Unemployed on Shine

Rocker discusses unemployment-themed video

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Last week I wrote an article for Yahoo! HotJobs about a compelling new music video that features real unemployed people while trying to help them get hired. The video dramatizes the new single "Breathe" by Ryan Star, an emerging rock star whose debut album "11:59" will drop in early 2010.

While doing my research, I gleaned interesting insights from Star that I was unable to use in the article, so here is more of the conversation, followed by a clip of the music video:

User post: The New Face of SAHMS—STUCK-at-Home Moms

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I'm a SAHM. For me, this used to stand for "Stay-At-Home Mom". After my 4th child, I made the difficult decision to give up my career and focus on my backyard, and I made the choice to become a SAHM. Then the recession hit. And with 5 children, I'm still a SAHM, but there is a new definition for me now..."Stuck-at-Home Mom".

I'd love a job. I'd love a paycheck. But, as a writer with limited technology skills, I'm having trouble figuring out my worth in the working world. What's my real-time value?

User post: Am I selfish for wanting to move out of my parents' house now when they need financial help?

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We lost our house months ago and our deadline to move out is soon coming up. Although I love my mom to death and fully respect her husband, I feel that at 25 I should start looking to move out on my own. I know my mom needs the financial help right now but since we need to move I…

The raw feelings of being unemployed

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Unemployment rose to 9.7 percent in August, when another 216,000 jobs disappeared. The numbers are so mind-boggling that it's hard to imagine what people who have found themselves laid off and out of work during this long recession must be going through. Even if you know someone who is looking for work, she may not tell you what she is truly feeling since we all have an innate need to put our best face forward, especially when we are looking for work.

For the past decade, the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Jersey has been tapping into attitudes about the workplace and, more recently, about being unemployed. In a nationwide survey of 1,200 Americans who have been unemployed and looking for a job for 12 months, the center discovered some pretty raw feelings of hopelessness, worry, and sometimes, depression.