When you have been out of work for more than two weeks, you begin to panic. If you have children to care for, you panic twice as much. However, panicking often leads to desperation, and desperation often leads to taking a job that cannot support you or your children. You can find jobs that will pay a decent wage, and that wage will at least buy groceries and keep the lights and the heat on. Here are alternatives to a minimum-wage job that work, and will put you to work.

Temporary Job Placement

Temporary jobs, or "temps," fill a significant number of jobs. Some of these jobs are short-term "assignments," and some are long-term. There are temp agencies for every type of work and every color of collar of work. All of them start at around nine or ten dollars an hour, and go up from there based on the assignment, your education, your work experience, and what types of work you are willing to do.

Freelancing

The world of freelancing has expanded just as much as temp agencies have in recent years. As a freelancer, you can take the skills you have, and offer them as services to others. For example, if you love to walk dogs, start a dog-walking service. Many dog walkers charge ten dollars an hour to walk a dog, and when they are walking five dogs or more at once, that is almost on par with what lawyers charge! You can do this with practically any skill, including house painting and typing services for term papers and online transcription services. 

Babysitting

You know there are parents in the neighborhood that work, right? Offer babysitting services. If you take in four children at $75 a week, that's $1200 a month! If you want to exclude certain ages and only babysit kids that are the same ages as your own, you can do that, but parents will prefer a sitter who is willing to take on all of their children. Be sure to get weekly payments up front so that you can buy groceries to feed the kids.

Driving for Pay

Getting rides via an app is a hot thing right now. These drivers spend a few hours a day, or the entire day, driving strangers around. They earn some really good money, plus tips, too. Of course, that only works if you have a nice, clean car to start with.

Contact a service, like Employment Source , for more help.

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