· $233 for someone with three or more dependents,

If a worker accepts temporary or part-time work, the amount of her pay is deducted from her unemployment check, although 20 percent of her weekly benefit amount is exempted. If she refuses work, the person may be cut off from unemployment. Refusing work can mean turning down work that is outside your field, or turning down temporary work even if you need that time to look for a fulltime job. This makes it important for an unemployed person to look for work in her field, and to think hard before looking for temporary or part-time work to tide her over. If she accepts temporary or parttime work, and later "turns down" additional such work, she may end up off the unemployment roll.

I wait in line for about half an hour. When I reach the counter a pleasant woman takes my weekly reporting slips and exchanges them for two new ones. She tells me to go and wait in another area. I follow her directions to the other area, where another large group of people is waiting. This time, at least, there are chairs. I grab one and sit down. Within a few minutes, another woman sits down next to me. "You been waiting long?" she asks.

"Only a few minutes here," I reply.

"I started out at 8:30 this morning," she sighs. Her name, she says, is Lucille. She worked for the same company for six years. The company was hit by the recession and staff was cut accordingly, with little or no chance that anyone will be called back.

A few weeks ago, a company where she'd applied for a permanent job called and offered her a few days' work. "I was glad to do it," she says. "It's not even the money. I thought I'd kind of like having all this free time, but after the first few weeks, well, it got to me. So I worked for three days. And now I'm cut off."

She's spent most of the day driving around trying to get someone to sign some papers. She first went to Bedford, to the company that employed her for three days, but no one would sign. Then she drove to Independence, where she used to work, and no one there would sign either. So she's back at the office, hoping "this mess can be straightened out.”

"It cost a lot in gas, all that driving around," she says. "I've got an old car, a gas hog. And it's all for nothing. Time and money wasted." She shakes her head. "Six years I put in and I can't find a job anywhere. Now this. I can't believe this is happening to me."

"I can't believe this is happening to me." It's become the slogan of this recession. Unemployment is reaching record highs, not just among people who traditionally have a tough time finding work, such as teenagers and minorities, but among the people for whom the work ethic has worked-until now. In December, unemployment among adult men reached 10.1 percent; among adult women, 9.2 percent; among whites, 9.7 percent and among blue-collar workers, 16.3 percent nationwide. For a growing segment of the population, working hard hasn't gotten them ahead; instead, they find themselves on the unemployment line, wondering what went wrong, and wondering if there's any way to make things right.

words are angry, but the voices and stances are resigned.

For many of the unemployed, the Bureau of Employment Services provides their first contact with large-scale government bureaucracy. The increase in the number of the jobless, combined with cuts in staffing, make long waits inevitable. But for a person newly out of work, the waiting, the shuffling from line to line and person to person serves only to reinforce already-existing feelings of helplessness and low self-esteem.

Losing a job has the same effects as any major loss in an individual's life, including denial, anger and depression-all the stages of grief. If a person's identity is tied up in what she does, a common situation, loss of identity accompanies the loss of a job. (For a more thorough.treatment of the psychological effects of unemployment, see accompanying article.) ---

The psychological blow of losing a job is exacerbated by real economic worries. The unemployed person's income is cut in half, even if she's receiving benefits. Medical insurance formerly covered by a company plan now must be paid for by the individual, whose budget is already cut. Small_luxuries--going out for dinner, having lunch and a

JOHANNA VÕLEZBING / AMC IN PEOPLE

movie with a friend, buying a new outfit or steaks for "a special meal—may no longer be affordable.

To the newly unemployed person, it seems that everything she's taken for granted, from her identity in her career to the ability to afford a gift for a close friend's birthday, is under siege. The questions that are a part of normal social interaction—“What do you do?" or "How about catching that concert Saturday night?" become ominous reminders that she doesn't "do" anything right now and that a concert will have to take a back seat to paying the grocery, heating and rent bills.

Jane is 62 years old and unemployed. When she was in college, back in the 1940's, she was a chemistry major, attending on scholarship. She graduated summa cum laude. She worked for a couple of years as a lab technician, then got married and moved to a small house in the suburbs. She followed the normal route, raised her daughter, took care of her house and her husband.

Ten years ago, Jane and her husband were divorced. Jane got the house and a car, plus a small amount of alimony. As the cost of living increased,

UNEMPLOYMENT PENSATION

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A

Support for the Unemployed

By Pat Randle

The sense of loss, frustration and helplessness that comes with losing a job can be difficult to deal with. But perhaps the most difficult emotion is the sense of isolation.

An increasing number of groups is forming to help people cope with the emotional turmoil that's part of unemployment. Each group has its own special focus. Some offer job networking, and another provides career counseling. One group is for women only. The groups are alike, however, in their desire to help unemployed people cope with the emotional impact of the loss of a job, and in their willingness to help people get ready to launch themselves back into the workforce..

Lucille has fallen into silence. A woman carrying manila folders calls out a few names and several people rise. Lucille's name isn't called, nor is mine. A few. chairs down, I hear a woman say, "I've been here for four hours, They still haven't called my Bertha Granger, a Lakewood resident who formername. I went up and asked her and she said, 'Wait'." ly worked for the Eaton Corporation, has started an "Aaah," the man sitting next to her waves his unemployment network that now includes over 70 hand in disgust. “Wait, wait. They make you wait members, both men and women. To join the netforever. They wreck your pride. Make us feel like work, Granger explained, an individual must make we've gotta beg for it," His is the first, and only, bit-commitment to share information on any job openter voice I hear all day. Mostly, the words clash with wings or leads she might hear of with other members of the voices and demeanors of the speakers. Their the group. In exchange, she gains the other members'

4.

knowledge, about job openings and more.

In addition to job information, members of the network are sharing survival strategies. One member has researched medical insurance alternatives for people no longer covered by a company insurance policy. Another has explored less costly ways of lak ing care of the basics, such as using food co-ops to keep grocery bills down. A third offered her knowledge about a company that helps unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosure by helping out with house payments.

A third aspect of the network, Granger said, is the way members can help one another by providing emotional support. Finally, smaller, support groups focus on networkers' special interests. One focuses on helping people prepare for job interviews, including how to present yourself on paper and in. per« son. A second concerns itself with discovering participants' skills and interests to help determine the kind of job they'd like to find. A third deals with the special needs of office workers.

S..

Granger has held two large moetings so far, and

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January-February, 1983/What She