How many people do you know that have been laid off, have their hours cut back, spouses who are working two (or three) jobs, retirees that have to go back to work, increased daycare costs… the list goes on and on. The news offers us no way to change this cycle, only accentuates how dire it is. What people need at a time like this is a hand to hold, a good story to inspire us, and hope to show us a better way.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The unemployment rate surged to the highest in nearly 16 years last month as a deepening year-long recession forced companies to axe more than half a million jobs, government data showed on Friday.
The U.S. economy lost an astonishing 1.9 million jobs in the past four months alone, an acceleration in layoffs toward the end of a year that brought the biggest drop in employment in more than a half century.
In all of 2008, 2.6 million people lost their jobs, the largest slump in employment since a 2.75 million drop in 1945.
The December data pointed to a bleak start for 2009 and increased chances the economic downturn could become the longest since the 1930s.
Think about how STRESSFUL that is for someone in that position. 2.6 million people with stress. Their future, their ability to earn a living to support their family – is completely in someone else’s control. Maybe you don’t need extra money in your wallet, but know someone who does? It’s very difficult for most of us to open our wallets and give to friends and family in need, so why not offer them hope? Hope is the mantra of 2009 after all, hope for a new and stronger government, hope for our environment to be given the chance to heal, hope for a more secure future. To me, the difference between hoping and dreaming is that hope gives way to action, and action gets things done.
I’m getting things done. I work with people every day to mentor them and show them how to start their own cycle of hope that allows them the freedom and flexibility of a career path that no one can lay them off from, cut their hours, or tell them their job has been outsourced to a machine, computer, or overseas. Job stress (and in relation, financial stress) is the number one reason families and marriages fall apart. In order to remove this from our lives, we need to think differently. Act differently. Hope differently.
