Things are tough all over. I know some people that are very close to me that are in the same position. Some of them have been all along trying very hard to find work; others not so much. It's frustrating because I can definitely understand the impulse to tell grown people (especially men, is that sexist?? ) to find a job but on the other hand there simply aren't the jobs to be had. And there's a good argument that cutting benefits at this point will make it worse for the entire economy.


CINCINNATI (Reuters) – Deborah Coleman lost her unemployment benefits in April, and now fears for millions of others if the Senate does not extend aid for the jobless.

"It's too late for me now," she said, fighting back tears at the Freestore Foodbank in the low-income Over-the-Rhine district near downtown Cincinnati. "But it will be terrible for the people who'll lose their benefits if Congress does nothing."

For nearly two years, Coleman says she has filed an average of 30 job applications a day, but remains jobless.

"People keep telling me there are jobs out there, but I haven't been able to find them."

Coleman, 58, a former manager at a telecommunications firm, said the only jobs she found were over the Ohio state line in Kentucky, but she cannot reach them because her car has been repossessed and there is no bus service to those areas.

After her $300 a week benefits ran out, Freestore Foodbank brokered emergency 90-day support in June for rent. Once that runs out, her future is uncertain.

"I've lost everything and I don't know what will happen to me," she said.
Hard Times Unemployment