They aren't telling me anything I didn't already know; I don't even read the want ads anymore because there are NO JOBS HERE!!!!

"Mass. job seekers finding 'an abyss'; As downturn hits state, few hiring" by Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | November 16, 2008

After eight years as senior director of human resources and operations, Jodi Paris Anastos knew exactly what to do when she was laid off from a local biotechnology firm in July. She polished her resume. She set up interviews with executive recruiters. She networked with her industry and professional contacts.  But four months and scores of unacknowledged resumes later, Anastos, with a bachelor's degree in business and master's in psychology, is still without work or prospects. The clock is ticking on her unemployment benefits, which run out in early spring, and her savings have dwindled to almost nothing. She's even applied for waitressing jobs. No luck.

"It's really tough out there," said Anastos, of Ipswich, declining to name her former company. "It's like your resume falls into an abyss."

Anastos's story is becoming increasingly common as thousands of unemployed Massachusetts workers flood the job market and find few businesses hiring in the face of the economic downturn. First-time claims for unemployment benefits in Massachusetts have surged about 30 percent from a year ago, according to the US Labor Department, and the number of jobless workers in the state has jumped by more than 40,000 since April, when the unemployment rate bottomed at 4.1 percent.

In September, the state unemployment rate hit 5.3 percent, the highest since 2004, and economists expect it to climb through at least the end of next year....    "I think we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg right now," said Jerry Rubin, president of Jewish Vocational Service in Boston, a nonprofit that provides job training and career counseling. "The real impact of layoffs has not hit Massachusetts yet." 

Need I even say it?

Thanks to its strong technology, education, and health sciences sectors, Massachusetts has only begun to feel the brunt of the national economic downturn. For much of the past year, the state added jobs even as the rest of the country lost them.... 

Those days are over.

But the turmoil in financial markets and deteriorating national and global economies are taking their toll on the state. Massachusetts technology firms are projecting significant declines in sales in coming months, and several have recently announced job cuts....  Financial firms are cutting jobs, too, as plunging stock markets threaten profits....  Even universities, which typically do well in recessions as people return to school to update skills or stay longer rather than test the job market, are trimming budgets and curbing hiring as falling investment values batter their endowments....

As a result, jobs are increasingly hard to find anywhere. Mitsy Williams, 43, of Dorchester, has been looking since June, when she lost her job as a researcher for a financial services consulting firm. She has sent out at least 50 resumes, attended job fairs, and signed up with temporary agencies, but still no work. Meanwhile, her unemployment benefits run out in about a month. Workers can collect unemployment benefits for as many as 39 weeks.  "I am pinching pennies and trying not to stress," said Williams, who holds a two-year business degree. "But there are a lot of people looking for jobs, and not that many positions out there."

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During one morning late last week, the Woburn center bustled, providing a sense of the broad impact of the economic downturn. Among those searching for jobs were Kishor Thakkar, 48, an accountant who has been able to find only temporary jobs; Michele Mahoney, 61, a legal secretary laid off from a Boston law firm after 17 years; and Will Hamilton, 65, of Charlestown, who after losing his job as operational manager at a Boston tour operator, spent the summer working on the city's waterfront as a boat captain.

When the season ended in the fall, so did his job. Now, he's looking for work in the oil industry in Texas and Louisiana.

"The job market here is too tight, and it's not getting any better," Hamilton said. "I can't afford to retire."

John Coughlin, laid off in May from a Boston seafood wholesaler, said he has lost jobs before, but was always able to tap a network of friends, associates, and other contacts to quickly find another job. Not this time.  Coughlin, 35, who completed two years of college, is studying to become an information technology project manager under a state training grant. He spends his days in class and his nights poring over job listings. He said he's sent out too many resumes to remember, but received one interview. He didn't get the job. 

I'm getting a little frightened, readers.  What am I going to do when I run out of money?

Married with two children, and his family's sole breadwinner, Coughlin admitted he's getting more nervous about finding a job. His unemployment benefits end in February.  "We are struggling like a lot of people, and trying to do the best we can," he said. "I have to believe that if you want work, if you are determined, you will find work. It might take a while, but you will find it." 

Even if there are not any!  Yeah, leave us with a positive outlook, Globe -- even if the guy is in denial!! Then again, you ain't hurtin' for work, are ya? 

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This is what happens to people who are:

"Down, and no one to talk to; Anxiety runs high as the financial crisis exacts its toll" by Maggie Jackson | November 16, 2008

Maggie Jackson is the author of "Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age."

Hinda Swartz tries not to share too many of her work and financial worries with her significant other anymore, so she often lies awake at night, her mind racing.  Swartz, a part-time social worker, doesn't want to burden Augusto Guerrero, a factory worker who toils weekends maintaining the four Webster rental apartment buildings they co-own and the one she owns in Worcester. With maintenance costs spiraling, real estate prices falling, and renters defaulting, the couple barely have time to talk about the tough choices they are making to keep their family afloat.

"I am sitting with a lot of things that I'm not sharing. That's never a good thing," says Swartz, who lives with Guerrero and their two children, ages 5 and 2. "But I feel that I don't want to add one more thing to this guy's burden."  The gloomy headlines are inescapable. The chit-chat about the economy is relentless. Anxieties are running high: 80 percent of 2,507 Americans polled by the American Psychological Association in September reported that the economy is a significant source of stress for them. A separate summer survey by the APA found that 60 percent of 1,791 people reported feeling irritable due to stress, up 10 percent from last year.

Yet too often we can't find the right words to communicate our deepest worries about the downturn with our closest friends and family. Some fall silent, avoiding the chilling subject of the plummeting numbers, and all that they entail. Others fixate on the cable news, the next round of layoffs, causing fear to breed fear. "He'll say, 'Just relax,' " says Swartz. "But sometimes, I want to tear my hair out and say, 'But it won't be fine.' " 

For most, money is a taboo subject, even in the best of times. Now, it's at the heart of a long-term, wrenching, confusing series of changes in people's lives. There's no quick fix or easy answer, making communications and decision-making difficult, and sometimes even overwhelming.

"With 9-11, there was a villain," says Steve Slaten, a psychologist who is the executive director of Jewish Family Service of Worcester, referring to the terrorists' attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "Now, who are you angry at? Whose fault is it? What could I have done differently? What can I do now to protect my money? There's no answer at this time. This is very challenging." 

Oh my Christ!! Yeah, there is NO VILLIAN this time!! How aboput the LYING, LOOTING BANKERS to start!!!!  And they had to talk to a JEW who would bring up 9/11, hanh?  Yeah, I AM SICK and TIRED of JEWISH RUBBISH posing as "news!" 

Yup, pin the BLAME on the INDIVIDUAL, you Zionist piece of....  Aaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!!!

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Of course, you aren't alone, shit-eating 'murkn: the BILLIONAIRES are SUFFERING, too!!!!

"America's CEOs lose billions in stock options" by Floyd Norris, New York Times News Service | November 16, 2008

Feeling bad about how much you have been hurt by the stock market plunge? At least you don't have a lot of stock options.... Add the decline of high-paying Wall Street jobs, and this may be a glum holiday season at those retailers who cater to the well-off." 

Aww, my heart bleeds for the scum richers!!!!  Pffft!!!!!