NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Unemployment hit 9.5 % today. Since the beginning of the year, almost 3 and a half million people have lost their jobs. And it's not just about losing a paycheck, it's also a way of life.

1. Reach out

If you're unemployed, you're certainly not alone. Reach out to other people in the same boat.

Check out meet. This site will have information on local groups of unemployed people who meet to exchange feedback on resumes, cover letters and interviews.

You can also check out layoff - a community of people who have lost their jobs. Even if it's just to vent your frustrations, it's important to have people willing to listen AND understand. And don't be afraid to tell your colleagues, customers and friends that you're unemployed. Be up front.

2. Get on a schedule

One of the hardest things to get used to when you don't have a job, is having an entire day with no structure. So, treat your job search project as you would a regular full-time job.

Get out of the PS and put on something you would wear to work at your old job. If you can, do some volunteer work or take on a part-time job.

3. Explore going back to school

Going back to school to further your education IS an option. But, you really should consider if it will pay off.

If getting a degree will significantly give you an advantage and you'll reap the rewards with higher pay down the road, by all means, explore this path. You can save a bundle by going to community college or taking some classes online.

But don't go back to school just because you need something to do. That's an expensive lesson.

4. Help for veterans

Veterans have been hit particularly hard. The jobless rate for vets serving between September 2001 through today is 9.3%.

Now, there are some things that are being done. For one, as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery act, businesses that hire vets are eligible for a $2,400 tax credit.

So, if you're a veteran, or you know someone who is a veteran looking for work, the Labor Department has a special Web site that focuses specifically on helping Vets find work. That Web site is Hirevetsfirst.com. On this site you can get a list of military friendly employers, get the latest info on career fairs or access resume writing tips for vets.

Online job advertisements declined by over 500,000 in June compared with the same period a year earlier, but a national report shows only a modest decrease from May, a private research group says.

The Conference Board released its monthly Help-Wanted Online Data Series report this week.

Online advertised vacancies were about 3.29 million in June, a 66,700 decline from May and a 505,800 drop from June 2008. Since record monthly declines of 507,000 and 506,000 in December and January, online ad vacancies have dropped a modest 71,000, the group said.

Gad Levanon, senior economist for the New York-based research group, said Tuesday that ad vacancies have held steady in the past three months and that's a good sign.

"The large decline in online job ads is over and in the last several months we've seen a moderation," Levanon said. "So some industries and companies are increasing their hiring, which is a good sign."

Levanon said while some large states like Florida and Georgia are showing modest gains in job ads, others like California and Pennsylvania have yet to show real improvement.

Twenty-four states posted online job ad vacancy gains in June when compared with May, which saw job ads rise by 250,000, the largest monthly increase since October 2006.

The Help-Wanted Online Data Series measures the number of new online jobs and openings reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller Web sites that serve niche markets.

Michigan had nearly 10 unemployed people for every advertised vacancy, followed by Indiana and Kentucky with over seven unemployed people for every advertised vacancy and Ohio, North Carolina and Mississippi with over six.

Levanon said Michigan's supply-and-demand rate is "very high. It is probably the highest ratio we've ever had for any state."

Michigan's unemployment rate jumped to 14.1 percent in May, its highest mark in nearly 26 years.

Among the larger states in the South, Florida saw the greatest gain in job postings with 9,200, followed by Georgia with 2,900. Texas saw a decline of 5,100 postings. Among the smaller states, West Virginia had an increase of 4,100, followed by Kentucky with 3,700.

In the Northeast, all four of the largest states posted declines in June. New York had the largest decrease with 5,300 fewer postings, followed by Pennsylvania with a drop of 2,700.

Wisconsin had a 4,300 decline in postings, the largest drop in the Midwest, followed by Minnesota with a decrease of 2,300. Illinois saw the largest increase with 1,900 new postings.

In the West, California was down 15,900 postings in June. Arizona and Colorado increased 4,600 and 3,400 but both states were still 40 percent below their levels in June 2008.

Job postings declined in computer and mathematical science and sales and related occupations with both areas posting over 30 percent fewer jobs from a year ago.

