- The Unemployed States of America takes readers deep inside the decimated American workforce.
- Kristen Urban is a 26-year-old human resources administrator based in Jefferson,
New Jersey . - On April 9, she received a termination notice after dedicating four years to an aerospace aluminum manufacturing company.
- Aside from paying bills and buying food, Urban's been investing extra money from
unemployment into her savings and paying off student loans. She has two semesters left. - This is her story, as told to freelance writer Meira Gebel.
Before the pandemic, I was an administrator in the human resources department of an aerospace aluminum manufacturer located in North New Jersey. This August would have marked four years at the company.
In April, the termination notices came to HR, and I was shocked to see a letter in the pile with my name on it.
Our department is so small, I figured I would get to stay on remotely. It took me a while to really process that I was going to be unemployed and that I wouldn't have to wake up at five in the morning anymore and work nine-hour days, and then go to school at night.
One day after I was laid off, I applied for unemployment and it got approved right away.
I had to send in a copy of my severance letter and then started claiming benefits every week. For the first month of being unemployed, I felt depressed not to be working. I sat at home all day with nothing to do and nowhere to go. I was able to get the maximum amount of unemployment pay from the state of New Jersey and the extra $600 for pandemic relief. I have friends who have horror stories about being on hold with the unemployment office for hours, but luckily that hasn't happened to me.
I'm worried about what I'm going to do once my unemployment runs out in October. There is so much uncertainty about what the federal government is going to do about unemployment and whether or not it will be extended throughout the rest of the year.
My expenses have been cut significantly since the beginning of the pandemic.
Now that I'm not driving as much, I haven't had to spend money on gas or maintenance. I live with my parents, so I don't have to pay rent. I just turned 26 and had to sign up with my university's health insurance plan in order not to lose my benefits. I had to pay $2,000 out of pocket during quarantine in order to remain enrolled.
Like a lot of other people, I've been making more on unemployment than I was when I was working full-time, 50 hours a week, at $23 an hour.
I'm also a student at William Paterson University, so the extra money I haven't been using to pay bills or buy food has been going into my savings and paying off my loans. I've been able to pay off half of my loans already, and I only have two semesters left until I graduate with a degree in communications.
I'm the kind of person who's always searching for jobs even when I have one, and
I don't know when my company plans to rehire its employees, so I've been spending a lot of downtime searching and applying for jobs on LinkedIn and Indeed. Many of the jobs that are hiring right now are offering considerably less money than what I was making before and less than what I'm making on unemployment now.
I want to have a part-time, remote position this fall when I return to school, but haven't been able to find something that fits with my schedule yet.
Being unemployed during COVID-19 has given me a chance to focus on my mental health.
For the longest time, it felt like I was constantly busy and had little time to focus on myself. After working a long week, the last thing I wanted to do on the weekend was work out. But since the pandemic, I've started working out again. The acne I get from stress has gone away. I've been sleeping better, too.
Slowing down has also given me a chance to sort out my finances. I've been watching YouTube videos about how to save money and manage my credit score, and buckling down to focus on not being such a crazy consumer.
And even though I can't spend time with my friends, we've made it a point to have drinks on Friday nights over Facebook video chat.