faced with the questions:
What to do? How do we keep going? How do we make ends meet and how do we survive this waiting period?
How the Unemployment Crisis Has Affected Me
Published
Amanda Bretz 