Other groups with ad vacancy declines were health practitioners and technical occupations and architecture and engineering.

San Jose Mercury News

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Stop. You were not “laid off.” Your “position” was “impacted” in a “restructuring brought on by business decisions.”

And no. You are not “looking for a job” right now. You are “a solution” waiting to connect with some employer who has a “pain, need or opportunity” that you can “satisfy.”

Feel better? You would if you had joined three people whom the San Jose Mercury News recently paired with career counselors. The plan: one coach, one hour, one laid-off job-seeker in search of a tune-up. We’d eavesdrop on the exchange and write about it. Then, we’d circle back in a few weeks to see if the advice helped.

With each wave of layoffs, a cottage industry of job-help startups, career advisers and life coaches continues to mushroom. So we wondered, does any of this advice actually work?

While each of our experts sported a unique style, there was plenty of overlap in their messages. In a nutshell: This isn’t about finding work. It’s about screwing your head on differently, going out on limbs and making end runs around all the other unemployed “solutions” wandering the job market.

We started with bookkeeper Elise Sandusky, one of the three laid-off Silicon Valley workers the Mercury News has followed since the beginning of the year. She has sent out more than 2,000 online r sum s, and she’s starting to get it — this ain’t working.

Maybe management consultant Abhijeet Khadilkar can jump-start her campaign. He started his job-help network CareerTiger as a way to help friends, and it’s still largely a pro-bono labor of love.

As Sandusky looks on, he hits the whiteboard and doodles out the job-creation chain, from a CEO with a need, to middle managers with a plan, to hiring managers with a posting. “They are creating a funnel, and most job-seekers’ r sum s flow in through that point. But can we do something different, maybe be part of the research before the job posting is even approved?”

Get upstream, ahead of the torrent of applicants. He drills down for details of companies she’s worked with in the past — Phillips, PG&E — and roles she’s played — quality control, billing, dispatch, operations.

“Let’s compose your ‘elevator speech,’” he says. “This should go out to the employer before a r sum . Don’t send a r sum first!”

Sandusky looks shocked. “That’s a switch.”

“When you send out a r sum ,” Khadilkar says, “you hope and you pray — that’s not a strategy.”

Her homework: Find 30 companies similar to PG&E or who are competing or partnering with PG&E. “Your job is not to go to HR, but to go to people who are doing your type of work inside those companies. Use LinkedIn to find them, request meetings, then compose a message completely customized to that position. Identify opportunities and problems they face. So it’s not an interview, it’s a sharing of ideas.”

It was Kris Rowberry, a laid-off aviation technician who used to wait hand and foot on the corporate jet set, who first came up with the off-handed job description: “I’m a concierge who sweats.”

But it was his mentor, UC-Berkeley-trained management consultant Susan Bernstein, who took it and ran. What Rowberry needed was “a verbal calling card, so that when people hear what you’re up to in the world, they want to know more.”

A hardworking “concierge” who can gas up a Learjet and unload baggage while stroking egos such as Larry Ellison’s has a good story to tell. Bernstein was going to help him tell it.

“Instead of ‘looking for a job,’” she said, “you need to hone in on, ‘This is what I do for people and I’m looking for a place to do it.’”

What did Rowberry like about his job? “Sweating my butt off for eight hours made the time fly by.” And “the camaraderie, with death at every corner, cooperation all around.” And “I like to be kept busy. If I’m busy, I’m happy.” She scribbles it all down.

Now, she tells Rowberry, “tell me a story about a time at work that felt great.”

One Sunday after Thanksgiving, he says, “We were very busy and there was no room to park any more planes, but we still managed to squeeze in a large jet and it was so cool to see all of us working together like this well-oiled machine. Nothing could stop us.”

She tells him to jot that down and save it for “the next time things get hard. It’ll bring back the memories and all the good feelings along with it.” She dug deeper. Rowberry, she determined, was not just a problem-solver, but a problem-preventer.

Tim Johnston shows up at the home of software test engineer Roopa Govindarajan, dressed in dark jeans and black T-shirt, loaded for bear. He has an intense passion about job-hunting, culled through years of recruiting for firms such as Sun, AMD and Cadence.

