by Leanne Coffman

Created on: March 15, 2009

How to survive job layoffs? If you are one of the 12.5 million cited by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a casualty of the recent economic crisis, you may be wondering if survival is possible- much less how to do so. Job loss is painful, even in the best economy.

However, in the former, more prosperous economy, it used to be that you would make a resume, head off to a placement agency, scour want ads and promptly you could lick your wounds ensconced in a new job. Now it's not quite the same story.

What if you- like more than half the American workers- have little or no savings, no 401K, lived paycheck to paycheck and now find yourself unemployed in a market with few (if any) jobs available?

I live close to the epicenter of peak unemployment. Here in my area, in a recent survey of five placement agencies, only one had a non-skilled position open at this writing. There were also temporary nursing jobs, a licensed therapist opening, and three engineer jobs. The local paper had a single help wanted ad- "selling beauty products door to door."
Job prospects are bleak to say the least for non-professionals or those unemployed niche market professionals in some parts of the country.

If you are one of the more fortunate unemployed with available credit, savings, a second income, investments and property still worth something- stop reading. I am writing to those deep in survival mode.

I am tired seeing volumes of articles written to those who have to live off savings or who had two sizeable incomes- now down to one sizeable income. And I am frustrated to hear about those who have to live on a budget by shopping for less expensive organic groceries or have to cut pricey purchases.

Yes, I know these individuals are deeply struggling and I truly sympathize.

But there are those who literally were hanging by a thread pre-unemployment, (single parents and sole breadwinners in particular) and now are faced with true moment by moment crisis. A lot of Americans already were in the "coupon shopping", "only essentials" mode pre-unemployment.

How do these individuals endure now? It is to that group this article is intended.

There are really two issues involved for these folks- surviving daily and finding employment. Here are some tips for getting through the flames of economic hell and quite literally to survive:

1. File promptly for Unemployment Compensation. In most states it takes a few weeks to receive your first payment. According to the BLS February, 2009, statistics, 2.9 million individuals

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