You've got to dig deeper to get the real picture, though. If you go to Indeed.com -- which I do often, as a professional who has been unemployed for 11 months after working steadily for 30 years -- you'll find that the bulk of the open jobs in Maryland are for nurses, engineers, IT programmers, physical/occupational therapists and pharmacists. If you're not in one of these fine left-brain professions, good luck finding a position in Maryland! It's absolutely brutal out there, still.

To buoy folks' perspective on things, I'm a professional in my mid-thirties, 12 years experience, was laid off in January of last year.

Had a lot of troubles last year: was laid off a few months before my first child was born, my mother in law died suddenly and unexpectedly (about a month before our daughter was due), my wife lost her job the day she came back from maternity leave, and to top it off, I needed emergency back surgery. (Fortunately, that issue cropped up while my wife still had her health benefits--she was given three months insurance as part of her severance.)

Having been laid off in prior slowdowns (post 9/11, and then the plague of corporate scandals in '04) through it all, I was determined that I was going to come out better off on the other side and would refuse to take a position which would lead to nowhere and being back where I started: laid off. I briefly took a temp job for a few weeks during the summer, sweated out depletion of my savings, my wife and I endured the scam that is individual insurance (try it out and you'll see why the health care system is broken as the policy covered dr's visits for our daughter, but not her necessary immunizations during those visits).

Well, my wife's layoff was just what she needed as she had long been unhappy with work and I'd been encouraging her to look for a more fulfilling position for years. As luck would have it, one of the premier institutions in our area (in the world) had an opening and she was quickly interviewed and hired, with a better salary, better quality of life, better profile for her career.

In all, my wife was able to get six months with our baby and I was able to get a year.

I actually turned down one promising prospect which would have resulted in just a lateral move and ended up with two offers at great offices locally, both more diverse in work and opportunities, and offering significantly more salary than my prior job. Since joining a few months ago, it's been a great move.

I was out of work for fifteen months. Slogged through a lot of personal strains and disappoinments--the toughest time was probably the day after my surgery when I was lying in a hospital bed, in a lot of pain (despite the strong medication I was one), unable to get comfortable enough to sleep, unable to perform the basic dignity getting out of bed and walking 15 feet to use the restroom without the need of a walker. I called my wife in the middle of the night crying and scared about whether this was going to be the way things were from now on.). But life is better on the other side. (Through it all, I was able to meet financial obligations which was difficult but I thought was necessary.)

Keep the faith folks. Even the worst storms, though long, can't last forever. You'll get through this period with determination, focus, persistence, and faith. Things won't happen for you at the times you may want them to, and you will have to weather a lot of difficulties on the way, but have confidence in yourself, your abilities, your talents, that there is an opportunity out there for you; there's an ocean of them and you just need to land one. Through all the disappointments--and trust me, I had a several of them--never lose confidence in yourself. Hope this has been helpful to somebody out there.

Geof, thanks for your story. I hope many are able to get some peace through it.

You mentioned: "I was out of work for fifteen months..."

The common wisdom once was to allow one month per $10 or $15K of income... I look forward to when that is an accurate truism again

Thanks all for the advice and wisdom. I just got laid off last friday after almost 9 years with my company and 20 years since undergrad. I have heard similar stories form numerous people that echo the comments above, that it is just brutal out there, oh wait, I meant "out here."

Conversely, I've heard that there are opportunities, it is just a vastly different game to play now. It takes dilligence, patience, confidence, and using professional networks to uncover those opportunities.

All options are under consideration right now between looking for a new, full time opportunity, picking up contract work, going back to school, or starting my own business.

Good luck to all of us now in the new game.