3 years and 7 months - that's how long our family has dealt with job loss and general instability associated with unemployment. Congrats to my lovely wife on her new full time position. When Erika goes to work on Monday, March 17th...it will be the first time in over 3 years that we both can say be have "regular full time jobs" jobs with paid vacation, sick time and real benefits like retirement and life insurance - we both did have some weeks and months while we collected unemployment benefits, Erika has been working as a "consultant" for CUNA for almost the entire 2 years since being let go from her previous position (who we shall not name) and I've had my job for 3 years in June at the UW.