Don't Give up the Job Search

Don’t become a statistic

If you're unemployed and you give up looking for a job, you will not be alone. In economic jargon you will be a "discouraged worker," and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 717,000 of those in the first quarter of this year. That's a 70% increase over the first three months of 2008.

Here’s why you shouldn’t give up:

Lots of people have given up on searching for a job right now and are waiting it out, hoping the economy will pick up next year. But not everyone has the enough cash today to wait out the recession, and those people are still out there pounding the streets looking for a pay day source. As bleak as your employment prospects may seem, hiring is a numbers game and the people who land the most interviews get the jobs. That's not to say that it's easy to keep searching when nothing seems to come of it.

Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

A discouraged worker is a person of legal employment age who is not actively seeking employment. This is usually due to the fact that an individual has given up looking or has had no success in finding a job, hence the term “discouraged.” Their belief may derive from a variety of factors including: a shortage of jobs in their locality or line of work; perceived discrimination for reasons such as age, race, sex and religion; a lack of necessary skills, training or experience; or, a chronic illness or disability.

Here’s a helpful book:

Recently I came across a helpful book by Whelan and Stone called Goal!: Your 30-Day Game Plan for Business and Career Success (Quill Driver Books, $14.95). It's a one-day-at-a-time workbook for crystallizing short-term steps toward long-term goals, and recording each day’s progress. If you're struggling to find work, the book could be a helpful tool for keeping track of what you've done and what you should do next. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Don't Give up the Job Search"