con·sol·i·da·tion

Once again, my employment situation is bleak.  The governor of our state signed a law yesterday, some of which will consolidate, reduce waste and increase efficiency in the DuPage County government.  There are 13 bodies in DuPage County eligible for elimination...one of is that of where I work.  I am not stupid and can see that my department could be easily absorbed by the city and county.  I am just frustrated that the people in charge have absolutely no idea of exactly what/who is a target and when.  It could be 4 weeks, 4 months, or 4 years...at this point, it is a large unknown.  

I am frustrated and don't really want to start the whole employment search again.  However, I do realize I need to be proactive.  And then there is that ever looming question of if it is time to just get out of the corrupted state of Illinois.  See, we have this small little thing called the pension crisis that just goes around in circles and nobody really chooses to address; one example - in Illinois (2012), there were over 10,000 teacher salaries over $100,000.  In Wisconsin, there were only 4.  When pensions are based on salaries at the end of a career - this is a little problematic.  Nobody wants to be the bad-guy and fix it.

Last week I had lunch with an old boss (architecture) who put the offer out for me to come back, but I just don't think I can do it; so much unethical crap happened at that place.  However, I now wonder if I will be backed into that situation again.

Certainly, there are more jobs being posted now than there were 4 years ago.  The unfortunately thing is that there are still a lot of applicants going after those jobs.  Ick.