Today I went to the unemployment office because I hadn’t received a payment and I’ve been unemployed for over a month. I won’t go into the details of the experience (just think of your last experience at the DMV). As expected, there was a long line of people waiting to file benefits. And as usual, the workers at the office were severely understaffed. There were two people working the line and only one knew what she was doing. I then thought to myself, “How in the world could the unemployment office be understaffed?”. With all the unemployed people that they see every day, they could easily pull people aside and give them an on-site interview immediately. Then I overheard someone ask if they were hiring and the response brought me back to just how serious the economy is. The woman responded, “I wish, but we’re having budget cuts of our own”. If the unemployment office can’t get funding to staff people, is there hope for the rest of us?