Crowd Sourcing: How has the economy impacted your family?

I recently asked UC journalism students their thoughts and opinions about dealing with the economy and how it has affected their families.

These are the questions I asked them:

1. Have you or anyone in your family been laid off recently?

2. If so, how was your family coped with this?

3. As a college student, what are your plans for starting a career upon graduation during a time when many companies are down-sizing?

From what I gathered, everyone seems to be influenced by this one way or another.


“No one in my family has been laid off, but my dad's job has him in constant fear of being laid off. They make him work crazy hours, from 5:30pm-4:30am, and have him work every other week. His job is really stressing him out and he can't do anything about it because he wouldn't have a job otherwise. I feel like employers are using the recession as a way to use their employees incorrectly.”
Rose Diroll
4th year


“The recession has luckily not affected my family, because my parent's both work in the hospital, which seem to be fairing well.

I unfortunately have had a harder time getting financial aid because of the poor economy, which has forced me to drop down to part-time status, which has pushed my graduation date back from this June to next December. I've also had to work two jobs to make rent and pay for the classes I am taking now.

As far as jobs, I'm planning on going to graduate school for Spanish so that I can become a translator, since the job market for journalists seems poor right now.”
Rachel Rayburn
Senior journalism student.

“My father retired early in order to save another man's job. However, they were still laid off and the company is closing in Milford and moving to St Louis.”
Karen Shinkle

“My father was laid off from his job in October of 2008 and has yet to find a job. He is an architect who has lived in Cincinnati his entire life, and made a name for himself in this city's architectural community. He is more than qualified for positions he has applied for, with a bachelor's in environmental design from Miami University (OH) and a master's in architecture from the University of Illinois - Urbana Champagne. He has watched people get hired instead of him simply because they are younger, not because they have more experience or more talent. My father has designed multi-million dollar bio pharmaceutical labs and government testing facilities, and he can't find a job designing some of the simpler (yet still important) projects.

My mother, a private school teacher, has had to take a summer job teaching online courses for Butler Tech because if she doesn't, there will not be any income coming into our home over the summer. That's just not doable in my family.

Personally, this has GREATLY affected me. I have scholarship money, but there is still a considerably large amount of money that my parents give to UC every quarter for my education. Because I want to lessen their burden as much as possible, I have picked up extra hours at work (I'm a student worker in the Athletic Department) and begun paying for things that I did not have to worry about prior to my dad's predicament, such as car insurance and rent. These expenses that previously seemed small to me have become more real, and I've had to consider the value of a dollar much more seriously than I did previously. Starbucks doesn't happen for me; I can now make a $4.00 Maxwell House tub go a long way. I haven't been to the mall in months because it's a danger zone for those of us struggling in this economy. I recently joined Netflix because I'm a movie buff and I realized that it's cheaper than paying $4.00 each time I rent a movie at Blockbuster. I don't buy lunch on campus; I pack it. These little things add up and make a huge difference at the end of the week or month.”
Ginny Walters
Secondary English Education & Journalism
2011


“I feel really unsure about what the future holds for journalists. I hope to find a job but the place where I currently intern is on a hiring freeze. Many places are firing people, few are hiring so it is very scary. I have a part time job now, and have wanted to quit so I can focus on my career, but cannot due to the economy. My family is definitely feeling the hit of the economy. My stepdad has been working less and less and the expenses are the same. Also our house is way too big for the number of people living there. My parents really want to sell it and downsize but the market is so poor right now that it would be hard to sell and actually get any money. So it leaves them in a bind because they have to stay in our house right now that just does not make sense economically. My family used to go out to eat a lot together and we rarely do that anymore.”

Rachel Plowden