Laid-Off Couples Learn to Cope

The Wall Street Journal has a piece profiling the lives of couples who have both lost their jobs.

It’s a good piece, as it shows how couples use the time together to share networking, improve interviewing skills and ease the pain of relocation since they are less likely to be tied down by a current job.

From the article:

“Double pink slips are proliferating, causing a double dose of trouble for affected couples. More people than ever are looking for work right now, complicating job searches and aggravating the emotional and financial setback of losing two incomes. Both the husband and the wife were jobless in 124,000 families last year, up from the 87,000 families with the same dilemma in 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.“

Yuck. That’s some scary and unfortunate statistical information. Yet, there was also some good news for one couple:

“A Connecticut couple began swapping contacts after they both got laid off late last year — she from her job as a loan manager for GE Capital, a unit of General Electric Co., and he from his job as a UBS AG officer. With an enlarged network, “it is amazing how much further you can dig,” she observes…Her husband discovered that his wife’s former boss at GE Capital is married to a financial adviser for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. He used that connection to land interviews there for himself last month — and began work May 4 as a wealth manager. In turn, he opened doors for his wife by contacting acquaintances at International Business Machines Corp. and Mercedes-Benz Credit Corp. She sent them her résumé, then got a Mercedes interview for an analyst’s position. She started her new job there last Wednesday.“

But it’s not that great for everyone, of course. Another couple profiled in the article are contemplating relocation, but it’s difficult when potential job offers are in different cities and they are finding difficulties since they have young children to consider.