Still-rising national jobless rates are surpassing 8.9%. This translates to millions of ill-prepared job seekers, raising complex questions about how to manage layoffs. Even if workers receive severance benefits, most struggle with how to move on and find jobs. Rather than focusing primarily on work skills and practices within individual organizations, we need to rethink employment and learn to understand how to negotiate continuous changes in the work environment and in the workplace. (Contains 1 figure.)