Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

[Sister Havana]

HECK NO.

4 years ago I had a good job, good benefits, and was making good money. Admittedly, I quit it at the end of 2000...but that was to go back to school full-time and finally finish my degree. (And the company was sold right before I left and promptly laid off about half my department so no guarantee I would have stayed employed had I not quit.)

Since I graduated in December 2001, I have been temping. At first I got assignments pretty steadily but of late they've been few and far between. The market is so flooded because of all sorts of businesses closing (most recently we lost a Sprint call center, leaving over 400 people jobless...we've lost a few other places that employed quite a few people) that even the temp assignments now require the agency to send over a bunch of candidate resumes and the company screens and interviews, just like if it was a permanent job.

Benefits? Steady money? Stability? Not here...