Greeting cards cheer up jobless Americans

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- At a loss for words when someone you know is suddenly out of work? Try sending a greeting card.

With unemployment in the United States hovering around the nine percent mark, Hallmark -- the nation‘s biggest greeting card manufacturer -- has rolled out eight cards to cheer up the jobless.

“It’s hard to know what to say at a sensitive time like this. How about, ‘I’m buying!‘” says one card illustrated with a cartoon line-up outside an unemployment office.

Another says: “Don’t think of it as losing your job. Think of it as a time-out between stupid bosses.” And a third: “One day, you‘ll look back on all this with the wisdom that distance bestows, and you’ll say: Wow, that sucked.”

“We know these job-loss captions are not going to be the strongest (sales) performers, but they are meant to meet a relevant and niche consumer need for many who are looking for it,” a Hallmark spokesman told AFP by email on Monday.

Hallmark markets its cards through retailers and online, with its loss-of-job products falling under the “encouragement” category.