I Dedicate This Blog to You Who Are Unemployed

Labor/Labour Day 2015 - With the unemployment rate at 5.1 percent in the U.S. and 7 percent in Canada, most people are enjoying a day off. But you don't get a day off from being unemployed until you get hired.

I've never dedicated a blog to anyone before, but for this week I dedicate this blog to all of you who are unemployed. Thank you for your desire to work. Thank you for keeping up the search. Thank you for all those resumes submitted, calls made, leads followed, applications completed, rejections handled, and miles driven or ridden on the bus for your job hunt. 

Thanks especially to you who live with disabilities for keeping at the job search. The unemployment rate of people with disabilities in the U.S. is double the rate of the entire population at 10.2 percent unemployed. Though Canada does not keep monthly unemployment figures for people with disabilities, we can expect that the unemployment rate for people with disabilities in Canada is about double the 7 percent for the population as a whole. 

Thank you for facing prejudice against you for your disability and submitting applications and the resumes anyway. Thank you for going for the interview knowing full well that you may be be greeted with unpleasant surprise on the faces of the interview team when you roll into the room in your wheelchair. Thank you for the hard, hard work of starting up the job search after your stroke, your accident, your illness. 

Thank you for considering jobs beneath your skill level and training because many employers won't give you a chance for the job with greater responsibility. Thank you to you who have tried for years to get paid work, and now have dedicated yourselves to volunteer service to people, churches, and communities. (Michael Feir, I'm thinking of you and many others like you who are using your time and talents for great good.)

Thank your trusting God for your daily bread. Thank you for asking for help, and for holding your head high when you receive it. Thank you for challenging society and church for the prejudices that keep you and others unemployed. 

May God bless you with grace and strengthen you for another day that you can't take off. 

For more information, see www.disability.gov or Service Canada.