The Employment Situation: Not a Pretty Picture

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor released its August employment statistics and things are pretty dismal. During August the unemployment rate in the United States rose from 5.7 to 6.1 percent, an increase of four-tenths of a percentage point. Over the past year, the number of unemployed people has increased by 2.2 million. This is an increase in the unemployment rate of 1.4 percent over 12 months. Declines were seen in the manufacturing and employment services industries, but both the health care and mining industries added jobs.

This picture is very scary. If you have lived through other times in history when the unemployment rate was high, you know things will eventually improve. What we don't know, however, is when. And if you're living in the midst of this — either worrying about losing your job or struggling to pay the bills and feed your family if that's already happened — knowing it will end at some point in the future isn't very soothing. If you are currently unemployed or if you think it could happen to you (and it could happen to almost anyone), you need to have a plan of action. Take a look at How to Cope With Job Loss to help you prepare for the worst. I look at it like I look at preparing for a storm. If it doesn't happen, that's great, but if it does, you won't be kicking yourself about not doing everything you could to keep you and your family safe.