Since there will be such a large number of people laid off at the college in May - and since we apparently seem more worried about being unemployed than other industries - the New Mexico Unemployment Office and New Mexico Workforce Connection came to give us a pre-meeting about unemployment yesterday (they will officially come back closer to our lay-off date).
I had been looking at this meeting as an interesting opportunity to learn more about something new - but by yesterday morning I began to dread the meeting -- like you dread going to a funeral. In the end, it wasn't as sad as a funeral, but it wasn't interesting either.
They gave us some basic information about how to apply and how the process will work once we are in the system. One disappointing piece of news was that it does not seem we can take classes in lieu of proving we are searching for work. According to the presenters yesterday, if you have a Bachelor's Degree you are considered "educated" and so you can't take classes or earn additional certificates and have the classes count as "searching for work."
While I certainly will be searching madly for a job, I was hoping I could solidify my "proof of searching" by taking legal research classes and working on a paralegal certificate. I still have some research to do on this, but the basic answer to working on a certificate or a degree while earning unemployment seems to be "no" (because if you aren't taking classes you have to be available for full-time work).
I had a realization this morning. Maybe there will be so many really smart people on unemployment this year (people who are searching for work, but also frustrated by a system that does not work - or does not work for everyone) that these smart people will take their extra time and reform the unemployment system.
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