When does your unemployment become long term? Some experts say after six months. I say that in this market after a year is more accurate. Here’s why?

In a good job market it can often take at least three months to find a management or professional job. Even if you find a job and interview and the organization like you, it's still going to take a while for the wheels to turn, for background checks to go through and for the paperwork to get prepared. In a bad market it can take longer. So instead of three months it can take six or nine months. The higher up the chain or the more specialized the field the longer the wait.

So what does long term unemployment mean for your life? And what can you do to keep going?

Live in the present.
If you can't afford to pay rent on the big apartment you love. You may have to bite the bullet and move in with family or get a room-mate. Don't rely on getting that fabulous job tomorrow and keeping your cool living space and solving all your problems.

Be creative about making money.
Have a garage sale. Sell your used books on Amazon. Rent out your guest room or your garage. Take your old clothes to a consignment store. Take Aunt Delores stuff in the attic to an auction house and see if it's worth anything.

Start a business.
It can be small. Make a hobby into a money-making concern. Sell your photographs online or at the local coffee shop. Tutor school kids in math. Babysit babies or pets! Or walk them (the pets not the babies). Freelance or consult. Write a blog about your interest, get traffic and sell ad space. Be bold and beautiful.

Make those tough decisions.
Go back to school even though you hate assignments. Move to the cheaper state. Take a job with less prestige and more money but with a paycheck. Take the kids out of karate class or swim class or private school. Sell the car.

Be nice.
Be nice to other people - it's not their fault you don't have a job - and to yourself - even though you may say it's your fault - it's not. You did your best. What happened happened. And now this is a chance to learn what to do in the future and how to be OK about that.

Having a job is important, necessary, even vital but it is not who you are. You are still a valuable human being even if you don't have the six-figure income and the cube with high walls. Give yourself permission to be OK with where you are right now, today.

And know that your family and friends support you. It's a tough place to be and you need all the help you can get. Good luck!

LINKS
More on Long Term Employment:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/31/news/economy/longterm_unemployment/index.htm?cnn

Author's Bio: 

David Couper is a career coach and writer who for the last twenty years has worked in Europe, Asia, and in the USA with major organizations including the BBC, Fuji Television, Mattel, Sony, and Warner Bros.

He has successfully coached individuals at all levels including CEOs of major companies wanting a new challenge, frustrated souls wanting to make their dream come true, and front-line employees laid off and desperate to get a job.

David has published seven books. His works on interpersonal skills, counseling in the workplace, and management issues (published by Connaught, Gower, HRD Press, Longman, Macmillan/Pearson Publishing, Oxford University Press) have been translated into Swedish, Polish, and Danish, and published in the UK and the USA.

David has a degree in Communication, a postgraduate qualification in education, is certified in a number of training technologies, and has a Masters in Psychology. He is a member of the American Society of Training and Development, Society of Human Resources Professional, Writers Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television.

He has dual US/UK citizenship and speaks French and Japanese.

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