By Trudy Coppin

I just moved to San Diego with hopes of starting a business, but was not prepared for everything to go wrong.

I was sick for the past 8 years and just started feeling well enough to try and recapture my life. My best friend lives here and we want to start a very small business, possibly a deli/bakery.  We figured since that is what we are both qualified for, why not.  However, my finances weren't as sound as I thought so I was left trying to find a job. I thought that it would be a breeze because i have so much experience, how the heck was I to know that everything as we know it would be lost.  It has been almost 6 months now and it is hard not to just lay down and give up.

By Unemployed American Linda King

January 2nd, 2008 was the day I became unemployed. I didn't think much about it at the time as it has always been easy for me to find employment. I thought heck just go get another job. I didn't know that the economy was taking a nose dive and that things would end up like they are today, over a year later.

I work as a Full Charge Bookkeeper as I do not have a degree. I am 57 years old and wonder at times if age holds me back. I lived in a commuter county in Virginia at the time of the unemployment. Gas prices were at an all time high. I had a 45 mile commute to Richmond, or a 50 mile commute to the most southern part of northern Virginia. I was being map quested by those future employers and thought that was holding me back. Always searching these days as to why I can't find employment, compared to how I once could find a job so easily.