The September unemployment numbers were just plain ugly. More than 263,000 jobs were lost pushing the unemployment rate to 9.8% nationally.

That may seem bad enough. But it's actually worse when you count in the underemployed (those working part-time who want full time work and the totally discouraged who have quit the hunt). Adding all these others actually brings the unemployment number to 17%...a depression-esque statistic.

To make matters even more dicey, the average hourly workweek fell to an all-time low of 33 hours. This is problematic because, before employers will start hiring new workers again, they will increase existing employees' hours first.

So, people looking for work will be faced with an increasing problem known as time gaps on resumes. In other words, the longer one is unemployed the longer the time frame between jobs on your resume, raising questions from human resource people when you finally do get an interview.

Here's one way to avoid the terrible "time gap" and maybe even gain some new skills that you can list on your resume.

Work in areas of interest for FREE. No, we haven't lost our minds.

Times are tough everywhere and you might be pleasantly surprised to find that very few employers turn down FREE helping hands.

There are many benefits to this strategy.  You:

• Keep busy which keeps your morale up
• Have something to put on your resume that shows you're current
• Get to network and make connections that can help you in your job hunt
• May even learn new skills that will help get a better job down the road!

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