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Strollerderby
Right before Christmas, my husband got laid off from his job. Even though I’ve been fortunate enough to pick up more writing work, it’s kind of a tough situation.
But hey, it’s not all ramen noodles and crushing guilt! We’re focusing on the positives, like having Daddy home a lot more.
And we’ve actually found, deep under the suckiness, eleven awesome things about my husband’s unemployment.
While many of us were kicking back yesterday enjoying flowers, brunch and our kids’ homemade Mother’s Day crafts, there’s one thing moms could really use that we didn’t get for Mother’s Day: jobs.
The New York Times Economix blog makes the case that what many moms need more than anything is good public support programs that will help them get back to work. Single moms in particular are in desperate need of employment programs: they’re more likely to be without a job than their married counterparts, and they rely on their income more.
What should we do about it?
First Lady Michelle Obama talking to Matt Lauer.
“I don’t think there’s an issue that my husband deals with that isn’t tough. It’s hard being the President of the United States. But I think he’s doing a great job.”
That’s First Lady Michelle Obama on her husband’s leadership skills. Mrs. Obama sat down with TODAY host Matt Lauer this morning and talked about raising kids in the White House and how proud she is of her husband’s accomplishments and demeanor.
The First Lady didn’t shy away from sharing intimate details about the Obama family’s private life, confirming that President Obama successfully quit smoking about a year ago. When asked how he was able to do it in spite of all the stress he faces, Michelle replied, “I don’t know. Once he made the commitment to quit, I left him alone because it’s a very personal thing. I don’t think that there’s one right way to do it. I just know that once a person makes the decision, they have to find the best path. So I said when a person is doing the right thing, you leave ‘em alone.”
The First Lady is confident that despite having to grow up in the spotlight, her daughters Sasha and Malia are doing just fine. ”There are a lot of great kids who have come out of the White House,” she said. ”The Bush girls are magnificent. Chelsea Clinton, she’s a solid young woman. Caroline Kennedy – I mean, we’ve got a pretty good track record. So the Obama girls hopefully will be in that group.” Continue reading »
Middle and upper class famillies in Ohio are "the new poor"
The state Department of Job and Family Services said Friday that Ohio’s jobless rate hit a seasonally adjusted 9.6 percent in December — that’s down from 9.8 percent in November and more than a percentage point below the 10.8 percent jobless rate seen a year ago, according to the Dayton Business Journal. The ranks of those unemployed and actively seeking work, meanwhile, fell by 13,000 to hit 567,000, marking the lowest number of unemployed Ohioans in nearly two years.
Sounds like promising news. But, for many Ohio families, the future’s not looking quite so sunny. Ohio families are hurting – more and more are losing their homes. According to the Mansfield News Journal, “We continue to see unemployment as the major driver of foreclosures in Ohio.” The newspaper quotes Cindy Flaherty, director of home ownership for the Ohio Home Finance Agency, who says, “Even when people get re-employed, the wages they are earning aren’t as good as prior.” Ohio is looking at a population of “the new poor” who are suffering from underemployment, or financial crises from continued unemployment, a medical crisis or divorce. In the same article, Loretta King of the Columbus Housing Partnership says: “In Columbus, we have concentrations of foreclosures in high-price loan areas and people living paycheck-to-paycheck. We now have middle-class and upper-class income families [being foreclosed on] that were [once] insulated.”
The foreclosure forecast still looks grim for 2011. Continue reading »
The American economy is so awful, the Wall Street Journal reports that parents of means are now resorting to buying franchise businesses to keep their adult children employed, shelling out six figure sums to purchase their little darlings Pita Pit restaurants and College Hunks Hauling Junk moving trucks:
Watching fellow college students working for $7.50 an hour after graduation, Tana Walther, a fashion-design major at Kent State University in Ohio, snapped up an alternative offered by her father — to run a Pita Pit restaurant he would buy.
“I guess I bought her a job,” says her father, Jan Walther, of North Canton Ohio. Prospects of a career in fashion seemed remote, and Tana, a college athlete, loved eating at Pita Pit restaurants while traveling with her track team. Her first new restaurant opened last year near campus in Kent, and the 25-year-old hopes to open several more.
Before we all let out a collective “yuck” let’s take a look at what’s driving the trend. Continue reading »
When I was a teen, every kid I knew had an after-school job. Mine was in the mall, working at Hickory Farms. I don’t remember exactly what I got paid, but it was it was something like $2.50 per hour. These days, the minimum wage is much higher at $7.25 an hour. While that may not sound like much, some feel that it’s too much for employers to handle and a contributing factor to the decline in the number of teens working. Continue reading »
John Nelson, like so many others, was a victim of the economic meltdown our country is trying to deal with; he lost his job and was out of work for a year, before finding another, lower-paying position. Nelson is also a divorced father, ordered to pay child support. After he was laid off, Nelson filed for a reduction in his child support obligation, but it took more than a year to get a court date and then, when he finally did get to make his case before a judge, the judge actually increased the amount Nelson had to pay, leaving him with just $58 per week to live on.
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