In December 2008, the country's jobless rate increased to 7.2% or 11.1 million Americans who were unemployed. This was the highest level in the past 16 years. Employers were nervous about the economy and as a result eliminated 524,000 jobs in the month of December 2008.
In Massachusetts the jobless rate increased to 6.9% with 16,800 employees losing their jobs. In California, the jobless rate increased to 9.3% which marked a 14 year high for the state with 78,200 employees losing their jobs. In North Carolina, the jobless rate increased to 8.7% which was the highest in the past 25 years. In December, 396,846 people were unemployed. In Connecticut the jobless rate increased to 7.1% with 11,500 employees losing their jobs and was the worse since 1991. In Washington (state) the jobless rate increased to 7.1% with 251,700 employees losing their jobs.
These figures also coincide with the foreclosure rates of these states. As of December 2008: California had 89,449 foreclosures (highest in the country), Massachusetts had 3,919 (ranked 15th), North Carolina 2,274 (22nd), Connecticut had 2,060 (25th), and Washington had 2,769 (21st).
To reduce the impact of a job loss, be the best employee you can be: arrive to work on time every day, cancel vacation, "mental health days", and other scheduled time off. Ask for extra assignments, reduce your lunch hour to 30 minutes and spend the other 30 minutes looking for a part-time job or doing research to take a course or training class to increase your skills.
Spend time with senior employees at your job and learn all you can from them, but be sure to remind them that they are the senior staff on the job and you are only there to learn from them and not take their job. Reduce your expenses by bringing your lunch to work or carpool with co-workers to save money. Make at least one sacrifice to save money and reduce your expenses to pay down debt and create an emergency fund to cover bill for at least 8-12 months.
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