Termination Date: today

I got unemployed. I’m a reporter, mostly for print publications, and I’m hardly alone given the immediate state of the economy (which I wrote extensively about in the last few months, in fact). I’m now adding to the numbers of unemployed workers in Illinois, which measured 6.4 percent in May, per the folks at IDES who track these things and dole out unemployment benefits. I have a college education, including a masters degree, I am accustomed to working unpredictable hours, and I never expected to find myself in this situation. And so it goes. 

My friends are getting unemployed, too: One from a prominent Chicago-based bank, one from a Philadelphia firm of architects, others from newspapers. We’re mostly in our 30s, and we’re shaken to think about the mammoth task of figuring out what seem to be new economic rules that differ greatly from our parents.

I read lots about economics – I’ll read anything about debt, student loans, credit cards, mortgages – so at least I’m prepared with a skill set of living on the super cheap.

But it’s not good. Illinois is taking a bigger unemployment hit than the national average – 6.4 percent in May, compared with about 5.5 percent nationwide in May, and 5.4 percent statewide in April. A whole percentage point in a single month feels gigantic. Wish I could find statistics of journalists who find themselves out of work, too.

That and more to come right here, starting today, my termination date.