Affected by job cuts

The rising number of people unemployed keeps on increasing, although the number is not as high as it was last winter. Still the unemployment rate keep going up. We did not make it to 10%, but I am afraid we are going to by next month. After 22 years working for the same employer, I got laid off today due to production and job cuts. In order for me to continue to work for my employer, I would have to have at least 24 years of seniority to stay there drawing a paycheck. There are so many people who work over there who need to retire, but for some reason won't. They may be too young to draw Social Security and are not quite old enough to do so. Some are very well old enough to draw SS. The years of service for workers working at Whirlpool are now in a range between 45 years down to 23 years. I have 22 years of seniority but I could not stay. For me to come back to Whirlpool is for the economy to make a rebound out of the recession and/or for these older workers to retire so that we younger workers will have a chance to have these jobs. So, I have a range of choices. Draw some unemployment compensation, look for a job, go back to school and learn a trade with compensation pay, look for the job I always wanted to do with my degree, or if I were desperate, go to a temp agency (God forbid) and let these guys hand me a temp job that is not as desirable to do for little pay. I did translation work for a web site, which I did on some free time I had. But, I never got any pay for it. I wonder if I can do something like that and be paid for it. I live in a town that has a growing, diverse, Latino community. Businesses are always needing somebody ( I'm speculating ) who is fluent in Spanish. I also discovered that in my town, there is a need for Vietnamese language speakers as well as Lao. The public library's web site, for example, is online in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese. There is a lot out there when I think about it. I want to be an asset, not a statistic. Manufacturing has gone to hell in this country, because companies have shipped more jobs overseas. Yeah, it may make the products cost a little less, but there is nobody out there who can buy them because they have no jobs, hence no income. It is time to look for other ways and means and time to drive on a different path. May the Lord of the Worlds lead me in these decisions.