New numbers show people receiving unemployment benefits is at its highest level in seven years.
As jobs become increasingly hard to find, unemployment benefits are becoming a bare bones life-line for many.
In Hamilton County, the Super Jobs Center on Central Parkway in the West End is one of the first places many unemployed go to, while applying for unemployment benefits.
We learned those benefits don't go very far when the unemployed have homes, families, and spend months looking for a good job.
A job fair in Woodlawn exclusively for area veterans and their families continues to get bigger every year. It's not the number of employers looking for workers, but rather, the number of unemployed vets looking for jobs that's growing considerably.
36-year-old ex-Marine Jacob Curry of Carlisle, Ohio is continuing his seven month search for a job since being laid off from a Fairfield auto part maker.
How many job interviews has Curry had since the Spring? He told 9News, "I've been on 30. At least, I've driven to Dayton, Cincinnati, Florence, Kentucky; I've even driven to Columbus."
Like thousands of other people in the Tri-State, Curry has worked the internet extensively in search of jobs.
Curry is now one of over 516,000 Americans getting unemployment compensation as they look for new work. That's up by over 32,000 just in the last week.
The unemployment rate in Ohio soared to 7.2 percent in October.
Curry has looked in his profession of environmental health and safety, and outside for possible work. Curry said, "I've applied at McDonald's to fry burgers, but nothing there." We asked him, "Because you were overqualified?" Curry replied, "Yes, because I'm overqualified."
After proving to the state he's seen at least two possible employers, curry gets only $330 a week in unemployment after taxes. That's down from an initial unemployment payment of $366 a week.
Of the small unemployment payments, Curry said, "It's depleted everything. I went to cash in my 401 k. I've had to sell stuff to make ends meet. Yard sales an everything else."
Curry also gets food stamps and medical insurance for his three children, but he makes too much on unemployment for food stamps and insurance to cover him or his wife.
We asked Curry, "How in the world do you make ends meet?" He said, "We're not. We're behind on everything. We're behind on car payments and we're behind on the rent. My kids are my main priority, so they help me get through."
Curry got some good news on Wednesday, he was approved to have his unemployment compensation extended. That means he'll get benefits for an additional three months as he continues to search for a new job to cover his family's growing bills.
Those extra 12 weeks of unemployment will help because one of his next stops in looking for a job will likely be Akron.
