Unemployed Nation: America's Shrinking Payroll

Where the Jobs Are

Health care, mining and some parts of education are the few bright spots -- and not even that bright -- in this job market. While everybody else has been laying off workers, these industries -- for the time being -- continue to increase payrolls.

As for the bad places … well just about every other sector has been firing workers. Construction, housing and the financial sectors were first to cut. Manufacturing has been declining for years but now is seeing even bigger job losses thanks to companies struggling to get loans and consumers buying less goods. Retailers are also scaling back, even as we approach the Christmas shopping season, because most Americans are buying less.

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If people aren't spending, there's less need for trucks and trains to move products. Truck and air transport firms are cutting workers to match the lowered demand for their services.

If you are looking for a job, it's pretty grim.

Cutting Expenses

Steinbrecher remains optimistic.

"Maybe I'll find something. I'm hopeful," she said. "I think it's going to be a pretty slim Christmas. We're not planning any vacations or anything. We don't go out to eat anymore."

The family had to also cut out guitar lessons for the two youngest boys, ages 14 and 16.

The biggest hit though has come to her 18-year-old son Jake, a freshman at the University of Delaware.

"He called me about three weeks ago. It was one of the nicest phone calls I ever got, but one of the saddest," Steinbrecher explained. "He said: `Hey I know you have three kids mom. I want there to be enough money for all of us.'"

He then asked for copies of his high school transcript.

"I said: Jake, why do want me to send them? Don't you like it there?" Steinbrecher recalls.

His reply: "I love it mom, but I know we can't afford it now."

He is now looking at a state college closer to home or maybe a community college -- a school where he could live at home instead of paying for a dorm.