"It was unexpected, but to be realistic, it was expected in a way," she said, "Public relations and communications in particular has been hit hard."
She has four friends who were laid off recently and three of them are in marketing or PR. The 25-year-old said she is hoping to stay in Baltimore, where she lives, remain in the marketing field and has had three interviews.
Her boyfriend, who works for a finance company, narrowly avoided layoffs at his company recently.
"Hopefully, it wouldn't come to something where I'd have to move or change my career path," Libby said. "My whole approach is being very proactive. I can't just sit around and wait for something to come to me."
Hundreds of Baltimore-area residents found themselves without jobs this spring. Companies including Home Depot Expo, mail services provider Pitney Bowes and Switzerland-based flavorings company Givaudan all laid off workers because of plant or store shutdowns.
The rise in state unemployment, at a time when recent reports show a slowing of the economic downturn, shows that the state is still in for a bumpy economic recovery, said Thomas E. Perez, Maryland's secretary of labor, licensing and regulation.
"The state of Maryland will continue to do all it can to help those Marylanders affected by the economic crisis," Perez said.
Christian S. Johansson, secretary of business and economic development, noted that Maryland ranked fifth in the United States in the number of jobs added, with a gain of 2,500.
The state was one of only 11 states to add jobs month over the month. Administrative and support services, a sector that has declined since January, headed back up in May and, along with leisure and hospitality industries, provided the primary sources of the monthly upturn. Construction, which has been battered by the economic downturn, was little changed in May.
Despite the gain, unemployment rose, Johannson said, most likely because of graduating students entering the work force and layoffs in neighboring states affecting workers who live in Maryland and work out of state.
Still, "I don't think 7.2 percent unemployment is something anybody is happy with. It's something that is too high and significantly historically higher than what Maryland is used to," Johansson said. "We're doing everything we can to make sure we have the support necessary for businesses to be successful here."
Maryland's jobless rate has exceeded 6 percent each month since January.
Basu said he believes the state will stop losing jobs later this year or early in 2010, "when firms become so lean that they can't keep laying off and remain in existence."
Among states, Michigan continued to report the highest unemployment rate, 14.1 percent, followed by more than 10 percent in Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, California and Nevada. Unemployment rose in May in every state, compared with a year earlier.
