What's the longest you've been unemployed?

I guess I've been lucky. I've only been laid off once and found a job about 4 months later.

I've had a few other employment gaps of a few months at a time when I wanted to change jobs or travel but those were mostly voluntary.

My biggest employment gap was probably after graduating college. I spent about a year and a half traveling and when I wasn't doing that I was mooching off of my parents. I was fairly unfocused and didn't know what I wanted to do with my life after college.

But hey, who's counting???????????????

Worked shitty temp jobs and contract jobs but went through long periods of no work at all.

On Edit: I've had a full time job with bennies for about 6 months now.

Roll Tide right back atcha.
Wait'll next year!

Ah'm uh retahrd.
;-)

The lay-off excuse: 9-11

The first non-re-hire excuse: "we got burned by Medco"

The second non-re-hire excuse: "we're saving too many spots for our gallant soldiers who are liberating Iraq"

The third non-re-hire excuse: India

Eh bien ...

--bkl

But I was laid off during the Gulf War, so no one was hiring at that time.

so far. :P It's the pits. At this point, I'm fighting my own inertia as much as the lousy job market. :-(

I now have been working 8 years after not working for 4 years.

coming up on my one-year anniversary of gainful employment.

It was the best of times. It was the most fucked of times. I made the best of it and didn't let it get me down. But it sure set us back financially. A year later we're still recovering.

:)

went from Associate Producer at a DVD Video Magazine to stock boy at University of Dallas. The Company, I helped found, went Tango Uniform. Before that, I made computer games at GODGAMES.

I'm trying to start my own DVD Video Magazine now.

The second time was for 10 months. So far, I'm still counting the third in weeks (7, as of now).

THIS SUCKS and I'm going nuts! I'm sitting here trying to think of how to say the word "hassle" in as many languages as I can muster, because that's what everyone is doing to me. First it was the one bank re the student loan, now it's the other. Pant pant pant.

when I was living with my parents

When I got out of the Navy in '92 I pretty much spent the year doing nothing, just collecting $225 a week. I was living with my mom at the time, so my expenses were pretty low.

But it was a long time ago. I've worked for the Government for the last 20 years and while we have layoffs too they are pretty infrequent to tell the truth.

Thom

I was really hoping to get a few weeks of rest between jobs, too, but couldn't not take an opportunity when one was offered me; it didn't pay that well and didn't have any benefits, but it still paid better than unemployment.

Voluntarily - I took six weeks off after I quit my very 1st job before I looked for another job. I went straight from my 2nd job to my 3rd, stayed at the 3rd job for 20 years, took three weeks off, started my 4th job, got fired and that was the week and a half of unemployment. Took a job contracting, then left that to go to work where I am now with less than a week off between. I've tried to negotiate a few weeks' delay each time I've voluntarily changed jobs, but it's always kind of a "start next week or don't start" kind of thing. When people are hiring system administrators, they're usually in kind of a bind and need someone NOW.

My husband, on the other hand, was out of work for 17 months a couple years ago. That was hard times.