I cannot find employment due to a felony. And I'm starting to lose hope. Michigan thrives on its prisons running and they need people to commit crime to do that. The city of Jackson has the worst unemployment rate in the state. All programs that assist felons are cut due to funding in this city. Going to prison in my mind has warped into a good idea 3 meals and a warm bed instead of 5 days living in an abandoned house, and bathing at the local shelter. Anyone have any tips on these types of situations?

Michigan is the worst state to live in right now.

In all of the US unemployment is terrible. Not only can you not find employment, but neither can people who have a clean record with college educations.

Rest assured that it is not just you, but this country, especially your state, that is causing you not to be employed.

My husband has a rare trade that is in demand, however, he is unemployed as well and has a clean record.

So what am I to do?

Comment on J_9's post
so what am I to do?

Dude, if I could answer that my husband would be working right now. Life is tough for all of us. Whether we are felons or not. The economy sucks. I know people with Bachelor's Degrees who are working at the front counter at McDonald's.

As a teen, 30 or more years ago, it was nothing for me to get a job. Now my teen daughter is being overlooked for jobs so that people who are raising families can provide a roof over their children's heads and food in their tummies.

I sometimes wonder if the Great Depression was as bad as this.

I wonder that same thing sometimes... thanks and I hope the best for you and your family. I am just looking for something anything different than what I am doing which is nothing. I figured I may find help here.

Swhite_517.. What you are doing is FAR from nothing. It's better than many people have it right now.

People who have lived on the straight and narrow all their lives, and have made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, are now losing their cars, their homes, their families.

You are lucky you have what you have. I would give my right arm for my husband to find a job.

I went through nursing school at the tender age of 38 so that we could make a better life for our children. I am now 46 and 3 years out of school only to find that we are worse off than we were before.

Hon, don't complain, you are one of the lucky ones.

A church who needs help, from mopping floors to cleaning gutters. Sometimes the person they have is old or they have no one. Exchange for a warm place to sleep for the winter and some food.
Hop a freight south. Austin has a reasonable economy at the moment, I hear.
Contact the mayor about giving heat and electric to the abandoned house and fill it with people who will clean up the neighborhood in exchange (far fetched these days with no money, but you are articulate and sound smart). Detroit is trying to cluster people around small urban areas that are totally boarded up.
I suppose you could violate parole or probation and go back... it happens too often, I think.
The US has the highest % incarceration of anyone, right?
Too many people in prison for minor drug offenses.
NG