Are we in another great depression in terms of unemployment? If unemployment rate is calculated in the way it was done in 1930s, the current unemployment rate is closer to 16.5% rather than 10% forecasted by economists. During the great depression of 1930s, the unemployment rate was hovering around 25%.

Reuters article says that comparing today’s situation with that of 1930s is not far fetched. There is another twist to the calculation of unemployment rate. Unemployment stats don’t take discouraged workers, the workers that lost the hope of getting job and stopped looking for a job, into account while calculating unemployment rate. Thus, the real unemployment rate may be more than 16.5%.

Losing the job is horrible, especially in this economic environment. Some of the unemployed are taking any job they can get. That’s the smart thing to do in the recession.

Michael Antidormi worked as VP in Goldman Sachs making $160,000 a year. He was laid off in February 2008. Now, he is working as representative for disabled veterans’ outreach program making $36,000 a year.

Jason Eldridge worked as personal banker for Chase bank making $40,000 a year. Now, he is a cook making $8 per hour.

Jarrod Posner worked as mortgage lender making $110,000. Now he is the enrollment counselor in University of phoenix making $33,000 per year.

There are lot more similar stories like this in CNN Money. Life is difficult at this point of time even when you are employed. You don’t know when the pink slips are going to show up in your division. Being unemployed makes things lot more complicated ruining the career and family. It’s better to get some job.

There is one downside to accepting any job. If your new job is completely unrelated to your old job, you will face some challenges to get the job similar to your old job when the economy turns around. If a terminated research analyst in Merrill Lynch starts working for Target at $8 an hour for 6+ months, it’s very difficult for him to get back to investment banking. Although every employer in 2010 would understand the difficulties of 2008-2009 job market, they would prefer someone who is always in touch with his specialty.

Related Link: Recession racks up more layoffs | Five legal ways to work from home

If you have a job, be grateful. Unemployment rate surged to 7.2% in December according to just released report by U.S. Labor Department.  Nonfarm payrolls, which are calculated by a survey of establishments, tumbled 524,000 in December, the U.S. Labor Department said today, the 12th-straight decline and in line with the 525,000 drop Wall Street economists expected. November was revised to show an even steeper decline of 584,000, the most since 1974.

The economy lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008, government figures showed, the most since World War II ended in 1945. Nearly two million of those losses were in the last four months alone, a sign that the recession accelerated as the financial crisis intensified, and should drag on well into the new year. Job loss is across all industrial sectors. President-elect Obama recently warned “The unemployment rate could reach double digits”.

“Workers getting laid off are not going to get hired any time soon” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia. If you have a job, however lousy it is, stick to it unless you have a better offer. Your boss may be a moron, your co-workers may be jerks, you may hate to go to your office — but this is not the time to quit.

This is the time to get creative and try to make better of your job. If your company is planning for more layoffs, usual reaction is to get frustrated. Instead of getting frustrated, ask for more assignments voluntarily. Work for more hours. Show more productivity. That will help you to keep the job.

If your office is the playground for bullies, try to ignore them to keep your job. Study finds that 30% of office workers in U.S. faced the office bullies. The bullies are normally jerks, selfish, insecure and have evil motives. You can read the articles here and here to understand how to deal with them. It’s better to deal with the bullies rather than dealing with recruiters in this economy.

Related Link: 8 tactics to bust the office bully

Just when you think we are out of the woods, something else comes up. Today started with lot of bad news. Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) forecast that economic output would shrink 1.4 percent this quarter for the developed countries and keep contracting until the middle of next year. OECD’s report can be found here. Economic activity is expected to fall by 0.9 percent in the US next year, by 0.5 percent in the Euro area and by 0.1 percent in Japan as OECD countries enter a protracted slowdown, according to latest projections.

The number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits has jumped to a level not seen since just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as companies cut more jobs. The Labor Department reported that jobless claims last week increased by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000. It’s much higher than what analysts expected. So, the stock market is falling again today.

Last week, Cisco systems warned about declining orders. Today, Intel warned about the same and slashed more than $1 billion from its sales forecast and dialed its profit expectations way back. Intel’s profit is being hurt badly. The company’s closely watched gross profit margin will now come in around 55 % of revenue versus the previous guidance of 59 %. If this is not enough to discourage the investors, Walmart also trimmed its earning outlook because of global economic crisis.

Another gloomy data today showed that foreclosure rate is up 25 % year over a year. We wrote about real estate slowdown few days ago. Today’s data reinforces our point of view. It’s going to get uglier before the situation can turn around.

Few hours ago, George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management, said “a deep recession is now inevitable and the possibility of a depression cannot be ruled out.” Ok, there you have it. Just watch your expenses and increase your savings.