My recently laid-off best friend call me this evening

[FirstLight]

saying "There's NO jobs out there... I check every day, Craigslist, the paper, the EDD..."
All I could do was echo "I know... I knoooow... I KNOW!"

...and not just in our little mountainous neck of the woods, but even looking in larger nearby cities is depressing. And then we have to figure in that with a bigger market, there's more competition.

I have not had a 40 hr week job since 2007, and have been bouncing between PT gigs for the past three years.
She just got laid off from a high paying local govt job, where she had been hired directly out of community college. she has no BA, but was making close to $25/hr... and now the jobs she isn't even qualified for want a BA and start at $10...

yep, I told her, that's what it is out there...

Been squeaking by most of my adult life, but yes the past two years are harder than ever. The holidays always demonstrate to me how little 'disposable' income I have, but the day to day scraping for gas or whatnot has become the norm.

I love my friend, but I hate to be the bearer of bad news, because it ain't gettin' any better out there...no matter WHAT the statistics say... I honestly don't know what the answer is, either... Today I paid part of my rent, and have till the 15th to come up with the balance. I have backup because I have family nearby who would help, but it feels lower than low to scrape like this ALL.THE.TIME.

I think I upset my friend by telling her to brace herself for foodstamps...