facing my harsh reality

I don't know what to do and I'm about to pull my hair out.

My boyfriend (Joey) and I have lived together for about a year now, and have been together for two. I love him more than anything and would be absolutely devastated if we broke up.

He held a full-time job at a local company for a year and on January 5th they let him go on a very poorly supported claim. Beside the point that they fired him unjustly, the company is now failing and are downsizing in large numbers. His sister got him the job and she has worked there for (I think) about 3 years. Even she is looking for a new job because the company is just so shitty.

So Joey was fired in January and has been living off of unemployment since. He has been tirelessly looking for every job under the sun and nobody will hire him. We re-wrote him resume. He has been on about a dozen different interviews driving him hundreds of miles between Columbus and Cincinnati. He has applied for jobs he is both qualified and underqualified for, and is now applying for jobs any sixteen year-old could get. He has gotten several hair-cuts and is absolutely handsome all the time. He has been told over and over "You most likely have the job, we'll call you next week." And they never call. He went to places with "Now Hiring" signs, filled out applications, turned them in, and called days later only to be told that they are not hiring. He went to places with "Now Hiring" signs, filled out/turned in the application, called them only to be told that they haven't looked at his application and will call him-- And then don't. He has given his resume to temp agencies only to be told that they have nothing for him. I have spent entire shifts at work looking for jobs online that he would be qualified for. I have brought home (from work) the Sunday classifieds almost on a weekly basis. We have talked to friends and family members only to hear the same things over and over and over again.

We have been doing this for over eight months and we're tired and frustrated. Our lease is up on Halloween, and we have the option of renewing the lease at a higher monthly rate than what we have been paying. We cannot afford to stay where we are, but we can't sign a new lease somewhere else because he doesn't have a job.

A new problem sprang up two days ago when unemployment stopped coming. He only received HALF the amount he has been getting, and there was no warning that his funds would be exhausted. They gave him an ending date of January 29th, 2009, but last time I checked August '08 is WAAAY before January '09.

Our only options are as follows:

1. Assuming he will be employed by the end of September, we can just wait patiently until then and move somewhere a little more affordable.

2. Assuming he doesn't get a job by the end of September, I will have to look for a place of my own, and he will have to move back in with his parents- an hour away.

It kills me. I don't want these to be our only options, but I am not about to financially support someone who is not my spouse or my child. It just is not an option for me. I am barely making it on my own and the last thing I need is to pay for someone else. And he knows this. I just don't know what to do and it's eating away at my every nerve. I am running out of patience and am already starting to feel the heartbreak of moving away from him.

On top of all of this, the local/state economy is falling dramatically. The housing market is death. The credit card crisis has devalued our dollar. Car factories, their part suppliers, distribution plants, and other major retailers are closing. Due to these losses, the demand for jobs has drastically increased as the jobs available has drastically decreased. The only jobs listed in the newspaper and online are either sales, nursing, or skilled labor, and tech-schools are injecting their "hey come spend money you don't have to learn a new skill you don't want" ads in there, too.

I would just say that we should relocate, but we don't have the money to do so and where would we go? We can't just up and leave without any stability, and yet so much can change in just a month and a half.

I'm on the edge. I'm gaining weight. I'm losing sleep. I'm losing my patience.