Unemployment opportunity

OZ unemployment surged and the prediction doesn't look good: 1 million by the end of next year (more details from Peter Martin).

Even worse MM & I could become one of this 1 million. My current position will finish by Oct 1 2010, and MM's one-year contract will end at the end of Feb next year. We are seeking future job opportunities of course, but nothing seems too promising yet. Most places have frozen their hiring...

This situation makes long-term planning difficult. We did, for a short period, dream about having a baby next year. My workload will be relatively small for the later half of this year and MM might get a long-term lecture position he applied. But MM didn't get the position and I probably should gear up to get a new position instead.

I hate to admit that but I have to say my mum was right. She wondered why MM didn't look for a job back in 2007 when we just moved to Australia. Her argument was that it was much easier to find a job when things were rosy and you never knows what might happen...Unfortunately she was right--now we lost more than half of our net worth, neither of us has a long-term job and we also might have to delay our baby-plan.

On the other hand I doubt I would have had the heart to push hard for MM to find a job even if I had known a financial crisis was going to happen. He deserved a break from teaching and trying something different to make a living (trading), though in the end trading was a lot more stressful than teaching.

Well, time to stop warbling and wondering about "what..if". Let's think about how to play the cards in our hands best!