[Adrian Thompson]

First off sorry for your sister. I managed to go 29 years in the work place before I finally got downsized at the end of March. It took me 3 1/2 month to find a new gig. Honestly as many people will tell you, it's the best thing that's happened too me. I'm in a job with better benefits and better money and I'm much happier. After so many years working I gave myself two weeks off to decompress then got down to searching hard. I treated searching for a job as a job in itself and went at it hard. I was also amazed at how useful LinkedIn was in reaching out to old contacts and amazed and the feedback I got. I've heard that 85% of professional jobs come through your network rather than job postings and eventually that was true for me as well. Good luck to her and anyone else in this situation.

While getting laid off before the holidays may seem suckey, in some ways I think it's better than doing it in January after the average family has over spent at Christmas. Hopefully while the holidays will be tough, they can avoid a lot of the typical expenses and not be saddled with extra debt.