Dear Graduate,

Congratulations.  You have found ways to get up every morning and show up in a classroom or online; you have talked to people, listened, followed instructions, met requirements, overcome obstacles, learned a few things and crossed the finish line.  Graduating, whether from grade school, high school, college or medical school, is an accomplishment no one can take away from you.  It sets you apart from all those who never got there.  You are a graduate.  You have much to be proud of.

Job seekers hear a lot these days about the employment numbers going up and down.  The problem with these statistics has always been the same: when discouraged people give up on looking for work, they are no longer in the employment pool.  This lowers the unemployment rate, the number of people who are officially looking for work.  However, it does not make discouraged people any more gainfully employed.  If you’re looking for work, write the name Latisha on a piece of paper and hang it on your refrigerator.  Here’s why.

Here’s a math problem for you:  Reba works forty hours a week and earns $16 per hour.  Therefore, she earns $640 in a week.  So why is it that the check she receives is so much less than six hundred forty?  The answer is Taxes.  Understanding how payroll deductions work can help Reba get a handle on how much money she actually takes home on payday.

During 2010, the Unemployment Insurance Program paid over $2.8 billion in unemployment benefits to more than 348,000 Minnesotans. 
If a person is laid off, he or she might be among those eligible for unemployment benefits.  If applying for unemployment benefits, do not feel guilty, but do not expect a big payday, either.  The program is set up to help job seekers squeak by until you can find new employment.