“I’m a hunter-gatherer of talent,” he tells Govindarajan, mother of two small boys and chronically overwhelmed by her joblessness. She tells him: “I was laid off from Citrix on Jan. 29 ...”

“Stop!” he blurts out. “Depersonalize the process. People say. ‘I lost my job’ and I’ll say ‘Where did you leave it?’ It’s not like losing your car keys. It’s not about you having done anything wrong. You weren’t laid off. Your position was impacted by a restructuring. This isn’t the time to think of ‘you’ but of how people can help you.”

Johnston is a bulldozer, plowing through his hour and leaving enough gems of advice for a job-seeker to ponder for weeks: “Companies don’t hire; hiring managers hire.”

Rethink the way you look for work. First, forget the past (“The whole ‘Why me?’ thing. You’ll never know. And it doesn’t matter.”). Second, flip things around (“Think about that interesting opportunity over at Intuit and ask yourself, who within that company sits up at 4 a.m. in a cold sweat wondering where you are?”) Her job is to find that person.

Casual Labour Week is here.

It's an annual event organized by The Comox Valley Service Canada Centre for Youth that links young people who are looking for casual summer work and employers who are in need of workers. It takes place from July 6 to 17.

"Casual labour week is a great opportunity for the Comox Valley SCCY to increase the number of casual job postings in our database," said Mathew Chisholm, Lead Youth Services officer. "These casual jobs offer a great opportunity for youth looking to build their work experience or earn extra money on top of their regular job."

Those looking for casual work can sign up for the labour program at the centre or attend outreach events held by SCCY team. All they have to do is provide their work experience and availability. They are then are notified when a suitable job become available. It can be anything from lawn work, clerical duties, and painting or flyer distribution.

The SCCY is promoting their casual labour services at various locations in the valley:

- Monday, July 6, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Tim Horton's on Ryan Rd. Homeowners and employers who stop and sign up a casual job posting will receive a car was in return.

- Thursday, July 9, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Slegg Lumber. There will be an informational table and casual labour sign up for youth, employers and homeowners.

- Friday, July 10, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Comox Lake. The SCCY will be promoting youth employment, provide job search tips as well as information on other employment related topics such as workplace health and safety.

- Monday, July 13, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Quality Foods. SCCY will be hosting an informational table, and casual labour sign up for youth, employers and homeowners.

WESTBROOK - Last week was supposed to be the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Development of a Finance Director Job Description–but instead it became both the committee’s first and last meeting.

In just 25 minutes–and before Selectman Marie Farrell’s scheduled 8 p.m. arrival at the meeting–the group had already reviewed a sample job description from the Town of Durham and voted to adopt it with minor amendments as the Westbrook job description; it further voted to set the salary of the post in a range from $60,000 to $75,000 and to recommend to the town boards of Selectmen and Finance that the opening be immediately posted for three weeks with the Government Finance Office Association.

Voting in favor of the motion, according to meeting minutes written by First Selectman Noel Bishop, were Bishop, Board of Finance member Gary Gavigan, and–by speakerphone–Jane Butterworth, also on the Board of Finance.

The minutes do not record Treasurer Darlene Jones’s vote or that committee member Farrell was absent during deliberations and during the vote.

Jones said she questioned the speed with which the committee reviewed the job description and voted to send it on to the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance for approval. Jones was particularly concerned that Durham’s finance director job description might not be applicable to Westbrook since Durham has a town charter and Westbrook does not.

When told of the Ad Hoc Committee’s proposed recommendation, Selectman Jim Crawford said, “I would suggest that the motion be tabled because we don’t know enough. We don’t know whether Durham’s particulars are applicable to Westbrook. Second, we’re in the process of creating a new position and we haven’t discussed who this person reports to, who this person would supervise, and what specific experience the position would require.”

Crawford suggested that it may be necessary for the town to hire a consultant to help the town walk through the process to have a good shot at success in addressing the problems identified by town auditors and consultant Linda Savitsky.

Savitsky herself, an experienced municipal finance consultant, recently informed the town leaders that she declined to provide the town with additional consulting services.