According to a report issued by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics on May 7, the unemployment rate increased a bit to 9.9% from 9.7% where it had hovered for the first part of 2010. Oddly, the report also stated that some industries were adding jobs such as government, manufacturing, leisure and hospitality. Regardless of the difficulty in making sense of some of the numbers that constantly fly at us concerning the job market, it’s important to try to stay positive if you find yourself among the unemployed.
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Stay Social
This post over on tinybuddha.com offers several great tips for the unemployed. As we’ve written about before here on ChumBonus, it’s important to maintain a positive outlook, and one of the best ways to do that is not to isolate yourself. Maintain your connections with friends and family during this troubling time and you may find some much needed support and encouragement.
Stay Physical
Enduring unemployment can be difficult and trying, but your physical health is as important as your mental state during this down time. If you’ve kept up a regular workout routine now is not the time to lapse into inactivity. And if you look on the bright side, now you have even more time so you can devote some additional time and effort into maintaining a healthy you. Research has repeatedly shown that physical exercise has a marked influence on our mental health so keeping to an already established workout routine can help you fend off the blues that inevitably accompany losing one’s job. And if you’ve found yourself slipping in the physical activity department now is a great time to get back on track.
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Watch Your Finances
It goes without saying that belts will have to be tightened during any stretch of unemployment, but we found a great guide from msn.com on financial survival for the unemployed. Many of the tips are common sense, but some are things you may not have thought of. Setting up a garage sale, for instance, or finding items to sell on eBay might be a way to raise some much needed cash in an emergency. Prioritizing your bills and contacting creditors for leniency is an option many people forget about or don’t realize they have when times are tough.
Mind Your Rituals
Maintaining some order and sense of regularity can also be helpful when you find yourself jobless and searching for employment. Rituals often bring us comfort because they can inject a much needed element of solidity and dependability into a world that is constantly changing and full of uncertainty. It could be something as simple as going out to fetch the morning paper and sitting down to read it with your first cup of coffee in the morning, or as elaborate as an hour dedicated to exercise and meditation first thing in the morning. During unemployment, many people swear by the regular act of getting up and dressing as if they were going to work. The regular actions of showering and getting dressed to meet the day head on help keep them centered and feeling professional even in the face of unemployment.
If you or someone you know is unemployed, help them out by pointing them to a job here on ChumBonus using our search function. You just might make somebody’s day by helping them find their next dream job!
Do you have any tips for enduring a bout of unemployment, leave them in the comments section!
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