All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

With the national unemployment rate hovering at about 9 percent, there are roughly 14 million people out there in need of a job. Some companies say they've received hundreds of applications for just a single opening.

CareerBuilder.com reports that in order to stand out from the pack, job seekers are getting creative.

One man sent a shoe to his prospective employer with a note that read, "I want to get my foot in the door."

Another handed out personalized coffee cups, so no one would forget his name.

One in five managers says they've received one of these unusual trinkets from applicants.

It might sound a little weird or creepy, but experts say these gimmicks can work, if used sparingly and with some common sense.

After all, you don't want your resume to end up with that paper coffee cup - down in the circular file.

That's a page from my notebook.

There is one quote that really stuck with me when we were researching ideas for tonight’s story on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric about college students graduating into the recession. “Damn me for being born in ’87,” Suzanne Block told The Chicago Tribune back in March before graduating. “This is just a nightmare. There could not be a worse time to be looking for a job.”

Oh how right Suzanne is. Employers say they’ll hire 22 percent fewer grads this year versus last year. And while 51 percent of college seniors looking for jobs found one before leaving campus back in 2007, less than 20 percent were as fortunate this year.

Desperate times call for desperate measures? Well, maybe not desperate but unusual, creative approaches to the job hunt seem to be the norm, not the exception, as students try to find a way to stand out. Remember, today’s graduates are not only competing against their peers but against experienced 20-somethings and baby boomers who lost their jobs and are anxiously trying to find new ones.

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Kelly Wallace is a CBS News correspondent based in New York.

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Every day we’re reminded of another example of the ripple effects of what looks to be the worst recession in a generation and how just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do. I’m sorry to say our story tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric illustrates both points.

Consider your own checkbook for a moment and how there are times, probably a lot more lately, when you don’t have enough cash in your account to cover all your bills. That’s exactly what’s happening in 30 states around the country when it comes to unemployment benefits. States – from New York to California – are running out of money and may need to get loans from the federal government to provide unemployment insurance to laid-off workers like 50-year-old Jennifer Sloan, a Web designer and manager in New York City. How much does she rely on her unemployment benefits?

“They’re essential, I need them to buy my food, pay rent, that’s the money that’s keeping me going right now,” she told us.

Michigan and Indiana have already run out of money for unemployment and have had to get loans from the federal government. Michigan has had to borrow more than $500 million. That’s five-hundred million dollars.

What’s wrong with this picture?

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