He is not leaving because he wants to, nor because I want him to go. He is leaving because there is no work here. We live in Florida so selling our home and moving together is not really an option. Follow me below the fold for our modern day, "Grapes of Wrath" voyage.
All across America our story is playing out in millions of households. We face horrific choices in order that we can do the right thing and pay our bills. Meanwhile the Bankers and their CEO friends on Wall-street are raking in record profits and record bonuses. I'm quite certain Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein will be having a much happier holiday than we will.
My husband is an electrician here on the Panhandle of Florida. This area has been hit hard by the housing bust and jobs are scarce. He was laid off in October of 2008 and was lucky enough to find his current job 6 months later. A new airport was being built here so he was hired on for the two year job. We've always known the job was "temporary" and he started putting out feelers and looking for jobs months ago - knowing a lay off was eminent. There is simply no work that pays a decent wage here. The norm is 8.00 dollar an hour, part time work. He was making 14.00 per hour as an electrician.
Unemployment Insurance here pays a maximum benefit of $275.00 per week which would be about a 50% pay-cut for him. Not only that, you have to wait a week after being approved to get your first check. That could be many weeks waiting as slow as the system is down here. His employer would fight it because they have offered him a job in New Orleans. It's a fair offer and the money is fantastic but he has to leave and soon, probably before Christmas. The job is a two year, airport expansion job that pays $31.00 per hour. He simply cannot let a job like that pass him up.
We made the decision a couple days ago when it was apparent there was going to be no miracle to save us. We were hoping if nothing else he could stay until after Christmas but that doesn't seem to be the case. I spent today searching online for housing in NOLA in between crying jags. Hubby is heartsick. He knows this is causing me great pain but we really don't have an alternative other than losing our house. That's another, much longer story but this was my Mom and Dad's house and I just spent 8 months fighting the banks to get a loan mod so we could keep it. Now we are fighting once again to keep it. It's all I have left of my family. I'm an only child and Mom and Dad are both gone now.
I also have my 79 year old Uncle living with us here along with a rescue Greyhound and 6 rescued cats. I have a decent bar-tending job with Seniority at a very stable establishment so I really don't want to give up my job and be uprooted yet again. We moved here six years ago after my Mom stroked and that was traumatic enough. I was her caregiver for almost two years until her death. One person can only take so much tragedy before they snap. This is also a temporary position for him once again, so moving the whole household there for two years doesn't make much sense.
I know many others have it much worse than we do. It doesn't ease my pain knowing that. I want my husband with me. I can barely sleep for a few hours at a time and he hasn't even left yet. I'm having nightmares that wake both Hubby and I at all hours of the night. On the bright side we do not have children that will be affected unlike millions of other families out there dealing with this same situation.
Families are tethered to houses with upside down mortgages and more and more of them are having to split up in order to make ends meet. "Moving for the job" is the new normal. You can't move the whole family anymore because the house can't be sold. The irony is, he'll be making fantastic money (the most he's ever made) but we'll be able to save very little, if anything at all, because now we must support two households. My only Christmas wish this year that I get to spend it with my husband. Oh, and that Jamie and Lloyd choke on their Perrier Jouet.
UPDATE
Thanks all for the support and suggestions. We'll make it through this. I wrote this to draw attention to the very human toll that is being taken by our leaders decisions. What they are doing is NOT working for the average person. The very wealthy are getting wealthier while the rest of us struggle, scratch and scrape to get by. They want us to have austerity while they have bigger profits, more yachts and more caviar. At some point we must say enough.